China’s One-child coverage might have resulted in 2015, however the affect of its legacy continues to be being felt by the thousands and thousands (upon thousands and thousands) of people that had been born whereas it was being enforced. Because of quite a lot of elements that embrace meals shortage, sex-selective abortions, and gendered bodily violence, the disproportionate majority of these individuals are boys.
China now has 30 million extra males than girls, which implies that legions of keen twentysomethings are chronically single for ever and ever — topic to a merciless recreation of musical chairs that feels particularly stacked in opposition to working-class youngsters whose rural hometowns had been deserted in the course of the nation’s push in direction of urbanization on the finish of the twentieth century. Within the phrases of Hao, a Chongqing-based courting coach who’s mentored some 3,000 younger males on the fashionable artwork of seduction: “This complete technology grew up with out love.”
That phenomenon is on the coronary heart of Violet Du Feng’s superficial however fascinating “The Courting Recreation,” a documentary whose strengths and weaknesses all too completely mirror the character of the disaster at its core — a disaster that stems from an unlimited confluence of geopolitical points, however expresses itself via the siloed distress of loneliness and longing.
A slick talker who is likely to be confused for one in all his clients if not for some hair gel and a loose-fitting chainmail of performative confidence, Hao is aware of that his workshops supply a band-aid for a gaping wound. He is aware of that purchasing a flashy new shirt from the mall and spamming dozens of ladies on WeChat with the identical corny pick-up line isn’t going to rework his gormless, backwater clientele into in a single day lotharios. It isn’t going to unravel the financial circumstances that put these males at such an excessive drawback, or train them the way to defy the strictures of social immobility. However Hao additionally is aware of that one good date is all it takes to beat the chances, and he’s proud to share his suggestions for gaming the system.
Slender in its purview however more and more unfocused with its consideration, “The Courting Recreation” follows three endearing bumpkins as they submit themselves to the humiliation of Hao’s course. Zhou is a serious-minded 36-year-old who can’t afford a matchmaker on his $600-per-month wage, however is aware of that he’s too outdated to land one of many few bachelorettes from his city. Li looks like a a lot much less tragic case by comparability; a goofy however hyper-obedient 24-year-old with sort eyes and a crooked smile, he informed his mother and father that he was occurring trip as a result of he knew they might by no means approve of his plan.
Twenty-seven-year-old Wu is the least-defined of the lot, however that proves tender in its personal method by the top. He remembers seeing child women deserted on the aspect of the highway when he was rising up, and nothing Hao teaches him looks like it may pierce the skepticism he’s nurtured in his coronary heart since he was a toddler. Why did he even hassle signing up for Hao’s class? Nicely, no person is proof against somewhat fantasy from time to time, least of all in a corporatized metropolis like Chongqing, whose streets are lit by neon indicators that publicize a life these males can’t even afford to think about for themselves.
Hao’s response to the town’s glittering facade is to provide his shoppers a see-thru sheen of their very own, and “The Courting Recreation” is at its handiest when it drills into the connection between the uniquely trendy emphasis on performative id and the indivisibly sincere want for human connection. Feng highlights that relationship by making a palpable disconnect between the flashiness of her movie’s fashion — its interstitial segments adopting the gloss and pop of a contemporary Chinese language rom-com — and the salt-of-the-earth hopelessness of her characters.
For his half, Hao is blissful to emphasize that rigidity at each flip, as each lesson in his course instructs his shoppers to disguise who they’re. Canned WeChat messages are simply the beginning of a technique that approaches courting profiles as a type of efficiency artwork, full with ridiculous photoshoots that discover the boys posing as well-heeled canine homeowners. In a world the place each social media pic is photo-tuned to the purpose of abstraction, in fact there’s a facility that exists only for younger individuals to fabricate false impressions of their very own lives. Our heroes even see a bunch of ladies there doing the identical factor; it will seem to be the right alternative for a meet-cute, however the actuality that it will impose upon the state of affairs is an excessive amount of for any of those singles to bear.
“The Courting Recreation” would quite watch its characters fumble their method via the town than drill into the residual results of such conditioned self-loathing (the scenes the place the boys ask random women so as to add them on WeChat shortly graduate from cringe-inducing schadenfreude to the stuff of a ritualistic shaming ritual), however Feng by no means loses sight of the deception at play. Far and away the movie’s most detailed character, Hao inevitably emerges as a sufferer of his personal bullshit, much less an unsympathetic con man than a dyed-in-the-wool believer.
For the entire documentary’s half-hearted makes an attempt to broaden its scope with detours that discover public love festivals and the rise of digital boyfriends (amongst different issues), “The Courting Recreation” by no means feels extra complete than when it unpacks Hao’s private baggage. First we meet his spouse, a courting coach of a really totally different stripe — she teaches her shoppers to ditch unrealistic requirements and give attention to enriching their very own souls, and he or she’s rising quite deeply turned off by Hao’s emphasis on Thriller-like pick-up strategies. Later, we comply with Hao on a visit again to his impoverished hometown, the place a dialog with a decidedly offline uncle helps underscore the extent to which the love guru has been mendacity to himself.
“It’s tiring to fake to be any individual else,” one of many boys laments in direction of the top, however what different alternative have they got in a society that continues to disclaim a lot of their intrinsic worth? It’s a heartbreaking query that “The Courting Recreation” is unequipped to reply (a lot because it shrugs in direction of the rewards of self-acceptance), however Feng’s documentary largely refuses to fake in any other case. Unusually upbeat as its last moments are, even when one in all its topics primarily surrenders to the concept he’s too poor for love, the movie by no means forgets that some details are too simple to be obscured by some digital flash and a haircut impressed by actor Nicholas Tse.
Love is likely to be seen as a luxurious in a world the place fundamental sources are all too exhausting to return by, however because the loneliness epidemic widens throughout the twenty first century and folks sink even deeper into themselves, it stands to turn into an more and more correct metric for measuring the true well being of the human financial system.
Grade: B-
“The Courting Recreation” premiered on the 2025 Sundance Movie Pageant. It’s at the moment looking for U.S. distribution.
Wish to keep updated on IndieWire’s movie opinions and significant ideas? Subscribe right here to our newly launched e-newsletter, In Assessment by David Ehrlich, by which our Chief Movie Critic and Head Evaluations Editor rounds up the very best new opinions and streaming picks together with some unique musings — all solely obtainable to subscribers.