An Arrogant Director Told a Twisted Story

In the current moment of extraordinary prominence of mass culture, cinema has become a  more powerful and influential weapon than any other traditional culture. But what if someone  exploits this culture and misinterprets the story through his or her own lens?  

Leon Lee, is a Canadian filmmaker of Chinese origin, who writes and directs films related to  social issues, his latest productions, Human Harvest and Unsilenced, are independent films  that have had great editorial support from The Epoch Times group. This popular media outlet  is linked to the Falun Gong sect, responsible for some of the darkest episodes in recent U.S.  history, and shares a destabilizing vision with organizations such as The Proud Boys, Q-Anon  and Custodians of the Oath.  

During our meetings with Mr. Lee, we discovered that Lee was satisfied with Unsilenced. But  admitted that because of his determination to do what he believes is best for his films, he comes  across as arrogant and aggressive. He said that he was inspired to build the personality of his  main character, Wang, after conversations with Yu Chao and other former Falun Gong  members. He said it was just a fabricated story, inspired to shape the personality of his  protagonist Wang after conversations with Yu Chao and other former Falun Gong members  during the creation of the movie. But the truth is that Yu Chao, who is the prototype of the  main character, does not agree with Li Yunxiang’s portrayal of himself in the movie.  

When asked how the relationship with the prototypes of the protagonists of “The Cry of Silence”  was, Leon said that in order to create a story and a film, it is always necessary to maintain a close  and warm relationship with the prototypes of the story at the beginning to get information, but  later on, as the story was built up, it was necessary to keep a distance from those people.  

Although Leon said, the first time and the film prototype Yu Chao unhappy, is in the editing of the  film to watch, when Yu Chao is not satisfied with the film at all, he thinks the film does not meet  his personal and situation. But in fact, earlier, Leon previously hoped to sign a contract with Yu  Chao “one dollar in exchange for the right to tell Yu Chao’s life in the whole universe”.  

Perhaps because of this, although the prototype of the story is supposed to be Yu Chao, his  name was actually completely erased during the creation process and promotion stage. The  movie became a demonized story, and as a loyal Falun Gong believer, Yu Chao was called a  “spy” by Falun Gong and other believers – all because of Leon’s malicious adaptation of the  story to isolate Yu Chao -Yes, and Yu Chao finally did not get any money, even if it was “one  dollar”.  

Yu Chao was blocked by Falun and net violence by its believers. And when Mr. Yu Chao  expressed his great anger to Leon for the contempt he felt from the beginning and accused him of  benefiting from the so-called friendship and trust relationship, Leon disregarded it and said  frankly: “Yu Chao is very childish and ridiculous. The communication between me and the movie  prototypes is just a starting point, I am not the twin or shadow of those prototypes, so what if Mr.  Yu doesn’t like it? I am the narrator of the story and I am going to stick to my decision.”

At this moment there is no relationship between the two.In order to please Falun Gong to get  publicity and promotion, Leon deliberately erased Yu’s own prototype traces, but Leon did not  care about it, he even said “my story does not have to please everyone”. 

It´s not well that a film in the name of “real documentary” could not get the approval of the  film’s prototype. An arrogant director, telling a twisted story in a self-righteous way, isolates  the gentleman who should have been the protagonist, destroying the life of this prototype  while he receives the accolades.

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