Lu Chuan
Age: 38
Movie Director
Lu this year has emerged as China's most controversial filmmaker. A native of the far western region of Xinjiang, Lu studied at the Beijing Film Academy and his first two films, The Missing Gun and Kekexili: Mountain Patrol, won him top honors in film festivals in China and Taiwan. But the reaction to those movies was nothing compared to the reception of City of Life and Death. The movie (also known as Nanjing! Nanjing!) came out in April, and while it dealt with the brutal history of the Nanjing Massacre during World War II, many Chinese were angered by what they saw as its sympathetic portrayal of a Japanese soldier.
