Liu Bingjian (born October 16, 1963, in
Anhui
Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...
) is a Chinese film director who emerged on the cinema scene in the late 1990s with his LGBT-themed film ''Men and Women''.
Career
Originally trained as a painter, Liu attended the prestigious
Beijing Film Academy where he studied
cinematography
Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography.
Cinematographers use a lens to focu ...
. Upon graduation, he switched to directing and worked in television before making his first film ''Inkstone'' which failed to be screened either in China or abroad.
In 1999, he directed the underground
LGBT film
This article lists lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender-related films involving participation and/or representation of LGBT. The list includes films that deal with or feature significant LGBT issues or characters. These films may involve LGBT ...
''
Men and Women''. Though the film was banned in China, it was seen as a rare example of a Chinese film to treat
homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...
as an everyday occurrence.
Liu followed up ''Men and Women'' with ''
Cry Woman
''Cry Woman'' () is a 2002 Chinese film directed by Liu Bingjian. It was Liu's third feature film and like his previous two films, ''Incense'' and '' Men and Women'', ''Cry Woman'' was not given permission to screen in China.
''Cry Woman'' stars t ...
'' in 2002.
Like many of his colleagues, Liu Bingjian emerged from the underground scene with 2004's state-approved ''Plastic Flowers'', starring actress
Liu Xiaoqing
Liu Xiaoqing (born 30 October 1955) is a Chinese actress and businesswoman. She was one of the leading actresses in China in the 1980s.
Biography
In her early days Liu worked as a farm labourer, then as a propagandist for the People's Liberatio ...
in her first role in over a decade.
The film premiered at the
2004 Toronto International Film Festival
The 29th Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 9 through September 18. The festival screened 328 films of which 253 were features and 75 were shorts (148 of the films screened were in a language other than English).
Awards
No fi ...
.
Filmography
References
External links
*
*
Liu Bingjianat the Chinese Movie Database
Film directors from Anhui
Beijing Film Academy alumni
1963 births
Living people
Chinese film directors
{{China-film-director-stub