Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou's "summit struggle" is hard for them to surpass after Gong Li.

As the flag figures of the fifth generation directors, Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige are alumni of the 78th Beijing Film Academy. Zhang Yimou is the photography department and Chen Kaige is the director department. The reason why Zhang Yimou, an older young man, chose to study in Beiying (at this time, he was 28 years old and married his ex-wife Xiao Hua in his hometown) was to realize his dream of being a photographer. Chen Kaige, on the other hand, is a real "second generation director". His father, Chen Huaikai, is an iconic figure of the fourth generation of directors in China, and he has profound attainments in traditional Chinese opera. Later, in Chen Kaige's masterpiece Farewell My Concubine, Chen Huaikai served as artistic director, and his contribution to this film was also the last gift that Mr. Chen Lao gave to his son Chen Kaige.

In the process of going to school, Chen Kaige noticed the wooden and introverted Zhang Yimou, and at a photo exhibition, Chen Kaige was moved by Zhang Yimou's works, and at that time there was a feeling of "meeting and hating each other". At school, Chen Kaige asked Zhang Yimou to make a movie together. Just for various reasons, their vision was not realized until a few years after graduation. Their first work together was later called Yellow Land, which marked the rise of the fifth generation directors in China. This film with a strong national style has made Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou famous in the domestic film industry.

After the Yellow Land, Chen Kaige, a well-written writer, wrote an article named Qin Guoren for Zhang Yimou and published it in the newspaper. Thus, the relationship between Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou in the initial stage of cooperation is very worthy of recognition. Although the relationship between the two did not break down later, there was no honeymoon between them. This is largely due to 1987, when Zhang Yimou transformed into a director by directing the film Red Sorghum, and won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival with this film, which made Zhang Yimou equal or even surpass Chen Kaige in the domestic director field.

In the next few years, films directed by Zhang Yimou captured the city at international film festivals. At that time, the reputation of Chen Kaige, the leader of the fifth generation of directors, was suppressed. In this process, the combination of Zhang Yimou and Gong Li has become a beautiful landscape in domestic movies. They are talented men and beautiful women. Moreover, as early as when they collaborated on Red Sorghum, the spark of love flashed. So, Zhang Yimou's backyard caught fire. For love, he chose to divorce his ex-wife who had been in love for 10 years, regardless of his daughter who just went to kindergarten. Therefore, when determining the actor of Juxian in Farewell My Concubine, producer Feng Hsu and Chen Kaige also had a little dispute over whether to choose Gong Li. The reason is that Chen Kaige thinks Gong Li is a "Zhang Yimou man". So, at that time, Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, two old classmates, did secretly compete in their careers.

1993, the film Farewell My Concubine directed by Chen Kaige finally won the Palme d 'Or at Cannes Film Festival, which finally made him return to the first place as a domestic director. Although Zhang Yimou has won many awards in international film festivals before, these awards are still slightly insufficient compared with the Palme d 'Or in Cannes Film Festival. So in the following year, Zhang Yimou filmed the work "Living" with a very similar theme to Farewell My Concubine, and Ge You won the Best Actor Award at Cannes Film Festival for this film. Because of this, Zhang Yimou also proudly said that Ge You's achievement is "unprecedented, no one will come after". Ge You and Gong Li, the heroes and heroines of Living, both took part in Farewell My Concubine.

The Battle of the Summit by Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige is the highlight of their career. After that, although many attempts have been made on various themes, it is difficult to return to the state before 1995. Of course, there are also many external factors. After that, Gong Li and Zhang Yimou ended their relationship, and there were no co-productions in recent 10 years. 1998, Gong Li participated in the film "Jing Ke Stabbed the King of Qin" directed by Chen Kaige, which received widespread response at the beginning of its release.

However, this is a film with depth. Many people think that movies are a true restoration of history, but this is actually a misunderstanding of movies. Film is the re-creation of many lives and history. Through this re-creation of reconstructed reality, it shows the ideological connotation that the audience is not easy to find in history on the big screen. From this point of view, the film "Jing Ke Stabbed the King of Qin" directed by Chen Kaige has its artistic breakthrough. However, due to the advanced creative thinking, the film could not arouse the audience's enthusiasm at the beginning of its release.

According to Chen Kaige himself, many years later, he received a phone call from a friend, saying that he had made a great work, which refers to the criticized film "Jing Ke Stabbed the King of Qin". Shortly after the film was released, Zhang Yimou directed the commercial blockbuster Hero, which is an epic. This film is unprecedented in the film history of China, from the star cast to the production investment, from the pre-marketing to the post-response. Although the story of this film tells the story of "Jing Ke stabbed the king of Qin" from another angle, the overall creativity of the two films is similar. Only this time in Zhang Yimou's movies, Gong Li, a "woman-seeking", was never seen again, and was replaced by another girl who was just famous at that time, Zhang Ziyi.

Later, Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou entered the era of commercial blockbusters with domestic films. In this process, although they directed several "masterpieces" of their own, compared with the positive comments of the previous films, their later films were badly criticized. At this time, various stars began to appear in their films, such as Nicholas Tse and Cecilia Cheung in the film The Promise directed by Chen Kaige. For example, Xiao Shenyang and Zhao Benshan in the film Three Guns Surprise directed by Zhang Yimou. Their respective commercial elements have almost reached the realm of doing everything they can.

Although their film creation for the purpose of commercial appeal consumed a lot of good reputation accumulated in their early stage, their transformation was indeed successful for business. And corresponding to the era of commercial blockbusters, their behavior is also very decent.

In 20 19, My People, My Motherland, directed by Chen Kaige, was released and received rave reviews. But as the general director, Chen Kaige's own story unit has been criticized by fans. In the face-to-face competition with several younger generations, it is obvious that Chen Kaige is somewhat behind the times. An interesting situation happened in the National Day this year. Zhang Yimou is the chief producer in this year's film "My Home". You should know that this movie is a series with "We, Our Country", and besides Zhang Yimou, many of them are original people.

It is worth noting that Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou did not appear in the same film. It can be seen that the Jianghu situation of two old classmates has reached the point of competing for the champion of Wulin. However, although they were compared for many years, their best time was when they cooperated with Gong Li. Now that times have changed, it is difficult for them to surpass themselves. I just don't know if Our Hometown headed by Zhang Yimou last year can surpass Our Hometown headed by Chen Kaige.