Feeding Boys, Ayaya

What makes a boy want to sell his body? In this item in his rapidly escalating filmography, Cui turns from relatively high-flown queer theory to the street-level realities of rent boys - a direct response to the recent proliferation of male prostitution in China's cities. As usual, he has several protagonists and strands of storyline. Attention centres on the boy who opts for a life of rent, to the bewilderment of his middle-class parents and the exasperation of his hetero elder brother; others who pop up include a guy who has left the game behind and a kid who has difficult questions for an evangelical Christian. The execution is rough and ready, and the performances are (to say the least) uneven, but in general this is funny, provoking and genuinely informative.