After the Tiger Award-nominated Shanghai Trance, and before the film R U There, that was shot in Taipei, David Verbeek shot Club Zeus. The film shows a phenomenon we hardly know in the West: a club with ‘host boys’ who pamper rich women by taking on any desired personality. Mysterious, sexy, interested and if necessary willing to go to bed with their clients.
Club Zeus fulfils fantasies for women from the economic top layer in Shanghai and the host boys are paid per bottle of champagne sold. Neatly dressed and with the adopted names of Western film stars, they play their roles in the hope of earning more than the others every night. Because in the megacity of Shanghai, everything is a contest.
Verbeek shows the glamour of night life as a cocoon, closed off from the outside world. It’s an enormous contrast with the bare apartments of the boys, where they hardly spend any time. ‘The electricity meter must be broken,’ says a landlord. ‘Because you don’t seem to use any power.’
Film details
- Country of production
- China
- Year
- 2011
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2011
- Length
- 75"
- Medium/Format
- HDcam
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