Critique of creative labour: indebtedness and subsumption of labour in Hong Kong’s filmmaking industry

Abstract In contrast to the concept of bonded labour or agency labour, we coin the concept of indebted labour to analyse the creative workers in Hong Kong’s filmmaking industry. Unlike bonded labour, which involves forced labour to repay debts, and agency labour, which is a form of mediated labour subcontracted by third parties to work in various industries, the concept of indebted labour refers to a nuanced and interesting labour process that turns free labour, without debts, into a prolonging delayed payment for their labour value. This creates an indebted situation for workers who work but are constantly without pay for months or sometimes years. Critically reviewing the Marxist theory of subsumption of labour, this article analyses how a capital-intensive, avant-garde, and highly specialised film industry creates the most absurd but inevitable form of labour, putting creative workers in a constant indebted situation, a vicious circle of work without pay for a few months and for them to survive, receiving more jobs and more delayed remuneration. Thus, an incessant process of indebted work, constantly owing to the prepaid labour power that sustains the filmmaking industry.