Six days after famed director Wu Tianming passed away, a group of what is commonly referred to as China's 5th generation directors including Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige and Gu Changwei gathered in a meeting room at the Beijing Film Academy (BFA) to commemorate their mentor, the man regarded as the godfather of many influential Chinese directors today.

The term "5th generation directors" refers to a group of directors who experienced the turmoils of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) and graduated from BFA during the 1980s.

As president of the West Movie Group (originally Xi'an Film Studio) since 1983, Wu helped transform then young directors like Zhang and Chen from nobodies to big-name directors. Under his guidance, a series of films including Zhang's Red Sorghum, Tian Zhuangzhuang's The Horse Thief and The Black Cannon Incident by Huang Jianxin became big hits after hitting theaters.

As the fame of these movies spread outside China, these directors soon became famous for their work throughout the world.

As a director himself, Wu also has his own representative works such as Old Well (1986) and The King of Masks (1995). As part of the memorial on Monday, these two films were shown again at the BFA, while large-scale spray paintings of Wu could be seen everywhere around the college.

In the well reputed film Full Circle (2012) which focuses on a group of senior domestic directors and actors, Wu plays a strong and optimistic old man nearing the end of his life. In the film, he dies peacefully at the beach at Nandaihe (a tourist resort in China's Hebei Province).

Now in an example of life imitating art, this great director has also passed peacefully away, and while his big-name students will still carry on his legacy, his departure leaves a hole that no talent will ever be able to fill.