On Nov 23, 1988, the Provincial Party Committee and the provincial government of Shaanxi province held a celebration ceremony for Xi'an Film Studios in honor of producing outstanding movies. The studio and the three camera crews from Old Well, Red Sorghum and The Last Frenzy as well as 11 people including Wu Tianming and Zhang Yimou, received “Bronze Chariots and Horses” trophies and awards. Wu Tianming is seen here standing at the podium.Photo/Xinhua]

Old Well (1986) is a story about rural villagers fighting for access to precious water in the parched land of north-western China. It made a veritable acting star out of Zhang Yimou, who won many accolades including the Best Actor award at the Tokyo International Film Festival. The film is still considered a major classic of the realism school of filmmaking.

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Had Wu's achievements been limited to film directing, he would have left an important legacy. But what he did shortly after directing these movies cemented his status as the "godfather" of a new generation of filmmakers who are still active in today's Chinese cinema. From 1984 to 1989, Wu was promoted as head of Xi'an Film Studio, which lies outside the nucleus of the country's filmmaking industry. He turned the peripheral position of the studio into an advantage by using a group of new graduates in projects that deviated sharply from conventional aesthetics.

Under Wu's leadership, a bunch of epoch-making titles were made and, surprisingly, released, among which were Huang Jianxin's The Black Cannon Incident, Tian Zhuangzhuang's The Horse Thief, and mostly prominently Zhang Yimou's Red Sorghum (1987). Prior to that, Zhang was known only as a cinematographer and, yes, a very good actor.