Huang Jianxin (黄建新) is a prolific and accomplished filmmaker. Unlike many of the fifth-generation directors, Huang creates comedies and dramas that ridicule modern China's fumbling bureaucracy and the mindless machinery of hierarchies. His main characters are often humble, grassroots intellectuals who work hard to get ahead but are helplessly caught up in the ever-complex systems. His debut feature The Black Cannon Incident (1985) immediately won Best Picture at China's Golden Rooster Awards and Huang was nominated for Best Director. His film Surveillance (1997) received the Special Jury Prize at the 17th Golden Rooster Awards and was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 47th Berlin Film Festival. Huang's other award-winning comedies and dramas include Dislocation (1986), Stand Straight, Don't Bend Over (1992), Back to Back, Face to Face (1994), Who Says I Don't Care (2001), and Please Praise Me (2005). All received domestic and international accolades.

Back to Back, Face to Face (1994) is one of Huang's most acclaimed films. Infused with acid irony, the film is an involving satire about bureaucratic trench warfare played in modern Chinese style. The protagonist Wang Shuangli is Deputy Director of a local Cultural Bureau. Tubby and thirtyish, he is capable at work while also a consummate office manipulator. His father and wife are a discordant pair but both function as collaborators in his prospective ladder-climbing. After serving as a deputy for nearly three years Wang becomes confident that he is next in line for promotion. To his chagrin Old Ma is brought in from the countryside and installed as Director. Dowdy and rustic, Old Ma knows little about the craft of managing culture. Face to face, Wang pretends to be Old Ma's supportive subordinate, whereas back-to-back Wang and his cronies play politics to try to oust him...

The film was awarded one of the Top Ten Features of the Year at the 19th Hong Kong Film Festival. It also won Best Picture at the 10th Fukuoka International Film Festival in Japan. Huang received Best Director at the 15th Golden Rooster Awards and at the 1st Zhuhai Film Festival in 1994, Huang won Best Script. Chinese actor and Crosstalk artist Niu Zhenghua 牛振华 (1956 – 2004) played the role of Wang Shuangli. Niu also received numerous accolades for his outstanding performance including Best Actor at the 7th Tokyo Film Festival.