with Red Sorghum in return for starring Zhang starring in Wu's film Old Well and supervising the cinematography. Both movies were highly successful in the China market and achieved considerable international success. When the head of Shaanxi Propaganda Bureau criticized Wu Tianming's policies, he fought back by publicly denouncing him as “a bureaucrat who doesn’t understand films but wants to control filmmaking.” At Xi'an Studio he nurtured prominent "Fifth Generation" directors Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige. Wu came to the United States in 1989 as a visiting scholar at NYU and decided not to return to China in the wake of the events at Tiananmen Square. After several years of operating a video rental store in California, Wu returned to China in 1994 to direct the Shaw Brothers produced film The King of Masks in 1995, which was internationally acclaimed. Wu's film An Unusual Love Story (Feichang Aiqing, 1998) was made in 1998. In 2012, Wu returned to his origins as an actor when he starred in the 2012 film Full Circle. Wu's final film, The Song of the Phoenix was completed in 2013, but was not released in China until May 6, 2016, more than two years after his death. Wu Tianming died on March 4, 2014, from a heart attack, at the age of 74. Filmography As director As producer References External links Wu Tianming at the Chinese Movie Database Wu Tianming Profile at chinaculture.org 1939 births 2014 deaths Film directors from Shaanxi Chinese film producers Beijing Film Academy alumni Chinese film directors