Zhang Junzhao

Zhang Junzhao
Chinese name	張軍釗 (traditional)
Chinese name	张军钊 (simplified)
Pinyin	Zhāng Jūnzhāo (Mandarin)
Born	1952 (age 64–65) Henan, China
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter
Years active	1980s

Zhang Junzhao (simplified Chinese: 张军钊; traditional Chinese: 張軍釗; born 1952) is a Chinese film director and screenwriter who was mainly active in the 1980s. A graduate of the Beijing Film Academy and a contemporary of such acclaimed directors as Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, and Tian Zhuangzhuang, Zhang Junzhao was a prominent early member of China's Fifth Generation filmmakers. His 1984 film One and Eight (Yi ge he ba ge) is well known as a film that marked the advent of the Fifth Generation, while The Shining Arc (弧光; Hu guang, 1988) was nominated for the Golden St. George award at the 1989 Moscow International Film Festival.

Zhang Junzhao was born in 1952 in Henan province, China. He became involved in the propaganda plays put on by the Red Army during the Cultural Revolution, both as an actor and a director. In 1978 he entered the newly reopened Beijing Film Academy; four years later, in 1982, he and his classmates Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou were assigned to Guangxi Film Studio in Nanning.

In 1984, as an assistant director at Guangxi Studios, Zhang Junzhao teamed up with cinematographer Zhang Yimou and designer He Qun to make a war film called One and Eight (Yi ge he ba ge). Set in 1939 against the backdrop of World War II and communist China's long standing conflict with Japan, the film tells the story of nine men being held as prisoners by the Kuomintang armies under Chiang Kai-shek. When almost all the regular soldiers are killed, these nine men make the choice to fight beside the remnants of the army and acquit themselves with honor and bravery.

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