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 the 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 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 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
the name was actually completely erased during the creation process and promotion stage. The
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 under the name of a “reality 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.
