Born in 1954 in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Huang Jianxin graduated from Beijing Film Academy in 1983.

What distinguish Huang most from other members of the fifth generation of Chinese directors are his focus on urban life as well as his emphasis on reality and youth. The themes of his movies demonstrate his social responsibility. The characters in his films are usually common people, and Huang always endeavors to analyze deep into their characters and psychologies. With a simple, realistic, natural, and calm style, Huang is good at discerning questions of major principle from minor issues, and exploring the enthusiasm out of everyday life and petty matters.

The sober humor and banter that appeared in his first movie The Black Cannon Incident penetrated through all his works, contributing to his distinctive style

Huang shocked the movie circle with his maiden work The Black Cannon Incident in 1985, which won a cluster of awards including Golden Rooster Best Director Award in 1986. The movie tells the story about a business translator who is demoted when a chess piece referred to as the "black cannon" in his letter is mistaken to be a weapon. He is pulled off an assignment that would have sent him to Germany, and an incompetent replacement kills the company's multi-million dollar deal. Although he proves the incident was a mistake due to another translator, Zhao becomes the victim of an unflinching bureaucracy and political ideology that hampers his once-promising career.

In the sequel to The Black Cannon Incident, Huang shot Cuo Wei in 1987. The man whose career was nearly stalled by a misunderstood translation in the earlier film has been promoted to the head of a large corporation. However, he has discovered that not only is life at the top lonely, it's also boring. In this comedy, the resourceful businessman makes a robot that resembles him well enough to take his place at the many dull meetings he is forced to attend. All goes well until the robot decides he wants some of life's goodies too and develops some habits that are distinctly unlike those of his creator.

Afterwards, Huang directed a series of other movies like Lun Hui in 1989, which also won the Golden Roaster Award for Director.

In 1992, Huang shot Zhan Zhi Luo, Bie Pa Xia , which is mainly about a writer and his wife. They move into an established apartment block, and are quickly labeled as "the intellectuals" by the other tenants. In this slice-of-life drama, the humor comes from real everyday situations.

Besides, Huang has also made some other influential movies including Wooden Man's Bride (1993), Back to Back, Face to Face (1994), Signal Left, Turn Right (1996), Surveillance (1997), Shuibuzhao (Can't Fall Asleep) (1998), and Shei Shuo Wo Bu Zaihu (Who Says I don't Care?) (2001).

Author: Jeff

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