Director Without Fear.docVIP

Director Without Fear 　　In director Cao Baoping’s movies， the characters tend to be constantly pushing the extremities of human emotion. They are anxious， fearful， grief-stricken and at times simply falling apart. Cao often presents them in tense， fierce ways. His latest film， The Dead End， reinforced this as his signature style and won over the market when it premiered in late August 2015. The movie grossed 127 million yuan （US$20m） at the box office in its first week. For the most part， reviews have been favorable. On ， one of China’s most popular social networking sites with a focus on the arts， users gave the movie an impressive average score of 8.1 out of 10. The movie’s three leading actors shared the award for Best Actor at the 18th Shanghai International Film Festival held this past June， and Cao won the festival’s award for Best Director. 　　Adapted from the novel Sunspot by Xu Yigua， The Dead End asks whether or not sinners can truly be redeemed. It tells the story of three men who killed nearly all the members of one family， orphaning a baby girl whom they raise in remorse as they run from the law. With visceral shots that don’t shy away from bloody violence， murder， explicit sex and executions， many marvel at the tension and boldness of the movie while wondering how on earth it slipped past China’s censors. Cao loves tense conflicts and struggles constantly to push emotional boundaries， even if this causes political problems. Dealing with these issues and striving to meet his own high artistic standards makes Cao just like the characters in his movies， constantly filled with worry and unease. 　　 A Different Approach 　　Crime is a marginalized theme in Chinese literature， just as criminals are marginalized in society. But Cao is drawn to these marginalized figures. “Ordinary people are actually more difficult to depict，” said Cao. “They’re too normal.” Sunspot had the “fierce” elements Cao often finds most attractive. To him， such fierceness means “