I spoke too soon about it "being a breeze." Today I wake up at 4 am and realize that my jetlag is catching up with me -- which is problematic since this is going to be my busiest press day -- 5 interviews back-to-back all day long. All I can think is -- pace yourself -- it's going to be a marathon!
First up is the "Happy Radio Network" with host Chia Tek-Khiam. This is what one would call a "deep green" radio station. For those of you not familiar with Taiwanese politics -- the political divide here is associated with two colors -- "blue" and "green." The "pan-blue" side is associated with the Chinese Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT) and is typically considered more "pro-China" in terms of politics and the desire for unification of Taiwan with Mainland China. The "pan-green" side is more associated with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) which is part of the outgrowth of the democratic movement depicted in Formosa Betrayed and is typically associated more with a strong Taiwanese identity and Taiwan independence.
Mr. Chia and his "Happy Radio Network" station are considered "deep green" -- that is to say his program is typically conducted only in Taiwanese language, not Mandarin Chinese -- and his politics reflect that position as well. He has many questions about the politics of the film, and I remind him that this is not a "pan-green" or "pan-blue" film -- it is an American film, told from a "Hollywood" perspective -- and thus cannot be put into the normal paradigm of Taiwanese politics. He admits that he had a Cambodian friend watch the film and came out of it understanding more about Taiwan's history and political situation. We talked about how The Killing Fields did the same thing for Cambodia as Formosa Betrayed is doing for Taiwan.
Next up is "New Talk Web TV" -- this is my first time doing a Web TV newscast. I'm joined by co-producer Echo Lin as well as one of the actors in the film, Danny Yi-Ho Su. Danny was one of the "happy accidents" that came up during filming. For those of you who have seen Formosa Betrayed, the biggest scene in the film is the Kaohsiung riot scene -- meant to be inspired by the Formosa incident -- a democracy demonstration that happened in Kaohsiung in 1979. Originally we had hired a Thai actor of Chinese descent to be the "protest leader" and lead the crowd which such slogans as "Democracy, Human Rights NOW!!!" However, on the day of shooting, our director Adam Kane wanted the actor to say "Taiwan Independence!" He refused -- saying it was "too controversial." Naturally, we fired him.
But then, we didn't have a "protest leader." And this was our biggest scene in the movie -- there were over 1000 people in the scene. Luckily, Echo had been in touch with a DPP tour group which was in Taiwan at the time. She had met Danny before and asked him if he wanted to be in a movie. Luckily for us, he agreed. Many Taiwanese people say that Danny is the most "authentic" Taiwanese actor in the film -- to which we say, "of course, he's not an actor, he's the real thing!"
Afterwards, there are two back-to-back television interviews for Formosa TV. First up is Formosa English TV -- a daily hour-long news program in English with one of Formosa TV's most popular news host -- Jenny Chang. Although she's never lived in the States, her English is impeccable and we get into an interesting conversation about how movies are funded and the future of Asians and Asian-Americans in Hollywood.
Then comes Chang Ray Ling -- with the show "I Love Movies" -- a weekly TV talk show about movies and the people who make them. Chang Ray Ling is the host and the entire interview is done in Mandarin (my part is translated by Echo). She has already done a piece on Formosa Betrayed with the rocker Freddie LIm which airs tonight.
The final interview is with Super FM 98.5 Radio. It used to be an underground radio station when Taiwan was still under martial law -- but is now the largest pro-Taiwan independence radio station in the country. We have a very sweet host named Momo and she is extremely excited about the release of Formosa Betrayed in Taiwan and encourages her listeners to go see the film.
By this point, although I'm totally exhausted, I decide to push through and meet a friend for dinner. He is kind enough afterwards to drive me to the Shi Men Ding district (Taipei's "Times Square") where there is a huge electronic billboard playing movie trailers. Formosa Betrayed's trailer comes up -- next to gigantic billboards of other Hollywood films. I feel like we've made it :)
Till tomorrow....
-Will
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