Liu Jiayin

Liu Jiayin
Born	(1981-08-20) 20 August 1981 (age 43)[1] Beijing, China
Alma mater	Beijing Film Academy
Occupation	Film director
Notable work	Oxhide (2005)

Liu Jiayin
Simplified Chinese	刘伽茵
Traditional Chinese	劉伽茵
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Liú Jiāyīn

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 received international awards.

Liu was called "one of the most exciting and unique talents to emerge from China in the 2000s" by the The Hollywood Reporter,[2] with Oxhide being described in 2006 as "the most important Chinese film of the past several years".[3] She has written television dramas and currently teaches screenwriting at the Beijing Film Academy.[4][5]

Career

Liu aspired to become a filmmaker as early as high school. In 1999, she enrolled in the Beijing Film Academy, majoring in screenwriting.[1] As her graduation project, she completed Oxhide, her full-length feature debut. Liu used digital video and a series of long takes to stage scenes from the life of her family in their cramped Beijing apartment. Her mother and her father—a struggling skilled leather craftsman whose work material gives the film its title—perform their own parts, alongside the 23-year-old director as herself.[3]

Oxhide screened at the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize and Caligari Film Prize. It also screened at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, where Liu received the Golden DV Award for best digital work, and at the Vancouver International Film Festival, where she received the top Dragons and Tigers Award for East Asian cinema.[6][5]

In 2009 Liu finished her second film, Oxhide II. With a similar focus on her family, this "sequel" was seen as more simple in construction, employing only nine separate shots in a running time of over two hours. All the film's narrative occurs in the real-time process of Liu and her family preparing to make, making, cooking and eating jiaozi (Chinese dumplings). A marked contrast not only to commercial film aesthetics but also with other independent films from China, Oxhide II premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival as part of its Directors Fortnight program. At the end of the year, Oxhide II was named one of the three masterpieces of Chinese cinema in the 2000s by critic Shelly Kraicer.[7]

Filmography

Year	English title	Chinese title	Notes
2002	The Train	火车	Short film
2005	Oxhide	牛皮
2009	Oxhide II	牛皮贰
2010	607		Short film
2023	All Ears	不虚此行

References

1. "Niu Pi" (PDF). Berlin International Film Festival. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 May 2022.
2. Scott, Matthew (17 June 2023). "Shanghai: Three Chinese Directors to Watch". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 26 January 2025.
3. Kraicer, Shelly (Winter 2006). "Oxhide. (Liu Jiayin, China)". Cinema Scope. No. 25. Archived from the original on 4 January 2006. Retrieved 26 January 2025.
4. Witkin, Daniel (9 November 2018). "Liu Jiayin". Reverse Shot. Museum of the Moving Image. Retrieved 26 January 2025.
5. Rist, Peter (December 2009). "Interview with Liu Jiayin". Offscreen. Vol. 13, no. 12. Retrieved 26 January 2025.
6. "Oxhide: (Niu Pi)". Icarus Films. Retrieved 26 January 2025.
7. Kraicer, Shelly (11 January 2010). "Shelly's Top Ten Mainland Chinese films of the 2000s". dGenerate Films. Archived from the original on 15 January 2010. Retrieved 26 January 2025.