He has emerged in recent years as a figure in China's "midrange" cinema industry.
[1] Cao Baoping graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 1989, and spent most of the 1990s teaching screenwriting at his alma mater.
[2] His solo debut as director was 2006's Trouble Makers, a satirical black comedy about a village taking revenge on a gang of hoodlums.
Due to its rough content, Trouble Makers faced a host of problems from censors and spent six years in gestation before finally being released.
[4] In 2008, Cao followed up Trouble Makers with The Equation of Love and Death, starring Zhou Xun.