Chen Kun-hou


Chen Kun-hou is a veteran cinematographer, who started his career in the 1960s. He won his first best cinematography award at Golden Horse Awards in 1978 for He Never Gives Up, directed by Li Hsing. In the early 1980s he began to direct his own films in collaboration with Hou Hsiao-hsien. After series of urban comedies, he made quite a few representative films of the Taiwan New Cinema, such as Growing Up, which won him the best director award at the Golden Horse Awards, His Matrimony, which won him the second best cinematography award at Golden Horse Awards, and My Favorite Season, and Osmanthus Alley. He is awarded for his life achievement in Taiwan cinema at the 60th Golden Horse Awards in 2023.

Career

Chen Kun-hou was born in Taichung in 1939. He was enrolled in Central [Motion Picture Corporation] in 1962 to learn cinematography. His uncle Lai Cheng-ying was an established cinematographer there at CMPC already. He started as an apprentice and was promoted to cinematographer in 1971. His first film as a cinematographer is Story of Mother, in which his cinematography adds a tragic-realistic tone this highly acclaimed film by Sung Cun-shou. He worked with Li Hsing for many of his films in the late 1970s, including He Never Gives Up, Good Morning Taipei, The Story of A Small Town, and My [Native Land (film)|My Native Land]. He won his first best cinematography award at Golden Horse Awards for his cinematography in He Never Gives Up in 1978.
Starting from 1979, Chen Kun-hou and Hou Hsiao-hsien teamed up to produce six romantic urban comedy films by taking turns to be the director, four of which directed by Chen are , Lover on the Wave, Longing, and Six Is Company and the other two directed by Hou are Cute Girl and Cheerful Wind. These films copied the successful formula of Chiung Yao's literary romantic films to cast popular stars, such as Chin Han, Kenny Bee, Joan Lin, Fong Fei-fei, and Shen Yan, to present light-hearted urban romance accompanied by namesake theme songs and other interlude songs. Two of the six films were arranged to premiere in theaters during the Lunar New Year, Cute Girl and Cheerful Wind, both project the new year blessing of “May you be happy and prosperous” at the end of the film on the screen.
In 1982, Chen Kun-hou, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Hsu Shu-zhen, and Chang Hua-kun formed Evergreen Film Company. The company’s first film Growing Up, a collaboration with CMPC and directed by Chen, was a big success at the box office, and it won the best feature film, best director, and best script at the Golden Horse Awards in 1983. The company also produced The Boys from Fengkuei, directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien with Chen as the cinematographer. The film was Hou’s important first film with artistic consciousness of film form but it was also the last film he and Chen collaborated on.
After Chen Kun-hou parted ways with Hou Hsiao-hsien, he was productive as a key director of the Taiwan New Cinema and made six films, mostly adaptations of literary works, from 1984 to 1988, including Out of The Blue, His Matrimony, My Favorite Season, Drifters, Osmanthus Alley, My Mother's Teahouse. He won another best cinematography award at the Golden Horse Awards in 1985 for His Matrimony.
Starting from 1989, Chen Kun-hou began to be involved in TV productions, especially documentaries, such as Feiyue Qingchun and The Story of Confucius. He later went to China and help Chow Ling-Gong establish Fee Tang Stellar Movie-Making Base at Beijing. He directed three more feature films from 2008 to 2012, two of them are made in China: Twin Daggers and The Triangle Land and one Taiwan production: Colorful Mind, a remake of The Dull-Ice Flower, a popular film based on the namesake novel by Chung Chao-cheng.

Filmography

YearChinese titleEnglish titleNotes
1969《銀姑》Silver Maid
1971《精忠報國》The Decisive Battle
1973《母親三十歲》Story of Mother
1975《星期六的約會》A Saturday Date
1977《煙水寒》The Glory of The Sunset
1978《煙波江上》Love On A Foggy River
1978《汪洋中的一條船》He Never Gives Up
1978《碎心蘭》
1979《悲之秋》A Sorrowful Wedding
1979《早安台北》Good Morning, Taipei
1979《小城故事》The Story of a Small Town
1979《拒絕聯考的小子》The Boy Who Refused to Take the Entrance Examination
1980《西風的故鄉》The Blind Love
1980《天涼好個秋》Spring in Autumn
1980《原鄉人》My Native Land
1980《我踏浪而來》Lover on the Wave
1981《就是溜溜的她》Cute Girls
1981《歡喜冤家》Intimate But Quarrelsome
1981《蹦蹦一串心》Longing
1982《俏如彩蝶飛飛飛》Six Is Company
1982《在那河畔青草青》Green Green Grass of Home
1982《風兒踢踏踩》Cheerful Wind
1983《風櫃來的人》The Boys From Fengkuei
1983《小畢的故事》Growing Up
1983《兒子的大玩偶》The Sandwich Man
1984《冬冬的假期》A Summer at Grandpa’s
1984《小爸爸的天空》Out of The Blue
1985《結婚》His Matrimony
1985《最想念的季節》My Favorite Season
1988《春秋茶室》My Mother's Teahouse
1988《海峽兩岸》People Between Two CHINA
1990《祝福》Promising Miss Bowie
1992《飛躍青春》documentary