Bending the Formulas of Money and Desire

By: Xenia Shin

Directed by Cui Zi'en

(Digital Video/87 min./China, 2003)

Cui Zi'en is a professor at the Beijing Film Academy, and the only openly queer activist academe in China, in addition to being a novelist, director, and actor. Zi'en has stated that film must work with new forms to embody new attitudes toward homosexuality, and is interested in "testing the flexibility" of reality.

Courtesy of Piff.org.

Feeding Boys does not develop its story in a traditional, chronological narrative. It centers around three brothers. The eldest, Dabin, is a Christian, and attempts to persuade his younger brother, Xia Bao, to give up his work as a male prostitute, or "money boy." When Xia Bao leaves the house, the youngest brother, Houjian, decides to follow in his line of work.

Zi'en adopts strategies to disrupt the narrative, and to empty images of their meanings. Continuity and realism are interrupted or diverted by long shots on a bridge, where the characters hypnotically perform tai-chi, or walk a dog. In these havens outside of the story, Zi'en indicates his position outside the driving forces of the commodified narrative. A lo-fi approach informs the entire movie, which is shot on digital video: the electronic music on the soundtrack cracks and hisses, the shots seems shaky and the images are washed out.

The title, Feeding Boys, comes from the theory that Houjian lays out to his older brother: humans are mammals. A woman comes into her true nature when she gives milk and nurtures her young. In a comic and superficial argument, Houjian concludes that he is fulfulling his nature as a mammal by nurturing the needy with his milk. It is interesting to note that during this scene, Dabin, who is getting dressed, is partially out of the frame, and we only see his bulging crotch. Whatever the image says, it is humorously at odds with his Christianity. Perhaps it points to Dabin's interchangeability with his younger brother, as an object of desire, or to some relation between him and his brother, or perhaps to an ambiguous sexuality.

Houjian's decision to become a money boy has a heady quality of liberation at moments. However, coming from a middle class family, he is not forced by circumstances into becoming a prostitute. Houjian's attitude is comfort with mutual exploitation: he tells his friend, Zai Zai , who shows him the ropes, that he is saving his virginity because he can get $10,000 for it.

After arguing with his brother, Houjian asserts his individuality in a series of actions: he exceeds the bounds of the film, and talks to the film's composer, Zhang Jian. He demands a different piece than the music written for him in the film. He then embarks on a poll of the city, asking passers by what they think of money boys, mostly finding disapproval.

Courtesy of Piff.org.

In one of the funniest scenes in the movie, Houjian brings a client to his parents' house, to the weak protests of his parents and finally their quietly absurd acceptance. The mother looks at a picture of an adolescent Houjian, wistfully pointing out that he had large eyes like a movie star. One can't help but note that to his mother, it is a waste that Houjian is not selling himself through more refined channels, but blatantly selling his body and sex.

Meanwhile, Dabin preaches impotent arguments against prostitution to empty locales. Before dying, he asks his girlfriend Wen Wen to save his brother and other male prostitutes. She agrees, and tries to convince Houjian and Zai Zai, his friend, to quit. Wen Wen, who is also called Beauty, agrees, but is able to develop a different relation to Houjiian than his brother. In another non-progressive sequence, Wen Wen, Houjian and Zai Zai play joyously in a playground. They seem outside of time, and there seems to be a moment where the boundaries between actor and person seem to slip. This moment brings to mind Zi'en's statement that digital video, more than film, is able to recreate the temperament of the non-professional actors he works with.

Wen Wen, Beauty, is suddenly shown on the same deathbed as Dabin, but we don't see her die. Houjian and Zai Zai try to revive her, standing by the bedside, and the scene ends with Zai Zai singing a melancholy song about time, aging, and the coldness of the world.

Houjian's self-assertions seem to find their limit here. However, Zi'en's analysis of the situation is extended beyond this scene. He is filming a counterpart to Feeding Boys, a documentary which records the boys who are forced into their line of work.

November 7, 2003