Ren Qingtai is also known as Ren Jingfeng directed Dingjun Mountain, a silent Chinese film from 1905, with cinematographer Liu Zhonglun. This film, produced by Beijing’s Fengtai Photography, is the world’s first Chinese film.
The film featured a recording of Peking opera superstar Tan Xinpei disguised as Huang Zhong and singing certain arias from the same-named Peking opera. The play is based on an episode from the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms and is a dramatized description of the Battle of Mount Dingjun (219 AD). In the late 1940s, a fire destroyed the lone print.
The (fictitious) circumstances leading up to this film are told in two films. Shadow Magic, directed by Ann Hu and starring Xia Yu as Liu Jinglun (based on Liu Zhonglun), Liu Peiqi as Master Ren (based on Ren Qingtai), Li Yusheng as Tan Linmei (based on Tan Xinpei), Lü Liping as Ren’s wife, and Li Bin as Empress Dowager Cixi, is a 2000 US-China co-production. Jared Harris and Xing Yufei also star in the film.
Dingjun Mountain, a Chinese film released in 2005, was developed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Chinese cinema. Yang Lixin as Ren Jingtai (based on Ren Qingtai), Tan Yuanshou as his great-grandfather Tan Xinpei, Hao Rongguang as Liu Zhonglun, Lü Zhong as Empress Dowager Cixi, and Qu Ning as Ren’s wife feature in the film directed by An Zhanjun. Liang Jingke also appears in the film.
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