Acting
Aug 31, 1956
Changsha, Hunan Province, China
Zhang Fengyi
Acting
Biography
Zhang Fengyi (张丰毅), born on September 1, 1956, in Changsha, Hunan, is a celebrated Chinese actor best known for his role in Farewell My Concubine, portraying a stage performer caught between political turmoil and personal longing. He also gained acclaim for playing Jing Ke in The Emperor and the Assassin and the warlord Cao Cao in Red Cliff. Originally from Tanghe, Henan, Zhang moved to Dongchuan, Yunnan with his veteran father at just one month old. He left high school in 1971 and began performing with a local opera troupe, later joining a singing and dancing team. In 1978, he was admitted to the Beijing Film Academy’s acting department. His film debut came in 1980 with Treasure Hunting in the Desert. A year later, he earned critical praise for his role in Rickshaw Boy, which cemented his status as a rising star in Chinese cinema.
Feature Films (40)
In pre-unified China, the King of Qin sends his concubine to a rival kingdom to produce an assassin for a political plot, but as the king's cruelty mounts she finds her loyalty faltering.
The Emperor and the Assassin
In 208 A.D., in the final days of the Han Dynasty, shrewd Prime Minster Cao convinced the fickle Emperor Han the only way to unite all of China was to declare war on the kingdoms of Xu in the west and East Wu in the south. Thus began a military campaign of unprecedented scale. Left with no other hope for survival, the kingdoms of Xu and East Wu formed an unlikely alliance.
Red Cliff
The battle of Red Cliff continues and the alliance between Xu and East Wu is fracturing. With Cao Cao's massive forces on their doorstep, will the kingdoms of Xu and East Wu survive?
Red Cliff II
A poor farmer who loves a woman he is forbidden to associate with becomes a hardened mercenary, and is hired by a local warlord as a professional assassin. Years later, he runs into his old love and begins to question his violent past
The Assassin
China, 1915. A secret and unequal treaty that would increase Japan's dominance over China is about to be signed unwillingly but not before external forces jump in to make sure it never happens. Therefore both the US and a small band of thieves and orphans (among them Lau Sek-Ming and Alexander Lo Rei) are ordered by their foster father (Zhang Feng-Yi) to track it down in Shanghai. Feeling an unease in terms of their involvement in high politics all of a sudden, it becomes clear there's a traitor in the group...
21 Red List
Near the beginning of the Tang dynasty, in 7th century China, General Shi Yan-sheng is tricked into leaving the crown prince unguarded. The crown prince is murdered by one of his brothers who then becomes emperor. Shi retreats to a monastery, perhaps to hide, perhaps to plan a coup. When his loyal troops as well as the princess he desires are slain, he seeks refuge in a remote, abandoned monastery where an aged abbot schools him with practical, earthy teachings. The emperor's forces pursue Shi: first a woman, then a general seek to overpower him with lust and might. Over the course of the film, the reds of battle give way to blues of meditation.
Temptation of a Monk
Insurrection deposes the tyrannical first emperor of China during the evil Qin Dynasty. Warrior/general Xiang Yu and the cunning peasant Liu Pang join forces to win through civil war. Xiang Yu's weakness for Lady Yu combine with Liu Pang's treachery result in Liu founding the legendary Han dynasty
The Great Conqueror's Concubine: Part I
In an epic tale of theater, gender, love and class, two Beijing opera actors navigate political turmoil as their friendship evolves over decades.
Farewell My Concubine
For generations the Zhao family has wielded power, until their mortal enemy TU’AN GU slaughters the entire clan, determined to wipe out their influence forever. But one Zhao baby survives hidden by CHENG YING the doctor who delivered him. When Tu’an Gu learns of the baby’s escape he seizes every infant in the city, vowing to kill them all unless the Zhao baby is surrendered. As the tyrant’s soldiers arrive at Cheng Ying’s home the frantic doctor hides his wife with their own baby whilst surrendering the Zhao child as his own. But his family is discovered; his baby is presumed to be the Zhao heir and murdered along with his wife for harboring the infant. Now set on revenge Cheng Ying enrolls the Zhao orphan into the service of the Tu’an Gu household, plotting to use him as an instrument of vengeance when he comes of age.
Sacrifice
It is the late 1920s when six-year-old Yingzi and her family move to Beijing. As Yingzi explores the busy streets and alleys, she befriends a widow who, driven mad by grief, stands vigil at the entrance of her hutong, waiting for her missing daughter to return.
My Memories of Old Beijing
A young man recalls his childhood growing up in a poor alley in Beijing during the 1950s and 1960s.
The Blue Kite
Television & Series (49)
A legendary wuxia romance that focuses on the decade-long romance between Hei Fengxi and Bai Fengxi, and the adventures they embark on together.
