Wang Toon (born Wáng Zhōnghé, April 14, 1942), sometimes credited as Wang Tong, is a Taiwanese filmmaker. He started his career as an art director and production designer and later became a film director and educator.
Wang began his career in 1966 working at the Central Motion Picture Corporation in the art and costume design department. He won a Golden Horse Award for Best Art Direction for Forever My Love (, 1976), directed by .
In 1981, Wang directed his first feature film, If I Were for Real. It won four Golden Horse Awards, including Best Narrative Feature, Best Leading Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay at the 18th Golden Horse Awards that year.
Between 1981 and 2015, Wang directed 13 feature films, two animated feature films, and one documentary. For his achievements and decades-long contribution to Taiwanese cinema, he was presented the Golden Horse Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.
A devout educator, Wang took a teaching position in the Department of Filmmaking at the Taipei National University of the Arts in 2007. He served as the chair from 2010 to 2013, and then from 2017 to 2019. He retired from the university in 2019 and was awarded the Art Education Contribution Award (藝術教育貢獻獎) by the Ministry of Education in 2022.
Life and career Wang Tong was born Wang Zhonghe in Anhui in 1942. He moved to Taiwan with his family in 1949 due to the Chinese Civil War. Wang studied at the National Taiwan Academy of Arts (國立藝術專科學校) from 1962 to 1965, under the guidance of teachers such as Long Sihliang (龍思良), and Wu Yaozong (吳耀宗). When he was young, Wang was nourished by inspiring journals, such as Juchang (劇場; Theatre Magazine) and Wenxue jikan (文學季刊; Literature Magazine), and his association with contemporary poets and painters, including Chen Yingzhen and Wei Tiancong (尉天聰), and Huang Chunming (黃春明) at Cafe Astoria (明星咖啡館). It was there that Wang Tong read the manuscript of the novel Days of Watching the Sea (看海的日子) by Huang Chun-ming, which he later adapted into a popular feature film A Flower in The Raining Night (1983).
Wang received his first opportunity in 1963 after joining Yuan Qiufeng ()'s production of Songfest (1963) as an art assistant. Realizing that he was good at art design, and that he could earn more than his classmates who were working as art teachers, Wang decided to stay working in the film industry. Wang joined the Central Motion Picture Corporation in 1966, where he was mentored by Johnson Tsao Chuang-Sheng () on various aspects of film production and production design. During this time, he gained experience working as an art director for films by Lee Hsing, Ting Shan-hsi, , Sung Tsun-shou and Richard Chen Yao-chi (). He also seized whatever opportunities he could to learn from other directors he admired, such as Li Han-hsiang and King Hu to polish his production skills.
In 1981, Wang made his debut feature film, If I Were for Real, while continuing to work as an art director for his own films and for other directors. Two years later, he directed A Flower in the Rainy Night (1983), an adaptation of Huang Chun-ming's novel, Days of Watching the Sea (). The film was a box office success and won two Golden Horse Awards: Lu Hsiao-fen for Best Leading Actress and Ying Ying (英英) for Best Supporting Actress.
Wang's next directorial effort was the wuxia film Run Away (; 1984). It was praised for its realistic style, relative to similar productions from the 1960s and 1970s. His next film, (1985) was about a family consisting of a mainland veteran father and a Taiwanese mother, a social phenomenon depicted in many 1980s Taiwanese films.
Wang subsequently made three films about Taiwan's history from the colonial time of the 1920s to the civil war between the nationalist and communist parties in the mid 20th century: Strawman (1987), (1989), and (1992). These films, all realistic depictions of the life experiences of local Taiwanese and mainland immigrants, are also known as Wang's Taiwan trilogy. Red Persimmon (, 1995) was an autobiographical film based on his childhood memories. Wang's 12th feature A Way We Go (, 2002) was a contemporary dark comedy about three socially marginalized young men in globalized urban Taipei. After a 13-year hiatus from directing, Wang returned with Where the Wind Settles (2015), which told the story of a group of mainland refugees forming a new family in Taipei after 1949.
Wang is also involved in the production of animated films. In 2002, he joined Wang Film Productions Co. Ltd. (宏廣股份有限公司), founded by his elder brother Wang Zhong-yuan (). He directed (2005), an adaptation of Chinese novel Journey to the West. The film won Best Animated Feature at the 42nd Golden Horse Awards and Best Animated Feature at the 50th Asia-Pacific Film Festival. The other film, A Story about Grandpa Lin Wang, never came to fruition.
