Hu Bo

Hu Bo (July 20, 1988 - October 12, 2017), pen name Hu Qian, was born in Jinan City, Shandong Province, a writer and director in Mainland China , screenwriter, graduated from the Directing Department of Beijing Film Academy.

In 2014, Hu Bo began to publish his short stories on platforms such as ONE. In 2015, he won the Best Director Award at the 5th Golden Koala Film Festival for his short film "Distant Father"; in the same year, he created the novel "Bullfrog". In 2016, he won the first prize at Taiwan's 6th World Chinese Film and Novel Award for his short story "The Big Split". On October 12, 2017, Hu Bo hanged himself at the age of 29. In 2018, he won the Best Feature Film Award and the Best Adapted Screenplay Award at the 55th Taiwan Film Golden Horse Awards for his posthumous work "The Elephant Sitting on the Floor", and was nominated for the Best New Director Award.

Director Hu Bo's first film "The Elephant Sitting on the Floor" will be released in Japan on November 2, 2019.

Chinese name: Hu Bo

Alias: Hu Qian (pen name)

Nationality: Chinese

Constellation: Cancer

Height: 189cm

Place of birth: Jinan City, Shandong Province

Date of birth: July 20, 1988

Date of death: October 2017 12th

Occupation: writer, director, screenwriter

Graduation school: Beijing Film Academy

Agency company: Dongchun Pictures

Representative works: The Elephant Sitting on the Floor, Big Split, Bullfrog

Main achievements: Best Director Award at the 5th Golden Koala Film Festival in 2015

The 55th Taiwan Film Golden Horse Awards Best Feature Film Award

Best Adapted Screenplay Award at the 55th Taiwan Film Golden Horse Awards

Character Experience

Hu Bo was born in Jinan City, Shandong Province; 2006 In 2009, Hu Bo took the exam in Beijing and successfully obtained the professional certificate of the school he applied for. However, because his college entrance examination score did not meet the cutoff, he was not admitted; after that, he returned to his hometown and repeated his studies for a year.

In 2008, Hu Bo failed the college entrance examination again, so he entered a junior college in Shandong. Since the courses were very poor and the dormitory did not have Internet access, he went to the Internet cafe run by the school from 9pm every night and stayed up all night. Watching movies and playing cards with roommates after getting up in the afternoon; after less than a year in school, he chose to drop out and repeat his studies; during this period, he was admitted to Zhejiang University of Communication, and his parents advised him to go to school as soon as possible, but he only wanted to go to Beijing Film Academy . In 2010, after two consecutive years of taking the exam, 22-year-old Hu Bo was finally admitted to the Directing Department of Beijing Film Academy.

While in college, Hu Bo shot a short film about a donkey and a house in an urban village near the school. Many local gangsters came over with machetes to ask for venue fees, but Hu Bo just remained calm. He squatted in the corner with his little notebook, drawing his storyboards wholeheartedly. In addition, in order to save a dying hedgehog, he kept it in his dormitory all winter. Because wild hedgehogs stank to the sky, he had many disputes with his roommates.

When he was a senior, Hu Bo participated in the "Graduation Joint Creation" (selected graduation works can receive more than 100,000 yuan in funding from the school), and applied for funds from the Directing Department and the Film and Television Technology Department. As a result, both applications were approved. He submitted 6 scripts at once, 4 of which were his favorite art films, but the ones that were finally selected were the other 2 commercial films in the thriller and suspense genre; and these two graduated His work attracted the attention of some investment institutions. When the two parties discussed investing in a suspense film, Hu Bo rejected the invitation because the investors proposed adding a bed scene.

In 2014, Hu Bo began to publish his short stories on platforms such as ONE; in the same year, he also directed the short films "Distant Father" and "Night Run". In February 2015, he won the Best Director Award at the 5th Golden Koala Film Festival for his short film "Distant Father"; in the same year, he created the novel "Bullfrog".

In 2016, he wrote the short and medium-length novel "The Big Split", and won the first prize at Taiwan's 6th World Chinese Film Novel Award for this novel; in the same year, Hu Bo took his own "Golden Fleece" 》The script participated in the First Youth Film Festival Venture Capital Meeting. After preliminary selection and re-selection, it was finally shortlisted for the film project. It went to the FIRST Film Festival to make a proposal presentation to nearly a hundred investors; after that, the project signed a contract with Dongchun Pictures , registered for film shooting under the title "Love When the Cherry Blossoms Bloom"; in addition, he also wrote and directed the short film "The Man in the Well".

