Private Project

My Love

Dudu and Feifei, a same-sex couple who had been living together in Beijing for six years, find themselves confronting long-standing, unresolved tensions on the eve of their trip.

  • Mengfei Yu
    Director
  • Mengfei Yu
    Writer
  • Mingyue Shu
    Writer
  • Yang Guo
    Producer
  • Yue Cheng
    Key Cast
  • Junyao Wang
    Key Cast
  • Junwei Tan
    Key Cast
  • Wei Chi
    Chief Producer
  • Chao Yang
    Executive Producer
  • Yang Xu
    Director of Photography
  • Junfeng Liu
    Assistant Camera
  • Guogiang Zhang
    Gaffer
  • Xishun Yang
    Lighting Technician
  • Zhongyun Wei
    Sound Engineer
  • Yu Cai
    Recording Assistant
  • Ji Huang
    Editing Guidance
  • Mengfei Yu
    Editing
  • Xuliang Wang
    Sound Design
  • Xuliang Wang
    Audio Mixing
  • Project Type:
    Short, Student
  • Runtime:
    16 minutes 23 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    December 22, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    40,000 CNY
  • Country of Origin:
    China
  • Country of Filming:
    China
  • Language:
    Mandarin Chinese
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.85:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - New York University
Director Biography - Mengfei Yu

Mengfei Yu was born in Beijing in 1996. In 2023, she began her undergraduate studies in Film Production at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. Before formally training as a filmmaker, she spent a year studying Illustration and Photography at the Maryland Institute College of Art in the United States, where she continued to create work across both mediums.

Her debut short film, Auntie, earned a Special Mention Award in the Short Film category at the 12th Dadasaheb Phalke Film Festival in India and was officially selected for the 11th Madrid International Film Festival’s International Short Film category, along with three other festivals. As the producer and a key creative collaborator on the short film Conversion, she saw the work selected for six festivals, including the 2024 Tokyo Lift-Off Film Festival and the 2024 Golden Horse Film Festival.

Yu’s work is deeply rooted in realism, focusing on the intricate dynamics between individuals and society, the self, and others—exploring how these relationships take shape and unfold within physical spaces. Grounded in a realist aesthetic, her films seek to use cinema as a medium to capture complex emotional experiences that intertwine subjective and objective perspectives, creating a strong emotional connection with audiences.

In her writing, Yu often turns her attention to China’s minority groups and middle class, exploring the country’s distinctive social phenomena, the structures that shape them, and the ways individuals strive for self-realisation within these frameworks.

Yu draws significant inspiration from Asian directors such as Lee Chang-dong and Edward Yang, whose works examine East Asian and Chinese societies through rich visual storytelling. Internationally, she looks to the films of the Dardenne brothers and Nuri Bilge Ceylan, building upon their approaches to further investigate cinema’s potential as an expressive and innovative art form.

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Director Statement

In 2022, my same-sex partner and I faced conflicts that felt impossible to resolve. We both believed we had given so much to the relationship, yet we still couldn’t address its core issues. Instead, we fell into a pattern of blaming each other and defending ourselves, as though we were trapped in a cycle we couldn’t break. Adding to this strain was the influence of traditional Chinese values, which place immense importance on marriage and having children. This cultural expectation put our relationship under even greater pressure.

I felt that beyond exploring the topic of intimacy, this was also an opportunity to shed light on the challenges faced by minority groups navigating deeply rooted social norms in China. I wanted to honestly confront my own thoughts about relationships while also offering a candid portrayal of what life looks like for minorities. That’s what motivated me to create this short film.

During production, my partner chose to play herself, further blurring the line between fiction and reality. As I worked on the script and directed the shoot, the two of us found ourselves engaging emotionally with the project in ways we hadn’t expected. It helped us to understand each other more deeply, let go of fixed positions, and experience intimacy in a new light.

The process also gave me a clearer view of the tension between minority groups and mainstream Chinese society. I tried not only to examine the relationship from my own perspective but also to step into the shoes of my parents and heterosexual men and women who feel pressured to marry. Through this film, I hope to encourage greater empathy and understanding between people with different identities and experiences.