Chen Yu-hsun — Director | Biography, Movies & Career

Biography

Chen Yu-hsun (born June 21, 1962) is a Taiwanese commercial director and filmmaker born in Taipei, Taiwan. He is the first director to win the three major film awards in Taiwan, including the Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards, the Taipei Film Awards, and the Taiwan Film Critics Society Awards, for the same film, My Missing Valentine (2020). He is widely known for his "offbeat, distinctly Taiwanese sense of humor that permeates his works".

After spending his fourth year at the so-called "Junior Fourth Class" (a cram school for students retaking high school after their junior year), Chen Yu-Hsun successfully entered Cheng Kung High School after a grade retention. After failing the university entrance exam, he had no choice but to enlist in the military. Retaking the university entrance exam for the second time at 22, he finally passed and enrolled in the Department of Educational Media and Library Sciences, now renamed the Department of Information and Library Science, at Tamkang University. Chen graduated from Tamkang University in 1989.

Chen has always had a passion for painting and heavy metal music. It was not until his senior year that he got hold of the opportunity to work as a studio assistant in the Department of Mass Communication at the university, which led him to an internship with director Wang Shaudi. Chen Yu-Hsun found his true passion at the internship. That is, telling stories through visual images. Chen started his first job as a script supervisor for director Tsai Ming-Liang's comedy drama, Happy Motor Shop (1989).

Chen shot his first feature film, Tropical Fish, in 1994, after years of working with television series. The film was commercially successful and critically acclaimed, making Tropical Fish one of the most remarkable comedies in the history of Taiwan cinema.

Due to his dissatisfaction with the filmmaking environment and his box office failures in Taiwan, Chen left the film industry for 13 years. During that time, he worked on many humorous commercial advertisement projects that became well-known among television audiences.

In 2020, his film, My Missing Valentine, won five awards at the 57th Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards, including Best Narrative Feature, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, and Best Film Editing.