Chen Chang

While still in his teens, Taipei-born actor Chang Chen began his career auspiciously in 1991, playing the lead role in master filmmaker Edward Yang's internationally acclaimed coming of age saga "A Brighter Summer Day." After the critical success of that four-hour drama, the young actor stepped away from cinema for five years, resurfacing in 1996 to star in another Yang film, the lighter crime comedy "Mahjong." The next year, Chang acted in renowned director Wong Kar Wai's Palme d'Or-nominated romance, the dark and dreamy "Happy Together."

Following this impressive run of dramatic performances, Chang switched gears at the dawn of the new millennium, taking a supporting role in Ang Lee's Oscar-winning martial arts hit "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Chang then continued to collaborate with Wong, starring in two short films directed by the filmmaker ("Six Days" in 2002 and "The Hand" two years later), as well as the time-travelling sci-fi romance "2046" in 2004. The next year, he played the male lead in the similarly themed "Three Times," directed by yet another leading figure in Taiwanese cinema, Hou Hsiao-Hsien. After "Three Times," Chang went on to work with action director John Woo, acting in his costume epic "Red Cliff" in 2008 and its sequel in 2009.