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Yan: Were your parents supportive of the films throughout?
Liu: Yes.
It'd be horrible to have me live with them if they'd chosen not to be.
Better to help me than not.
Yan: You mentioned the conveniences brought about by digital technology.
You're one of China's digital generation directors.
What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of digital technology?
Liu: I have never used film.
It would be inappropriate for me to make any assumption.
However, we are in the digital age.
Contemporary Chinese filmmakers including me use DV and HD to make films.
We are satisfied with what we can achieve in terms of quality.
Without digital technology, it would be impossible to make extremely low-budget films.
When you can't afford the cost of making films, you will need financial assistance.
But such assistance could become a kind of burden and restraint.
You would need to compromise something in order to have something else.
Both I and many other contemporary Chinese independent filmmakers benefit from digital technology.
We need not worry about negotiating with others when making our films.
Negotiation could bring about negative impacts to our work sometimes.
Of course, it also depends on one's personality.
In this sense, digital technology protects us.
After we've had more money and confidence, we will have more power in asserting ourselves.
It's dangerous to throw ourselves out there right from the start.
Also as mentioned by many others,
digital filmmaking is a private activity.
It's always better to involve as few people as possible.
It's also very personalized.
Personalization is becoming more and more important to us nowadays.
I think digital technology encourages self-expression.
Compared to the past we have more channels for self-expression,
even if some of what we express gets harmonized quickly after it's out.
Same goes for digital technology.
In the past it was to make a film by oneself.
Now I can.
As long as we have ideas.
You don't even need the excuse that you don't have money.
It all comes down to oneself.
The advantages are obvious.
However, sometimes I wonder what it would be like ten or five years ago.
Would it have been the same? Would we have still tried?
I think for those who are strong-willed, nothing would stop them.
Just like pirated DVDs, which are getting watched by more and more people,
independent films can reach more people and cater to more different tastes.
This is very important in my opinion.
Yan: When I watched your film, I could feel a sense of privacy.
The story took place inside the small space of your house.
Your video camera was placed in one place throughout the film.
How did you arrive at this unique angle?
Liu: I had more ideas in mind about what I wanted to shoot.
However, when I put myself in the situation,
I decided to stick with one idea.
I think it was a purely personal choice.
Speaking entirely from my own perspective, I was challenging myself to do it.
I studied editing previously.
Now I also teach editing courses.
And I'm a professional editor.
There are many stories out there, regardless of how good or bad they are.
It's not my job to judge how good or bad they are.
I think I was challenging myself.
I wanted to have a try at this method of shooting.
It made me feel like trying to overcome myself and to challenge myself.
I promised myself that I would do it.
I decided to spend two years on the first film.
I think my attitude and disposition were very important.
I have focused my attention on it for many years.
Even now when I'm free, I often think about my films after I'm done with my work.
I have more than a few film projects now.
Two first, followed by others.
They are sequenced.
It's unlikely that your film projects carry equal weights in your heart.
Time is always limited.
If you wait till next year to finish your project, the film will end up looking very different.
I prefer not to delay what I want to film this year for too long. Time flies.
It'd be wrong that way because the film would be different.
Time is limited. It passes fast.
You need to plan a film, make it, edit it, and send it to film festivals.
It takes at least a year to do everything.
What about the next project if you delay the first one?
Preparing for the next project while you're still doing the first?
But time passes faster than you think.
I only began to have this sense of urgency recently.
My health is poor.
I don't know how much time I have left.
I want to hurry up and make what I plan to make so I won't regret.
Yan: We will get back to your health later.
Are you planning to make Oxhide III?
Liu: Yes. I have been writing the screenplay.
Yan: Could you tell us about it?
Liu: As dull as the first two.
I have to sustain this mood.
Someone said to me that the pace of Oxhide II was too quick.
I want to thank the person who said so.
I'm not sure if he was being satirical because different people feel differently.
Some people find it too slow, some find it too fast.
I want to maintain this pace.
But 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.
Yan: It will be a continuation of the first two?
Liu: Exactly, a continuation.
I did have another story. But I moved it to my fourth project because of continuity issues.
Yan: So there will be Oxhide IV and V?
Liu: Yes. I'm planning Oxhide IV.
Oxhide V too. Afterwards I want to make a children's film.
A children's film?
Liu: Yes. But it will still be in the Oxhide series.
Yan: Will it be about your family?
Liu: I don't know yet. Maybe about a kidnap.
But it will be among the three of us still. Some sort of a children's film.
I'm not speaking responsibly here. I'm just saying.