Chung Mong-hong has become a renowned filmmaker in Taiwan’s cinema landscape, having produced some of the island nation’s most critically successful films – though he didn’t always intend on a career in film.
Born in 1965, Chung Mong-hong originally received a Bachelors in Computer Engineering from Taiwan’s National Chao Tung University, before receiving an MFA in Filmmaking from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. After graduation, he pursued a career in advertising, producing more than a hundred commercials from 1997 onwards.
However, his career in film would not kick off until his feature length debut, the documentary “Doctor”, which won the Best Documentary Prize at the Taipei Film Festival in 2006. His career in film began to further develop in the late 2000s, making a foray into fiction with “Parking”, which was selected in the Un Certain Regard category at Cannes’ in 2008. Following several more feature length films, he ended his advertising career in 2016 to move on to full-time filmmaking.
Credit: Netflix
Chung Mong-hong has made his mark on Taiwan’s cinema landscape over the course of just over a decade. However, his most important work would come in 2019 with the film “A Sun”. Focusing on a family of four, the film infamously starts with the image of a severed hand in hotpot, as an accident pulls apart a family of four.
“A Sun” was critically acclaimed, with it being the first Taiwanese film since 2012 to be shortlisted in the International Feature Film category at the Academy Awards. The drama, which is available to watch on Netflix UK, was also nominated for twelve Golden Horse Awards – the most prestigious awards for Sinophone cinema. It won six, including best feature and best director, with Variety’s chief critic singling it out as his favourite film of the year.
However, Chung’s career has not slowed down since the release of “A Sun” – several of his subsequent films have also won praise, including his cinematography for the political comedy-drama “Classmates Minus”, and the black comedy “A Leg”, which he directed. The latter, which will make its UK premiere at the London East Asia Film Festival 2021, focuses on a wife trying to find her deceased husband’s amputated leg, and was the opening film at last year’s Golden Horse Awards.
Chung Mong-hong’s most notable recent work is “The Falls”, which focuses on the relationship between a mother and her daughter during a COVID-19 quarantine. The film, which has so far received critical praise, was released in September 2021, with a world premiere at the 2021 Venice Film Festival and a screening at the Toronto Film Festival. The film will also receive its UK premiere at the London East Asia Film Festival – participating the Official Selection strand.
Having already made such an impact on Taiwanese cinema, Chung Mong-hong is likely to be active for years to come. Whilst he’s not yet a household name, such as Ang Lee or Hou Hsiao-Hsien, it may only be a matter of time, considering the critical praise his recent releases have received.