''Oxhide II'' () is a 2009

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

Chinese film The cinema of China is the filmmaking and film industry of mainland China, one of three distinct historical threads of Chinese languages, Chinese-language cinema together with the cinema of Hong Kong and the cinema of Taiwan. China is the hom ...

Liu Jiayin Liu Jiayin (born 20 August 1981) is a Chinese independent filmmaker and educator from Beijing. She directed two experimental features combining documentary and narrative elements, ''Oxhide'' (2005) and ''Oxhide II'' (2009), both of which receive ...

. It is a sequel to ''

Oxhide ''Oxhide'' ( zh, c=牛皮, p=niú pí), directed by Liu Jiayin, is a 2005 narrative independent Chinese film that portrays the director's family and their apartment in Beijing. Liu was 23 years old when the film was recorded. Awards, nominations, ...

'' (2005), Liu's directorial debut. Like the first film, ''Oxhide II'' portrays the director and her family as they go about their lives in their apartment.

Plot

Set in their apartment in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, Liu and her parents play versions of themselves as they talk, cook, and eat '' shǔi jiǎo'' (soup dumplings) at their kitchen table over the course of a night. The film takes place in a single room in real time, with the camera focused on the table rather than the people.

Production

Liu used a consumer-grade

Digital Betacam Betacam is a family of half-inch professional videocassette products developed by Sony in 1982. In colloquial use, ''Betacam'' singly is often used to refer to a Betacam camcorder, a Betacam tape, a Betacam video recorder or the format itself. ...

video camera A video camera is an optical instrument that captures videos, as opposed to a movie camera, which records images on film. Video cameras were initially developed for the television industry but have since become widely used for a variety of other ...

to shoot ''Oxhide II''. The frame was masked using construction paper to a 2.35:1

aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a geometry, geometric shape is the ratio of its sizes in different dimensions. For example, the aspect ratio of a rectangle is the ratio of its longer side to its shorter side—the ratio of width to height, when the rectangl ...

; though the wide

CinemaScope CinemaScope is an anamorphic format, anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its cr ...

ratio is typically used to emphasize vast landscapes, Liu chose it because she simply "wanted to see less". The camera is at table level for most of the film, although its angle and height varies. As a result of the camera's placement and aspect ratio, the audience only sees the family's hands working at the table unless a character leans down into frame. The film is composed of nine static shots, with each

long take In filmmaking, a long take (also called a continuous take, continuous shot, or oner) is Shot (filmmaking), shot with a duration much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general. Significant camera mov ...

lasting from five to 20 minutes. After every shot change, the perspective moves 45 degrees clockwise around the table, so that the final shot ends in the same position as the first.

Release

The film premiered on 21 May 2009 at the

62nd Cannes Film Festival The 62nd Cannes Film Festival took place from 13 May to 24 May 2009. French actress Isabelle Huppert served as jury president for the main competition. Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke won the Palme d'Or, the festival's top prize, for the dra ...

as part of its Directors' Fortnight program. It was also an official selection at the

Locarno International Film Festival The Locarno International Film Festival is a major international film festival, held annually in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narr ...

and

Vancouver International Film Festival The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for two weeks in late September and early October. The festival is operated by the Greater Vancouver International Film Festi ...

in 2009,

International Film Festival Rotterdam International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, focused on independent and experimental films. The inaugural festival took place in June 1972, ...

in 2010, and

San Sebastián International Film Festival The San Sebastián International Film Festival ( SSIFF; , ) is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spain, Spanish city of Donostia, Donostia-San Sebastián in September, in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Countr ...

in 2011.

Reception

''Oxhide II'' received positive reviews from critics. Writing for ''

Cinema Scope ''Cinema Scope'' was an English-language film magazine published in Toronto, Canada. History and profile The first issue of ''Cinema Scope'' was published in 1999. Up until 2022, the magazine compiled a list of the top ten films of each year. ...

'', Andrea Picard said, "Even without the surprise factor that helped make ''Oxhide'' a festival cause célèbre, the more technically accomplished ''Oxhide II'' proves that Liu's ''

arte povera Arte Povera (; literally "poor art") was an art movement that took place between the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s in major cities throughout Italy and above all in Turin. Other cities where the movement was also important are ...

'' aesthetic is capable of a seemingly infinite number of variations. ... Liu’s films evince a carefully calibrated yet warmly sensual sound and image construction, a droll humanism, and, ultimately, a feisty hopefulness that mark them as extraordinarily valuable in a world that purports to be incapable of taking its time." Film historian

David Bordwell David Jay Bordwell (; July 23, 1947 – February 29, 2024) was an American film theorist and film historian. After receiving his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1973, he wrote more than fifteen volumes on the subject of cinema including ''Na ...

called it "a consistently warm, engaging—I don’t hesitate to say ''entertaining''—film that is also a demonstration of how a simple form, patiently pursued, can yield unpredictable rewards. ... ''Oxhide II'' is unpretentiously inventive, quietly virtuosic." In a 2024 retrospective, Alex Fields of ''metafilm'' preferred it to the first film: "Liu is a master of exact compositions that reveal their clever precision and simple beauty over the course of long takes. A new person enters the frame and alters its fundamental balance, an object stationary for several minutes is moved or comes into use, and the image is rigorously recomposed in real time. ... The film leans into the demonstrative power of form, which for me is what makes it the more singular and greater of the two." On the other hand, Jay Weissberg of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' found it less original than the first: "For most viewers this audience tester will merely spur heavy-duty ankling. ... The mildly amusing self-deprecatory humor she evinced in ''Oxhide'' still shows, but without stylistic development the experiment’s second outing feels even more hollow."

Sequels

A followup, ''Oxhide III'', was announced in 2010. Liu has stated she is still working on the screenplay: "There will be more camera angles in ''Oxhide III''. The shots will be very different from the first two. I will bring out more of the characters’ inner thoughts and feelings." , it has not yet been released. Liu intends to make eight total films in the ''Oxhide'' series, with ''Oxhide IV'' and ''V'' in the planning stages. One of the later parts may be a

children's film A children's film, or family film, is a film genre that generally relates to children in the context of home and family. Children's films are made specifically for children and not necessarily for a general audience, while family films are made f ...

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 1426380, Oxhide II 2009 films 2009 drama films 2000s Chinese films 2000s Mandarin-language films Chinese drama films Chinese docudrama films Films set in Beijing