CHEN Kun-hou (born 25 July 1939 in Taichū, Japanese Formosa) is a Taiwanese film director and cinematographer. He is known for his film Growing Up (1983), one of the films that initiated the Taiwan New Cinema movement. Chen was also the cinematographer for several of fellow director HOU Hsiao-hsien's earlier films.
CHEN Kun-hou (陳坤厚) was admitted to the Central Motion Picture Corporation in 1962, and was promoted to cinematographer in 1971. His first cinematography work was the film 《Story of Mother (母親的三十歲)》 by Sung Tsun-shou (宋存壽) in 1971. Later he collaborated with director Li Hsing (李行) to make several films including 《He Never Gives Up (汪洋中的一條船)》, and 《The Story of a Small Town (小城故事).》 With his solid cinematography background, CHEN Kun-hou started to take on directing in 1979. He cooperated with HOU Hsiao-hsien as cinematographer while HOU wrote the scripts; both of them took turns to be the director. They jointly launched a series of blockbuster light romance comedies, such as 《Lover on the Wave》, 《Spring in Autumn》 and 《Longing》, with a breakthrough from the "three room model"* of Chiung Yao-style romance films. All the films they made together performed well at the box office.
In 1982, CHEN and HOU established Evergreen Film Company, together with XU Shu-zhen and CHANG Hua-kun in the hopes of making movies that are close to life and people and can actually resonate with the audiences. He proposed to cooperate with Central Pictures Corporation to make 《Growing Up》, an adaptation of the novel of the same title written by CHU Tien-wen with limited budget and B-list actors. In 1983, this movie became a box office success and received three major Golden Horse Awards, thus becoming the cornerstone of Taiwanese New Wave and making him and HOU Hsiao-hsien the spiritual leaders among the "New Wave" directors. In 1985, he and HOU Hsiao-hsien formed new crews respectively and went separate ways. The movies he directed in the 1980s, including 《Out of the Blue》, 《Osmanthus Alley》 and 《My Mother's Tea House》, were mostly literary adaptations, showing his consistent and gentle care for humanity. After 1989, he went to China for further development and served as executive producer for TV series.
In 2009, CHEN Kun-hou launched 《Colorful Min, a remake of 《The Dull-Ice Flower》 (directed by YANG Liguo, 1989). In 2013, he filmed 《The Triangle Land》 in a mild approach that was comprehensive to common audiences. This movie profoundly depicted the subtlety of emotional expressions between people.
(* "Three-room" means living room, dining room and café.)
