Winter of discontent

A turning point emerged in 2008, when he was cast alongside actor Huang Xuan to play a college student in director Lou Ye's indie film Spring Fever.

Despite the scenes featuring his and Huang's characters were cut from the final version, the film gave him a fresh perspective as the experience enabled him to completely immerse himself in the character's world.

"Lou gave the actors a lot of freedom. He helped me to establish a comfortable bond with the role, making me believe that I actually was the character while on set," says Liang.

More cooperation with Lou followed on Love and Bruises (2011) and Mystery (2012)－the latter of which saw Liang serve as the assistant director－during which his interest began to shift toward the director's chair.