China is facing a crisis that is as much about relationships as it is about demographics: marriages are on the decline, the birth rate is plummeting, and nearly 30 million men may never find a wife. In the face of these upheavals, the ways people court, form couples, and even conceive of love are changing rapidly. We attend a mass wedding of 100 couples, entirely funded by a municipality hoping to encourage marriages and births.
Then we head to the countryside, where single men live among themselves, while in the big cities, parents continue to search for partners for their children at massive matchmaking fairs.
Elsewhere, a full-fledged “pretty boys” industry is taking off: muscular men at amusement parks or waiters hired for their looks become attractions for a female clientele. The film also explores new forms of relationships, featuring young women who fall in love with virtual characters and then hire someone to embody them for a few hours of very real dates. And as this evolution continues, Chinese companies are developing humanoid robots equipped with artificial intelligence, designed to become true companions in the future.
From mass weddings to virtual lovers, from rural singles to “pretty boys” and robots, this documentary chronicles—through surprising and very concrete situations—the profound transformation of romantic relationships in China.