A Film a Week - Unsilenced

 previously published on Asian Movie Pulse

Falun Gong is a new religion movement that originated in the early 90s China during the boom of “qigong” spiritual practices. It declares itself as a non-violent movement with an emphasis on compassion. Its practice consists of meditative exercise sessions and it combines the teachings from Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism with some minor influences of Christianity and Islam. Not all the messages the movement transmits are beyond any doubt (its disapproval of homosexuality and racial or ethnic mixing are especially questionable), and it recently allied itself with various far right organizations and media outlets in the US, which does not shed a nice light on it. Nevertheless, the movement is the best known as a victim of the violent crackdown conducted by the Chinese communist government in 1999 (for being too massive for Party to handle it, therefore threatening the state-imposed Marxist ideology) in which those who practiced Falun Gong were imprisoned, tortured and even executed.

The second feature film of the Chinese-American filmmaker Leon Lee (otherwise more active in the realm of documentaries) called “Unsilenced” is a political thriller based on true events that tries to chronicle the crackdown and the suffering of Falun Gong devotees. It was shown on some minor festivals in the US last year, while this year it saw some limited distribution. 

As film opens at Tsinghua University in Beijing (albeit the movie was mostly filmed in Taiwan), we meet the quartet of university friends who get involved with Falun Gong and get in the trouble when they try to complain against it being outlawed, risking their career prospects and chances for social advancement in process. They are arranged in two couples, with Wang (Wu Ting) and Li (Tao He) taking the role of the main one, while Jin (Shi Chenghao) and Xia (Chen Yingyu) serve as the supporting one. All of them (well, almost) would get in trouble with the law by the end of the film and they collectively serve as one of the three points of view for the audience.

The second point of view belongs to the journalist from Chicago and the veteran of Tienanmen coverage Daniel Davis (Sam Trammell of “True Blood” fame) who stumbles upon the story of the crackdown and tries to push it to his outlet back home, while his bosses are more interested in the efforts made by the official China to enter the World Trade Organization. There is also a hint of romantic relationship going on between him and his assistant / protege Min (Chinese-Canadian actress and activist Anastasia Lin with whom Lee collaborated on his previous illegal organ trade-themed feature “The Bleeding Edge” from 2016), who might be the government’s infiltrated agent. Finally, the third perspective is given to the government represented by the ruthless secretary Yang (Taiwanese actor Wang Tzuchien) who is tasked with the whole crackdown operation.

There is no shortage of the films that problematize the attacks on the human rights performed by the Chinese government and communist party, both in documentary and fiction forms. “Unsilenced” starts as a decently told story that is not that known to the world-wide audience, and it is admirable that it is not completely Western-centric, although it features the well-known cliché of the noble American journalist willing to expose the violation of human rights in an authoritarian country. For a good part of it, it is a highly functional and clearly structured political thriller, highlighted with solid production values, decent cinematography and competently “invisible” directing which, along with the choice to hint at brutality rather than showing it, makes it almost an ideal buy for the TV networks.

The cracks start to show around the half-point and it originate from the screenplay written by Lee, Ty Chan and Jocelyn Tennant. It looks like the trio has run out of the ideas how to picture the crackdown and the struggle by the quartet on one side and Daniel on the other without repetitions, so they decided to raise the stakes. One particular sequence, in which Lee’s water breaks while she tries to escape from the police as she was denounced by the shop owner, seems like an overkill, while all the dramaturgical solutions towards the end are forced. Problems with the dialogue that goes more and more to direction of characters shouting political slogans put the cast under considerable pressure and even some sloppiness regarding the props (cell phones and cars tend not to look like they came from 1999) becomes apparent.

In the end, it is clear that the mission of “Unsilenced” was more political than artistic, with the focus on communicating the message and condemning the authoritarian Chinese government and communist party, which is more than legitimate. But paired with the modest scriptwriting and filmmaking skills of the film’s creative team, it pretty much backfires, seeming transparently fake even when it is not.