In January 2017, his short story collection "The Big Split" was officially published; in February, the filming of his film "Love When the Cherry Blossoms Bloom" began, with Wang Xiaoshuai as the producer. His film debut; in July, Hu Bo went to Xining to participate in the master training camp of Hungarian director Béla Tarr; during this period, without funds or a team, Hu Bo shot a short film in one day; In October, he published his first novel "Bullfrog".

On February 23, 2018, his posthumous work "The Elephant Sitting on the Floor" (formerly known as "Love When the Cherry Blossoms Bloom" and "The Golden Fleece") won the FIPRESCI International Award at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival. Film Critics Award (Forum Section), Special Mention Award for Best Debut Film; on October 1, his posthumous work "The Elephant Sitting on the Floor" was nominated for the Best Feature Film Award at the 55th Taiwan Film Golden Horse Awards, and he was nominated for Best New Director Award, Best Adapted Screenplay Award; later, a collection of literary works left by Hu Bo before his death, "Ramo in the Distance" was published. On November 17, it won the Best Adapted Screenplay Award at the 55th Taiwan Film Golden Horse Awards.

Personal life

After graduating from college, Hu moved to a resettlement community near the Sixth Ring Road in the Near East of Beijing to live with his girlfriend. He writes novels crazily every day, which makes his income very unstable, and he relies on money from his family to survive. Later, his girlfriend suddenly left him without giving a reason; after the film editing was completed, Hu Bo tried to contact her again, but the other party replied "disgusting or not" a few months later, which shocked him.

Hu Bo gave himself the pen name "Hu Qian", which means that in writing, he will always keep migrating like a migratory bird. In addition to loving cats, he also likes to drink beer, but rarely gets drunk. He smokes heavily when he is creating, and the ashtray on the table often overflows. In addition, he usually only wears black, white and gray unless attending formal social occasions. The long hair above the shoulders is either tied up with a rubber band or simply covered with a baseball cap with a fur ball.

On October 12, 2017, Hu Bo hanged himself in the stairwell of a residential building on the East Fifth Ring Road in Beijing. He was only 29 years old; on October 18, Hu Bo’s farewell ceremony was held in Beijing. Held at the Babaoshan Funeral Home in the city.

Main works

Literary works

Director's works

Screenplay works

Award-winning records

Hu Bo is like a scholar in ancient times. He is handsome and slightly melancholy. Although he is 189cm tall, he does not look powerful. He has fair skin and a straight smile. His white teeth were straight. Hu Bo is very pure and disdains the secular part, but sometimes this gives people the feeling that he only has himself in his thoughts and has nothing to do with other people or the world ("Beijing News", Shao Qing commented).

Hu Bo's writing exudes a charming and bizarre atmosphere. When he wrote the novel "Bullfrog", we can see that his literary language was relatively rough; when he wrote "The Big Crack", his language quality had undergone a very high change. From the perspective of technique and personal style, his literary language was relatively rough. The degree of completion is very high, the language or imagery is refined, and the overall expression is also very mature (reviewed by Wang Xiaoshuai, Water Ghost, and Green Demon).

In the movie "The Elephant Sitting on the Floor", Hu Bo traced the indifference, neglect, rejection and violence that the characters encountered with great compassion. It seemed that these characters were several clones of himself. Use film to take a pessimistic inventory of the environment (reviewed by Teresa Vena).

Hu Bo's writing language is very smooth and provides an "immersive experience". He is a very gentle man who doesn't talk much, but sometimes has a very interesting and strange sense of humor. He is very polite, has a kind personality, is sometimes simple and naive, and has a child-like innocent belief in the world, but this is so different and contradictory to his writing characteristics. The protagonists of Hu Bo's stories are always depressed little people living at the bottom of society, those who have been insulted and harmed. The lines are filled with endless despair, and the atmosphere of decadence is so oppressive that people can't breathe. He is the opposite of ordinary people, putting the malicious or dark side in his works, but in life he is gentle, shy, and even sunny. Hu Bo is a very candid person in the novel. He analyzes or reveals himself to a very brave level. This kind of candidness and bravery is not possessed by most people. Hu Bo likes to state his views directly in his works. According to the literary creation tradition, this does not seem to be an advanced writing method, but his excellence lies in his ability to persuade readers and make them like to hear him say these very sad things. , can reveal some dark places that cannot be seen and reached by those who are not honest and brave (comments by Wang Kangkang, Huang Liqun, and Zhang Yueran).