His year-end release Let the Bullets Fly has just broken the box-office record for a domestic film with some 700 million yuan ($107 million) in gross receipts.
In recent years he's achieved much larger exposure by directing and starring in the hit period action-comedy pictures let the Bullets Fly (2010) and Gone with the Bullets (2014).
Blockbusters in the final weeks of 2010, led by the gangster comedy "let the Bullets Fly," helped China's annual box office receipts rise 40% to RMB10b.