Oxhide II [牛皮2] (2009)

Following 2005’s Oxhide comes the minimalistically titled Oxhide II. This is quintessential Chinese art house cinema from director Liu Jiayin.

With a cast of three, director Liu and her parents, the film consists of static camera shots (nine in total of varying lengths) of her father initially making bags on the table in the main room. Then he clears away his tools and the family make (and eventually eat) dumplings (pork and chive as the fennel wasn’t fresh) and chat about his work, the difficulty of slicing chives and life in general. As the camera is generally set at table level, faces can only be seen when standing protagonists bend or sit down.

Although it could pass as documentary, it is apparently scripted and rehearsed. Like the title, this is a work of extreme minimalism. As one Douban reviewer put it: ‘form abandoned by content’.

Clearly Liu Jiayin made the film she wanted to make but its hard to see why. The film is too long (by far) and – as indicated – nothing at all happens. This is presumably what the director wanted to show but its not really what I want to watch.

There is nothing very innovative about the use of static cameras to film a largely static scene and nothing much interesting in the dialogue or activities either (or if there was I missed it). If one wants to see (as OVID immodestly describe this film) ‘a profoundly intimate study of family relationships’ I would suggest Girls Always Happy rather than this tedious dumpling-making video.

It gets a surprisingly high 6.1 on Douban (and 6.1 is a bad score) albeit from less than 500 people. For an art house audience only.