Sylvia Chang (Ai-chia)
Sylvia Chang was born in the Chia Yi County of Taiwan in 22 july, 1953, but spent part of her childhood in Hong Kong and her early teen years in Riverdale, New York. Returning to her birthplace, began appearing in films in the 1970's, having debuted at the age of 16. Actually she began at radio programs, and singing. With only 18 years old, she signed a contract with Hong Kong’s Golden Harvest Productions and made her acting debut in Tattooed Dragon.
In 1973, credited as Sylvia Channing, she appeared alongside Chuck Norris in Slaughter in San Francisco (Huang mian lao hu). In 1977, she co-starred with Brigitte Lin in the Shaw Brothers’ Dream of the Red Chamber / Jin yu liang yuan gong lou meng . Back home, she appeared in films like 800 Heroes (1975), and in tv movies.
In 1979, got married and moved back to Hong Kong, where she established herself for good at the movie industry. In 1979, starred in King Hu’s Legend of the Mountain (Shanzhong chuangqi) and also served as his assistent director on Raining in the Mountain; was the female lead in Ann Hui’s The Secret/ Feng jie (1979), an important new wave film that so happened to be produced by a company that Sylvia had co-established with friend Selina Chow.
Chang began to reduce her onscreen appearances in the mid-80's and instead focused on directorial work. In 1981, after having been the a.d. of Lung Gong (on Hiroshima 28), was asked by Raymond Chow to direct a melodramatic production called Once Upon a Time (Jiu meng bu xu ji).
With 26 years old, made a guest appearance on USA tv series M*A*S*H*. Other foreign works include 1982´s australian Attack Force Z (with Mel Gibson), Mike Newell´s Soursweet (1988, a British adaptation of Timothy Mo’s novel), and the canadian sucess Red Violin/ Xiang Pei (1998).
With more than 90 films to her credit, Chang is one of Asia's most prolific cinema professionals. Chang has written, directed and produced numerous projects of her own. In 1996, she started up Taipei's cable channel Go Go TV of which she was General Manager for two years. She has a very sucessfull career as a singer, with seven platinum albums to her credit. She is happily married mother of two.
Aside from being a well-known figure in the film industries of both Hong Kong and Taiwan, Chang is also renowned internationally. London and Toronto Film Festivals have screened her works as retrospective specials, and she also was a member of the jury at the Berlin Film Festival.
Some awards include:
Golden Horse Awards´s Best Supporting Actress in 1976 for her performance in Posterity and Perplexity.
Best Actress for My Grandfather/ Wo de ye ye (1982).
Best Actress at the Golden Horse Awards and the Hong Kong Film Awards for her performance in Passion/Zui ai (1987, also scripted and directed); scripted and directed Siao Yu (1995, USA, Ang Lee´s production), garnering the Best Film and Best Screenwriter awards at the Pan Asia Film Festival.
Best Screenplay winner for Tonight Nobody Goes Home (1996) at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival.
HK Film Awards´s Best Screenplay winner for Tempting Heart / Sam dung (1999), and Best Actress winner for Forever and Ever/Di jiu tian chang (2001).
She speaks: "I've learned so much about directing from my acting in the past 20 years. It's such a big help to me. I can better understand the feelings of the cast. I'm a trouble-shooter. I can quickly find ways to solve their problems."
Selected Filmography (1980-2006):
White Jasmine/Mo li hua (1980, best actress nominee Golden Horse Film Fest)
Aces Go Places/ Zuijia Paidang (1982, as a tough policewoman, making up a comedic duo with actor Karl Maka; HK Film Awards: Best Actress nominee, Best Mandarin Movie)
That Day On The Beach/ Haitan de yitian (1983 Taiwan's New Wave, dir. by Edward Yang)
Shanghai Blues/ Shanghai zhi ye (1984)
Passion/Zui ai (1986 Best Director nominee at GHFF)
Lucky Stars Go Places/ Zui jia fu xing (1986)
The Game They Called Sex/ Huang-se gushi (1987, dir. only)
Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing? (Taiwanese box office hit)
The Game They Call Sex /Huang-se gushi (1987)
All About Ah-Long/ You jian A Lang (1989)
Full Moon in New York/ Ren zai Niu Yue (1990)
Eight Tales of Gold/ Ba liang jin (1990)
Queen of Temple Street/ Miao jie huang hou (1990)
Sisters of the World Unite /Sha sha jia jia zhan qi lai (1991, also writer/producer)
Mary From Beijing/ Mungsing Sifan (1992, writer/director only)
Three Summers/ Ge ge de qing ren (1993, Dir. Lawrence Ah Mon; writer, exec. prod., singer)
In Between /San tung gui shut doi (1994, also director)
Eat Drink Man Woman/Yin shi nan nu (1994)
I Want to Go on Living/ Wo yao huo xia qu (1995, also writer/director)
Tonight Nobody Goes Home/ Jin tian bu hui jia (1996, writer/director only)
Bishonen/Meishaonian zhi lian (1998, executive producer)
Tempting Heart /Xin dong (1999, one of the top ten grossing films of the year)
Princess-D/ Xiang fei (2002, writer/director only)
20:30:40 (2004, also writer/director)
Rice Rhapsody /Hainan ji fan (2004)
American Fusion (2006)
Bibliography:
http://www.brns.com/
http://hkfilmart.com/
http://www.filmbug.com/
http://www.imdb.com/
