132 minutes / Color
English; Mandarin / English subtitles
Release: 2012
Copyright: 2009
Breaking new ground in cinematic art, Liu Jiayin's follow-up to her masterful debut OXHIDE turns a simple dinner into a profoundly intimate study of family relationships.
Building on the stunning vision of OXHIDE (voted one of the best Chinese films of the 2000s), writer-director Liu Jiayin once again casts herself and her parents in scripted versions of their life in a tiny Beijing apartment. Liu takes her uncompromising artistry to the extreme, setting all of the action around the family dinner table, which doubles as her father's leather-making station. As the workbench is cleared for the family to make a dinner of dumplings, the camera catches every meticulous detail of the action in real time. Small moments between family members reveal deep insights into the mysteries of family relations and the art of everyday living.
"She has carefully composed the film seamlessly joining nine takes, some as long as 20 minutes, placing and rotating the camera clockwise 45 degrees in a way that the last take has the same angle of the first one. It looks like a long one-take," explains Adriana Rosati, Asian Movie Pulse.
OXHIDE II advances the inimitable artistry of one of China's most prodigious filmmakers. Its lovingly intimate, naturalistic observations of working-class life suggest "the ultimate work of everyday realism" (Mike Walsh, Real Time Arts).
At the same time, "Liu's shots are carefully, rigorously, exquisitely composed" (Berenice Reynaud, Senses of Cinema), showcasing one of the most gifted visual artists working in China today. The result is "a direct, honest, miniature epic" (Daniel Kasman, MUBI).
"A masterpiece. Inventive, quietly virtuosic." —David Bordwell, Observations on Film Art
"Beautiful, complex; once again, we are glued to the screen." —Adriana Rosati, Asian Movie Pulse
"A direct, honest, miniature epic." —Daniel Kasman, MUBI
"Arguably the most interesting new Chinese director to emerge since Jia Zhangke." —Peter Rist, Offscreen
"Liu is a master of exact compositions that reveal their clever precision and simple beauty over the course of long takes." —Alex Fields, metafilm
Select Accolades
Examines the impact of rapid industrialization on traditional housing styles and ways of living in Taiwan.
Wynette Yao | 1987 | 23 minutes | Color
A family on the Himalayan plains discovers their dog is worth a fortune, but selling it comes at a terrible price.
PEMA Tseden | 2012 | 88 minutes | Color | Tibetan | English subtitles
Daily life in an impossibly cramped Beijing apartment takes on epic proportions in this, intimate portrait of a working-class Chinese family.
LIU Jiayin | 2012 | 110 minutes | Color | English; Mandarin | English subtitles
