Yonggang Wu

Wu Yonggang was born in Shanghai in 1907 but was considered a native of his ancestral home Wu County Jiangsu in Chinese convention Wu Yonggang was one of the major leftist film directors of preCommunist China For the early part of his career Wu was a set designer with Dazhonghua Baihe before transferring to the Shaw Brothers Tianyi Film Company He was eventually noticed by Shi Dongshan at the newly formed Lianhua Film Company His first film from the directors chair 1934s The Goddess under contract with Lianhua earned both him and the films star Ruan Lingyu rave reviews A prolific director Wu continued to make films well into the 1970s until his retirement shortly before his death including Evening Rain codirected with Wu Yigong which won Best Picture at the first annual Golden Rooster Awards Acclaimed director Chen Kaige referred to Wu Yonggang as one of his most admired directors and named The Goddess as his favorite film of the 1930s