Wuxia-inspired comedy

Director Yang Shupeng's first job was as a fireman when he was 16 years old. "It was a tough job and I spent four years in it. I was brave but a little reckless," he recalls. "I was quite a dreamer."

But he never expected that his recklessness and daydreaming would stand him in good stead in filmmaking, years later. After his first foray into films with the 2006 war feature, The Cold Flame, starring Zhang Hanyu (The Assembly), the self-taught director tries his hand at comedy with The Robbers, although it does have a lot of martial arts action.

"It is a product of my imagination," he says. "I read lots of wuxia (martial arts) novels and their rude and reckless, but loyal bad guys, is what inspired my film."