By Casey Corridor and Kevin Krolicki

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) – One of many largest films to hit China’s cinemas this summer season tackles a number of of its largest financial ache factors: an unsure job market, downward mobility and the hardscrabble lifetime of thousands and thousands working gig jobs.

“Upstream” tells the story of a middle-aged programmer who’s laid off, shut out of white-collar jobs due to his age and pushed into the perilous food-delivery gig financial system to attempt to maintain his household afloat.

Directed by and starring Xu Zheng, greatest identified for comedian roles, “Upstream” showcases the low-paid scooter drivers who rush packages via the ultimate mile for China’s widespread on-demand meals platforms led by Meituan.

As of Tuesday, virtually 5 million had watched it, in accordance with movie-ticketing platform Maoyan.

The film, which led China’s field workplace on its launch Friday, lands at a time when uncertainty in a deflationary financial system and real-life pressures on supply drivers have each been trending issues.

Its concentrate on financial points contrasts with the everyday genres of Chinese language blockbusters through the years, that are often battle movies, historic dramas or romances.

Not less than 10 million supply drivers work for Meituan and its largest rival, Alibaba-owned Ele.me. Drivers have complained of lengthy hours and fee per supply that’s usually lower than the equal of $1.

In “Upstream,” competitors between the drivers and platforms is depicted as unrelenting, leaving no time for breaks and creating incentives to take harmful shortcuts in days that may stretch 14 hours or longer.

“It’s a rather realistic depiction of the psyche of many Chinese people today,” mentioned Ashley Dudarenok, founding father of a Hong Kong-based advertising consultancy, who mentioned the present negativity is a distinction to the temper of a decade in the past.

“There was this strong underlying belief that tomorrow is going to be better than today, the economy is going to be better, opportunities are going to be better,” mentioned Dudarenok, who has authored books on Chinese language enterprise and shopper developments. “Today that belief is not there.”

Whereas the businesses the drivers work for in “Upstream” are by no means explicitly recognized, they put on canary-yellow helmets and uniforms that carefully resemble Meituan’s branding.

A Meituan spokesman mentioned the corporate was not concerned within the film and provided no touch upon its depiction of the business when requested by Reuters.

A movie subsidiary of Alibaba (NYSE:) is listed among the many 17 manufacturing firms behind “Upstream.” Drivers within the light-blue uniforms of Alibaba’s Ele.me service seem however are outdoors the primary motion and likewise not explicitly recognized by the corporate they work for. Alibaba didn’t instantly remark.

CRASHES AND CLASHES

Xu’s character, Gao Zhilei, and two different drivers are hit by autos as they race to keep away from late-delivery penalties and maintain up with robotic orders from an app piped via their cellphones.

And Gao struggles to grasp his lack of standing. Stopped by a safety guard for making an attempt to enter a mall via the primary entrance, he protests that he used to buy there till not too long ago. “That was before,” the guard says, pointing him to the service entrance.

Clashes between dashing drivers and safety guards are widespread on China’s streets. On Monday, police in Hangzhou mentioned they had been investigating an incident the place a driver jumped a barrier to make a supply at an workplace advanced and ended up kneeling beside the safety guard who apprehended him. Studies of his remedy sparked sharp on-line response.

Xu didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark via his manufacturing firm. He mentioned on the premiere he had tried to “convey hope and warmth” by permitting audiences to “see what a day in the life of a delivery worker is like.”

Some on-line evaluations praised “Upstream” for addressing a social concern of a form not usually highlighted by current movies in China, that are topic to censorship. “It’s quite bold to tackle this subject,” one viewer mentioned on Douban, a Chinese language on-line film database that’s much like IMDb.

“This shows hard work alone won’t necessarily lead to a better life,” one other wrote. “Avoiding marriage, not having children and not buying a house might be the only way to achieve it.”

Others had been unimpressed by a contented ending, which exhibits Gao heroically sprinting to make sufficient deliveries to cowl overdue mortgage funds. “In order to make the movie more ‘entertaining’ some authenticity has been sacrificed,” mentioned a overview on social media platform Xiahongshu.

Supply drivers interviewed by Reuters in Shanghai mentioned that they had no plans to pay to see the film in theatres however may stream the movie when it is free on-line.

“It’s not an industry for a normal person,” mentioned a 37-year-old driver who requested to be recognized solely by his surname, Lin. “You have to race against time. Sometimes in the last minute or two before an order is overdue, you are racing with your life.”