Feng Xiaogang emerged as one of Asia’s most successful commercial directors in the late 1990s for his searing black comedies about the lives of common people in a rapidly changing China. In the past 15 years, his films have become more ambitious and have pushed the boundaries of Chinese cinema. A filmmaker who can elicit both laughter and tears, Feng works across genres, sometimes redefining them. He is often compared to Steven Spielberg because of his long commercial success – and for shifting to more challenging, artier filmmaking.