--- name: "Chang Kuo-Chu" canonical: "https://film.one/person/chang-kuo-chu" fi1m_id: "chang-kuo-chu" imdb_id: "nm0151755" tmdb_id: 1088685 wikidata_id: "Q9092868" roles: ["Actor"] born: "17 October 1948" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "actor" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-26T02:10:33.388625+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Chang Kuo-Chu ## Identity Chang Kuo-Chu - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/chang-kuo-chu - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** chang-kuo-chu - **IMDb ID:** nm0151755 - **TMDB ID:** 1088685 - **Wikidata ID:** Q9092868 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang_Kuo-chu, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q9092868, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0151755/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1088685 Actor. Born 17 October 1948 in Yuyao, Zhejiang, China. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 17 October 1948, Yuyao, Zhejiang, China - **Also known as:** Kwok Chu Cheung, Kwok-Chu Cheung, Guozhu Zhang, 张国柱, Zhang Guo Zhu - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang_Kuo-chu, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q9092868, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0151755/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1088685 ## Fi1m on Chang Kuo-Chu > Chang Kuo-Chu makes a stern father worth listening to, even when the younger characters have more immediate claims on our attention. His work in Edward Yang’s *A Brighter Summer Day* is our reason to seek him out. The father in *A Brighter Summer Day* (1991) believes in exams and in speaking up to officials. Chang Kuo-Chu makes those beliefs seem like the practical responsibilities of a parent, not an excuse to deliver a lecture. In Edward Yang’s film, a Taipei schoolboy’s life involves his family as well as the gangs around him. The father matters because he has his own understanding of how a person ought to behave. We take him seriously, which makes his difficulties worth attending to. Chang had worked in Hong Kong productions and joined Shaw Brothers around 1980 before this role brought him prominence in Taiwanese cinema. *Island of Fire* (1990) gave him a supporting part in an action-drama; *A Brighter Summer Day* put him at the centre of a family. His subsequent work has continued across film and television, with fathers and authority figures recurring. That history is useful, but it does not explain the performance on its own. Alongside Chang Chen’s watchful Xiao Si’r and Elaine Jin Yan-Ling’s mother, a teacher whose mainland qualifications are not recognised, Chang gives the household a father who still expects effort to be rewarded. We were moved by his insistence on education, because it makes his hopes for his child so ordinary and so exposed. Yang gives those hopes room within a film running 237 minutes, without asking us to forget the schoolboy or his companions. The performance needs that family around it: his principles mean more when we see whom he is trying to guide. Sternness alone would not carry the part. *Mahjong* (1996) reunites him with Yang as Red Fish’s affluent father, while *Cold War II* (2016) casts him as Peter Choi, a retired police commissioner. The recurring authority figures make sense, though a grand title is not much of a part on its own. We want the writing to give him the sort of stubborn, comprehensible beliefs that Yang supplies in *A Brighter Summer Day*. Start there, and give the father as much attention as the boys. ## Biography Chang Kuo-chu is a Taiwanese actor. Born on 17 October 1948 in Yuyao, Zhejiang, he has worked in film and television since the 1960s, appearing in productions from Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China. He is known for his role as the father in Edward Yang's *A Brighter Summer Day* (1991), in which his son Chang Chen made his screen debut as the lead. Other notable credits include *Island of Fire* (1990), *Mahjong* (1996), *The Hospital* (2006) and *Cold War II* (2016). He received a nomination for Best Leading Actor at the Golden Horse Awards for *A Brighter Summer Day* and a Golden Bell Award for Best Supporting Actor for *The Hospital*. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *A Brighter Summer Day* (1991), Fi1m 90, as Father — [page](https://film.one/film/a-brighter-summer-day.md) ## Complete filmography (74) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *The Coldest City* (2023), Actor - *The Story Of Xi Bao* (2020), Actor - *Detective Chinatown* (2020), series, as Old Fish - *See You Again* (2019), series, as Old Master Yi - *Cities of Last Things* (2018), Actor - *The Big Bug* (2018), series, as 九叔 - *The Curse of Bi Xian* (2017), Actor - *Missing Johnny* (2017), as Chang Qi-Yuan - *Guilty of Mind* (2017), Actor - *miss world* (2017), as Dad - *This Is Not What I Expected* (2017), as Jin's Father - *Cold War II* (2016), as Peter Choi - *On Wings of Eagles* (2016), Actor - *The Next Miracle* (2012), as Rocky's Father - *The Killer Who Never Kills* (2011), as Uncle Quan - *The Drunkard* (2010), as Mr. Lau - *Driverless* (2010), Actor - *Summer's Desire* (2010), series, as Xi Meng - *Ballistic* (2008), Actor - *幸福的拼图* (2007), series, Actor - *The Hospital* (2006), series, as Xu Daming - *Mars* (2004), series, as Chen Chung-chih - *Say Yes Enterprise* (2004), series, as 孙镇宇 - *Love Bird* (2004), series, as 李镜白 - *The Outsiders* (2004), series, as 长官 - *Born Wild* (2001), as Ho Chuen - *Hidden Whisper* (2000), Actor - *忠勇小状元* (2000), series, as 魏承天 - *情牵日月星* (1999), series, Actor - *Four Chefs and a Feast* (1999), Actor - *Mahjong* (1996), as Red Fish's Father - *真爱缘是你* (1996), series, Actor - *In a Strange City* (1996), Actor - *Shaolin Popey* (1994), as Mr. Pi - *Emotional Girl: Doubt of Distress* (1993), as Stephen Cheung - *泪洒台北* (1993), Actor - *Butterfly and Sword* (1993), as Eunuch Tsao - *Handsome Siblings* (1992), as Master Kong Pi Hawk - *A Brighter Summer Day* (1991), as Father — Fi1m 90, [page](https://film.one/film/a-brighter-summer-day.md) - *Stone Age Warriors* (1991), as Hiroshi Nakamura - *Island of Fire* (1991), as Seng - *A Woman and Seven Husbands* (1990), Actor - *L'Air du Temps* (1990), Actor - *义不容辞* (1990), Actor - *The Nobles* (1989), as Director Cheung - *Funny Ghost* (1989), as Officer Chan - *The Cruel Kind* (1989), Actor - *Robber in Baling* (1987), as Magistrate Wu - *The Kinmen Bombs* (1986), Actor - *Dark Night* (1986), as Huang Cheng-Teh - *The Yesman* (1986), Actor - *The Glamorous Boys of Tang* (1985), Actor - *Twisted Love* (1985), as Simon Ma - *Let's Make Laugh II* (1985), as John - *Winner Takes All?* (1984), Actor - *Lust for Love of a Chinese Courtesan* (1984), as Xiao Ye - *Wrong Wedding Trail* (1984), Actor - *The Other Side of Gentleman* (1984), as Prof. Cheung - *An Amorous Woman of Tang Dynasty* (1984), as Auyang - *The Killer's Elegy* (1984), Actor - *Last Affair* (1983), as Wai-ming - *The Red Panther* (1983), as Dr. Chu - *Let's Make Laugh* (1983), as Lui Kai Chi - *I Do!* (1983), as (segment "New Year's Eve") - *Torrid Wave* (1982), Actor - *The Bloody Mission* (1982), Actor - *Demon's Lair* (1982), Actor - *Return of the Electric Love* (1982), Actor - *Love Massacre* (1981), as Chiu Ching - *Living and Loving* (1980), Actor - *The Butterfly Murders* (1979), as Shen Qing - *The Servants* (1979), Actor - *Your Smiling Face* (1979), Actor - *I Sing I Cry* (1979), Actor --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/chang-kuo-chu