I Love You, Boss

Director: Zhang Yuan

Producer: David Cao, Sonic Yao

Screenwriter: Fan Jinwei

Cinematographer: Zhang Jian

Production Designer:

Editor:

Sound:

Music:

Cast: Li Quan, Lv Yulai, Li Xinyun
DCP, color, 27 min.

As in his epoch-making film, East Palace West Palace (1996), Sixth Generation luminary Zhang Yuan explores same-sex attraction within the context of power relationships in contemporary China (this time as part of the portmanteau Hong Kong International Film Festival production, Beautiful (2014). While the earlier film bound a hapless citizen to a ruthless and seductive power (“the prisoner loves her jailer”), in I Love You, Boss, oppression stems from the socio-economic inequality that leaves the disenfranchised pining for what they cannot have, as incisively explored in Zhang’s earlier feature, Beijing Flickers (2012). A young chauffeur (Lv Yulai) finds himself attracted to his contemptuous and callous boss (Li Quan) – without a single word being exchanged between the two men. – Berenice Reynaud

A 1989 graduate of the Beijing Film Academy, Zhang Yuan directed Mama (1999), a combination of documentary and fiction, film and video that was the first Chinese independent feature since 1949 and that is credited with launching the “Sixth Generation” as well as the “Urban Generation.” Zhang made a number of “underground” films, often inspired by local countercultural movements, such as the indie rock scene (Beijing Bastards, 1993; Sons, 1996) or the gay subculture. Starting with Seventeen Years (1999), he made a number of successful features “aboveground.” His most recent feature Beijing Flickers was featured along with a companion pop-up photography exhibition during the 2012 COB.

Followed by: 
The Night (夜)