Wang was promoted to be the director of Central Motion Picture Corporation Studio (中影製片廠) in 1997. Under his helm, the company established the first and exclusive high-tech post-production studio in Taiwan's film industry, with synchronous recording cameras, lighting equipment, and computer editing capacity. Wang also established Taiwan's first Dolby recording studio, Central Motion Pictures Corporation Dolby Recording (中影杜比錄音室). At the same time, he also worked as the chairman of the Taipei Film Festival from 1997 to 2002. In 2003, when he served as the CEO of the executive committee of the Golden Horse Awards (臺北金馬影展執行委員會), Wang established the Golden Horse Film Project Promotion (金馬創投) which brings regional and international industry professionals to Taiwan with the purpose of developing international joint ventures and cross-productions.
Wang was also devoted to education. He took a teaching position in the Department of Filmmaking at the Taipei National University of the Arts in 2007 and served as the chair from 2010 to 2013 and 2017 to 2019. After retiring from the university in 2019, Wang was presented the Art Education Contribution Award (藝術教育貢獻獎) by the Ministry of Education in 2022.
Filmography
+Feature filmYearChinese titleEnglish title1981假如我是真的If I Were for Real1981窗口的月亮不准看Don't Look at The Moon Through The Window1982百分滿點One Hundred Point1982苦戀Portrait of A Fanatic1983看海的日子A Flower in The Raining Night1984策馬入林Run Away1985陽春老爸Spring Daddy1987稻草人Straw Man1989香蕉天堂Banana Paradise1992無言的山丘Hill of No Return1995紅柿子Red Persimmon2002自由門神A Way We Go2015風中家族Where the Wind Settles +DocumentaryYearChinese titleEnglish title2007童心寶貝Tongxin Baobei +Animated feature filmYearChinese titleEnglish title2005紅孩兒：決戰火燄山The Fire Ball +Screen playYearChinese titleEnglish title1995紅柿子Red Persimmon +Art directorYearChinese titleEnglish titleNotes1976楓葉情Forever My Love1976追球追求The Chasing Game1976翠湖寒The Spring Lake1977煙水寒The Glory of The Sunset1977微笑The Smiling FaceCorporate with Chi-Ping Chang1977愛的賊船A Pirate of Love1978煙波江上Love On A Foggy River1978男孩與女孩的戰爭The War of the Sexes1979昨日雨瀟瀟The Misty Rain of Yesterday's1979師妹出關The Woman Avenger1979結婚三級跳Jiehun Sanjitiao1979悲之秋A Sorrowful Wedding1979衝刺Chongci1979醉拳女刁手No One Can Touch Her1979忘憂草A Girl Without Sorrow1980一根火柴Yigen Huochai1980一對傻鳥Poor Chasers1980十九新娘七歲郎Shijiu Xinniang Qisuilang1980雁兒歸Flying Home1980我踏浪而來Lover On The Wave1980愛情躲避球Twin Troubles1981怒犯天條Offend the Law of God1981假如我是真的If I Were for Real1981窗口的月亮不准看Don't Look at The Moon Through The Window1983看海的日子A Flower in The Raining Night1983天下第一All The King's Men1984策馬入林Run AwayCorporate with Chin-Tien Ku and Shung-Man Lam1989香蕉天堂Banana ParadiseCorporate with Chin-Tien Ku and Bo-Lam Lee1991密宗威龍The Tantana1993異域2孤軍End of The Road +ProducerYearChinese titleEnglish title1995熱帶魚Tropical Fish2002藍色大門Blue Gate Crossing
Awards and honors
+YearNameAwardCategoryOutcome1976Forever My Love13th Golden Horse AwardsBest Art Direction1978The Glory of the Sunset15th Golden Horse AwardsBest Art Direction1981If I Were for Real18th Golden Horse AwardsBest Art Direction1983All the King's Men20th Golden Horse AwardsBest Makeup & Costume DesignBest Art Direction1985Run Away22nd Golden Horse AwardsBest Makeup & Costume DesignBest Art Direction1987Strawman24th Golden Horse AwardsBest Director1989Banana Paradise26th Golden Horse AwardsBest Makeup & Costume Design1992Hill of No Return29th Golden Horse AwardsBest Director1996Red Persimmon33rd Golden Horse AwardsBest Director200711th National Award for Arts201956th Golden Horse AwardsLifetime Achievement Award20239th Art Education Contribution Award
References
External links