In his second feature, director/co-writer Hao pays rousing tribute to 'Er-ren-tai', a form of saucy musical performance closely associated with Hao's home region in the north-west near the Mongolian border. This colourfully accessible slice of backwater ethnography follows hapless hero Tiedan (Feng Si) from joyous childhood through to a maturity notable for an eventfully unorthodox love-life. Taking their cue from the Er-ren-tai songs themselves, which express passionate feelings in bursts of hyper-stylised intensity, Hao and his Korean editor Baek Seung Hoon sock over short scenes packed with freewheeling incident and comedy.

It tells the story of Li Hongju, a Mao opera singer at the bottom of society, and her daughter who use their perseverance to support a Mao opera troupe and a broken family.