Yan Jizhou

Yan Jizhou (; August 1917 – 21 June 2018) was a Chinese film director. Having fought on the frontline during the Chinese Civil War, he made popular war films in the 1950s and 1960s including Struggles in an Ancient City, Tiger Heroes, Heroes at Sea, and Two Good Brothers, which have come to be regarded as "red classic films". He won the Golden Rooster Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2012 and the Outstanding Contribution Award at the 2017 China Film Director's Guild Awards.

Early life and wartime career Yan was born in August 1917 in Changshu, Jiangsu Province, and moved to nearby Shanghai in his youth to find work. After the city fell to Japanese occupation following the Battle of Shanghai, he went to the Communist base in Yan'an in 1938. He received military training at the Counter-Japanese Military and Political University, but was assigned to work in the army's drama troupe after graduation. As many soldiers questioned why they were now fighting the Kuomintang after so many years of fighting the Japanese, Yan's troupe performed plays that blamed the Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek for starting the civil war and exalted the bravery of the Communist soldiers. He directed many popular war films, most famously Struggles in an Ancient City (野火春风斗古城, 1963), Tiger Heroes (英雄虎胆, 1958), Heroes at Sea (海鹰, 1959) and Two Good Brothers (哥俩好, 1962), which are now considered "red classic films". Tiger Heroes, starring Wang Xiaotang and Yu Yang, is regarded as one of the most influential spy films in the history of Chinese cinema. Struggles in an Ancient City, set in a Japanese-occupied provincial city, starred the actor Wang Xingang and actress Wang Xiaotang, who played the double role of two heroic sisters.

Filmography Year Title RoleNotes 1980 MOONLIGHT ON SECOND SPRING Director 1978 LIEZI JIU-SHI-JIU HAO Director 1977 WHAN SHUI QIAN SHAN Director

Death Yan died on 21 June 2018 at the 301 Hospital in Beijing, aged 100.