Sex, money and community are accessed by young Fei (Kai Ko) when he migrates from his home in a rural Chinese village to a cosmopolitan city with the goal of financially supporting his family through non-traditional methods in C.B Yi’s film “Moneyboys”.
A part of the Cannes official selection in the Un Certain Regard section of the festival, Moneyboys stands as Yi’s first Chinese language feature film. The Chinese-Austrian film maker, screenwriter and producer immigrated to Austria at the age of 13, and later studied at the Vienna Film Academy. Though he moved to Europe at a young age the director explained “Having grown up in the Chinese countryside is linked to so many experiences that are not visible through living in Europe, but which I carry within me like a mother tongue that hasn’t been spoken for a long time,” relating the landscape, social climate, and mores of his feature film to what he witnessed in his own upbringing, making the film personal to him. It wasn’t until Yi travelled to the Beijing Film Academy to study abroad that he first encountered the realities of gay prostitution, the director disclosed that while he was studying he came to know a classmate who had been hustling to make money to help his ill mother. Initially, the idea that eventually grew into “Moneyboys” was meant to be in the form of a documentary concerning the life of money boys; the idea shifted into a fictional telling to protect those working in the industry in a country where prostitution is still remains illegal.
While the film is set in the South of China, Moneyboys was shot in Taiwan. The feature was produced by Austria’s KGP Filmproduktion, France’s Zorba, Taiwan’s Flash Forward Entertainment, and Belgium’s Panache Productions, and co-produced by Arte France Cinema, the Taipei Film Commission, and La Cie Cinematographique.
Fei, young and new to his urban metropolitan role as a hustler, sells his body with the title of a money boy to make his way in the city while financially supporting his family. Fei is boyfriend to a protective man, fearful for his lover’s well being Xiaolai (JC Lin) watches over Fei while hustling. When a client becomes aggressive with Fei, leaving his face and body bloody and bruised, Xiaolai is unable to hold himself back from acting defensively. After his retaliation goes wrong and the police seek answers, Fei fills with fear and abandons Xiaolai. Following this formidable threat from the authorities, the film skips ahead to show Fei five years after his separation from his partner. Here we are reintroduced to Fei, his movements in his hustling have grown confident and grounded, working from his own apartment he interacts with regulars with ease, through his services he is reciprocated with adoration, desire, and of course, substantial payment. Perhaps becoming too comfortable in his working position, Fei is blindsided when he falls victim to an investigation on illegal prostitution. Word of his arrest and the truth behind his crime makes its way back to his home village before he can; when Fei arrives home he is met with shame and disgrace over his homosexuality. While his family accepted his earnings from actions obscene in their eyes, they refused to accept his way of life. Devastated by his family’s reaction to his identity he finds relief in the friendship of a village boy named Long (Bai Yufan), who follows Fei back to the city with the naive hope for a chic urban lifestyle. When Long experiences the harsh realities enforced by the fast-paced and unapologetically capitalistic run society in the metropolitan city he turns to Fei for work. Fei becomes Long’s guide, protector, and lover; taking on the role Xiaolai once in their relationship. As Fei falls into his new role, he is pushed into his past when he encounters his ex-lover in the street— pushing the film deeper into a tragic story of a man victim to the constant movement of an urban city filled with people desperately hungry for connection.
While the film’s characters are working within the sex industry the story itself and its cinematography do not focus on their occupational situation as much as they discuss the implications of youth geographical migration. In an interview, Yi stated “Moneyboys may deal with a very specific situation — the migration of a young man from rural China — but for me it is a universal story about interpersonal relationships that could happen in many places around the world.”
Remarkably specific cinematography by Jean-Louis Vialard represents the complexity of contrasting geographical environments between urbanized settings and rural locations through still camera movements and wide shots. Within these scenes a spotlight is laid atop the engrossing performance of the film’s characters who put emotional weight onto Fei’s every choice, exposing the role of each character in his life through even the smallest of body movements and responsive expressions.
Yi expressed that he is working on a three piece project continuing with focus on the theme of migration, Moneyboys being the first instalment. Where this first piece focuses on a young man moving within China, showing the important role of those people he meets as a result of his migration from a rural village to a cosmopolitan city, his second and third pieces are set to take place between Paris and China, reaching further out into topics of continental migration throughout different time periods.
© 2021. UniversalCinema Mag.