Chong Wishing

Chong Wishing

Born in 1957 in Himeji city, Hyogo Prefecture, Chong is a writer and director. Quitting the Literature Dept. of Doshisha Univ., he studied in the Art Dept. of the Yokohama School of Broadcasting and Cinema (present Japan Academy of Moving Images). After working as an art assistant at the Shochiku film studios, he joined the Black Tent Theater company.
The Shinjuku Ryozanpaku Theater company was created together with members of his own generation. Today he is active as a freelance writer and director. While writing plays for Bungakuza, Opera Theater Konyakuza and other theaters, he founded the production group “Umi no Circus” in 1992 and served as writer and director, presenting sadly comical plays about the subtleties of life. In 1993, he won the 38th Kishida Drama Award for The Terayama. He also became active as a film scriptwriter, winning the Asahi Film Contest Screenplay Award and the Kinema Junpo Film Award for the screenplay Tsuki wa Docchi ni Deteiru along with other awards. In 1998, he won numerous awards for Ai wo Kou Hito, including the main prize of the Kinema Junpo Film Awards, the Japan Academy Award for Best Screenplay, the 1st Kikushima Ryuzo Award and the Asia Pacific Film Festival Best Screenplay Award. He enjoys popularity writing scripts for TV and radio, having won the Grand Prize of the 2001 Geijutsu Festival for Boku wa Ashita 18 ni Naru (2001/NHK television). In 2008 his play Yakiniku Dragon was produced by the New National Theatre, Tokyo as a joint Japan-South Korea production, presented again in 2011 and 2016, and was also restaged in Seoul, ROK in 2008 and 2011. This play won him the 16th Yomiuri Theater Grand Prix award for Best Director, the 12th Tsuruya Namboku Drama Award, the 43rd Kinokuniya Theater Award and the 59th Geijutsu Sensho Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award. In spring of 2014 he was awarded Japan’s Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon.
https://www.lespros.co.jp/artists/wishing-chong/