Ox Hide

Comprising around 30 static shots, mostly cramped compositions shot in or around a Beijing apartment, this begins with a young woman (played by the writer-director) waking up as her parents get home. It takes a while to work out precisely what they’re doing and talking about and why, but one gradually gains an impression that dad’s handmade leather goods business has hit the doldrums and is affecting the relationship between himself, his wife and their daughter. Little is made explicit, but there’s a vivid sense not only of a generational gulf but of how the family has been influenced by the seismic changes affecting China in recent years; globalisation may have hit home, but as dad points out – facing the existential dilemma of ‘To discount or not to offer discount; that is the question’ – whip scars on an ox hide don’t just disappear… A fine film, accessible in its minimalist experimentalism in much the same way as Kiarostami’s ‘10’ or some Haneke movies.