Liu aspired to become a filmmaker as early as high school. In 1999, she enrolled in the Beijing Film Academy, majoring in screenwriting. 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. ==Filmography==