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Intimate, highly stylized and experimental docudrama from queer Chinese filmmaker Cui Zi En
'Night Scene' is a highly intimate, highly stylized and experimental docudrama from filmmaker Cui Zi En, one of the most prominent cultural figures in the Chinese queer community, which focuses on male sex workers in Beijing.
Camera in hand, the director descends into parks, nightclubs and other public spaces to interview both real-life "rent boys" and actors posing as male prostitutes.
In this work Cui Zi En manages to scrutinize one of the greatest taboos of contemporary China: male street prostitution.
The film becomes a unique portrait of a twilight world in parks and nightclubs, which oscillates between documentary and fiction. Cui filmed gigolos and real actors playing homosexual prostitutes, without detailing precisely who is real and who is not. There is no strict distinction between homosexuals and prostitutes, nor any moral verdict. However, the director has filmed an ambiguous and layered film, as limitless as the lives of prostitutes in China.
Cui Zi'en's second film in four months is more of an expanded footnote to his memorable 2003 effort titled 'Feeding Boys, Anaya'. As in this work, 'Night Scene' investigates the lives of prostitutes on the streets of Beijing, here using the most subtle narrative to gather first-person interviews to document the clandestine sexual world of the Chinese capital.
While not as compelling as 'Feeding Boys, Anaya' and less formally interesting than 'The Narrow Path', Cui's one-take work, 'Night Scene' found a home at the same festivals that have regularly showcased his work, as well as the support of critics and the public.
The docudrama explores the construction of queer discourse in China through the lens of male prostitution, and thanks to a fragmented and layered narrative that is combined with diverse perspectives and polyphonic voices, giving rise to all these representations being presented in one performance highly conscious that it needs to be put into context: that is, China's queer visual discourse, which is constantly under construction and in need of self-criticism.
Presented in the Official Selection of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2005, Busan International Film Festival, 2004, Viennale, 2004, and Frameline: San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival, 2005, the documentary collects confessions of sex workers as they speak directly to the camera, but it also features some fake scenes.
I draw the viewer's attention, because since all the false scenes are located in the footage at the beginning of the film, we can come to believe that we are actually watching a fiction film and not a docudrama.
The line between fact and fiction is blurred from the start, but in some ways the faux approach helped make the more intimate, one-on-one scenes with the sex workers feel much more vulnerable and personal.
Cui Zi En shows mastery of an intimately embodied vision, the effective use of the haptic camera, reflective performances and subjective editing strategies, characteristic features of his work, with which he manages not only to present alternative perspectives on issues of identity from within of queer communities but, more significantly, practices a boldly performative and intimately engaged mode of documentary filmmaking, and in the process challenges the very distinction between documentary and fiction, truth and opinion, self and other.
Its embodied approach not only demonstrates the potential for minority discourses to actively and critically engage with social reality, but also represents an important direction – that of increasing reflexivity – for the continued development of documentary film in China.
The candid confessions of all those interviewed offer a glimpse into the culture of street sex workers in the Chinese capital, touching on common themes such as gay rights, class disparities and the search for true romance.
The docudrama also follows a gripping story about a young man named Yangyang, who discovers that his father is gay. The boy sets out to investigate his father's hidden past and confronts his secret partner Xiaoyong in the process. At the same time, in all this confusion, Yangyang is surprised to discover that she also falls in love with a boy, Haobin. But his world falls apart when, after a while, he discovers what his friend really does.
Camera in hand, the director descends into parks, nightclubs and other public spaces to interview both real-life "rent boys" and actors posing as male prostitutes.
In this work Cui Zi En manages to scrutinize one of the greatest taboos of contemporary China: male street prostitution.
The film becomes a unique portrait of a twilight world in parks and nightclubs, which oscillates between documentary and fiction. Cui filmed gigolos and real actors playing homosexual prostitutes, without detailing precisely who is real and who is not. There is no strict distinction between homosexuals and prostitutes, nor any moral verdict. However, the director has filmed an ambiguous and layered film, as limitless as the lives of prostitutes in China.
Cui Zi'en's second film in four months is more of an expanded footnote to his memorable 2003 effort titled 'Feeding Boys, Anaya'. As in this work, 'Night Scene' investigates the lives of prostitutes on the streets of Beijing, here using the most subtle narrative to gather first-person interviews to document the clandestine sexual world of the Chinese capital.
While not as compelling as 'Feeding Boys, Anaya' and less formally interesting than 'The Narrow Path', Cui's one-take work, 'Night Scene' found a home at the same festivals that have regularly showcased his work, as well as the support of critics and the public.
The docudrama explores the construction of queer discourse in China through the lens of male prostitution, and thanks to a fragmented and layered narrative that is combined with diverse perspectives and polyphonic voices, giving rise to all these representations being presented in one performance highly conscious that it needs to be put into context: that is, China's queer visual discourse, which is constantly under construction and in need of self-criticism.
Presented in the Official Selection of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, 2005, Busan International Film Festival, 2004, Viennale, 2004, and Frameline: San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival, 2005, the documentary collects confessions of sex workers as they speak directly to the camera, but it also features some fake scenes.
I draw the viewer's attention, because since all the false scenes are located in the footage at the beginning of the film, we can come to believe that we are actually watching a fiction film and not a docudrama.
The line between fact and fiction is blurred from the start, but in some ways the faux approach helped make the more intimate, one-on-one scenes with the sex workers feel much more vulnerable and personal.
Cui Zi En shows mastery of an intimately embodied vision, the effective use of the haptic camera, reflective performances and subjective editing strategies, characteristic features of his work, with which he manages not only to present alternative perspectives on issues of identity from within of queer communities but, more significantly, practices a boldly performative and intimately engaged mode of documentary filmmaking, and in the process challenges the very distinction between documentary and fiction, truth and opinion, self and other.
Its embodied approach not only demonstrates the potential for minority discourses to actively and critically engage with social reality, but also represents an important direction – that of increasing reflexivity – for the continued development of documentary film in China.
The candid confessions of all those interviewed offer a glimpse into the culture of street sex workers in the Chinese capital, touching on common themes such as gay rights, class disparities and the search for true romance.
The docudrama also follows a gripping story about a young man named Yangyang, who discovers that his father is gay. The boy sets out to investigate his father's hidden past and confronts his secret partner Xiaoyong in the process. At the same time, in all this confusion, Yangyang is surprised to discover that she also falls in love with a boy, Haobin. But his world falls apart when, after a while, he discovers what his friend really does.
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