Curaj versus cenzură: în culisele filmului „The Unrestricted War”

One of our lead actors actually received so much pressure so he has to withdraw three days before the shooting. That's just never happened in the film industry. He actually has a friend working for a government agency that called him to go home. Otherwise the Chinese government is going to go after you. You will be in serious danger. But I'm just giving you an example of how hard it is to make a film like that. It's not only for Chinese. It's even for Westerners. It's the same thing. Our PEWI innovator today is Yan Ma, director and co-writer of the new feature film, The Unrestricted War. Set against the turbulent early days of the pandemic, the film weaves together themes of censorship, fear and global power struggles, while also highlighting the extraordinary strength of compassion and selflessness. In this episode, Yan shares the real-life stories that inspire the film, the immense challenges his team faced under intense pressure, and why he chose to risk his own safety to bring this powerful story to the screen. This is Bay Area Innovators and I'm your host, Steve Espas. Yan, welcome to Bay Area Innovators. Thank you for having me. Great to have you here. We have you here from Toronto, Canada. So welcome to our program. I just watched your movie. It's your first feature film, The Unrestricted War. And I watched it twice and I was very impressed. So I'm very excited to be able to talk to you about this movie that has just been released in Canada and in the US for that matter. We don't want to reveal the whole plot, of course, but it's mainly about a Canadian virologist who is in China. He's doing great. He has a fantastic family. He's having a company. Everything is going great. And then all of a sudden, things change. He's being threatened by the Chinese government to steal a sample of his own lab. A sample from his own lab. Please tell us a bit about the plot itself, as much as you can reveal. But most importantly, how did you get inspired to do this story? Like you said, it's talking about a biologist escaping the country. And this film, the background of the story is actually the pandemic. So we mainly focus on the first 30 to 40 days of the pandemic. So that was the story background. We want to see how the protagonist and his family try to escape this very dangerous situation, very chaotic situation. And for the film, it was inspired by the pandemic itself. So we were mainly focused on the beginning of how it started. So we wanted to reflect on how this happened. How the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party, used its power to weaponize this crisis for its political purpose. How they censored the information, manipulated the public, and eventually turned this local crisis into a global pandemic. Yes, and the use of soft power, we'll talk about that in a minute. Now, how much of the story is fictional and how much is true? Because I know there's some elements, some whistleblowers that are actually true things that happened. So what's fictional, what's true? That's a great question. I got to ask a lot about how much is true in the story. Let's see this. This story, we carefully studied the events, and a lot of the information is very hard to find. Because, as you know, in the environment in China, a lot of information is actually censored by the government. And many whistleblowers and even related people are actually silenced. So we have to do investigations and research around this. So the whole story, I mean the whole movie, is grounded in a lot of research. But it is a fictional film. But the message behind the story, I believe, is very real. So I hope that answers your question. Again, we don't want to reveal too much of the plot. But from seeing it, I know a lot of the things actually are true events that happened. Now, let's talk about a bit the movie itself. For me, I see there's a few different kinds of movies. There's a kind of movie that's entertaining throughout, that you have fun during seeing it in the theater. Then you walk out, you go home, you forgot everything about the movie. And there are movies that are educational. You learn things, and then you remember them for a long time. But then there are some movies that there are parts of it. There's a scene or something that happens that almost hits you, like a piece of wood on your head. That wakes you up and says, wow, this is amazing. And then you may remember that for the rest of your life. And the top two movies in the world are considered to be Citizen Kane and Casablanca. And in both of these movies, there are these elements that something happens that you did not expect. And it makes it very amazing to continue on. And it's what makes these movies, I think, at the top. And I think that your movie has these elements in addition to the entertaining part throughout. And that makes it, in my opinion, deserves an Oscar. Tell us about how you thought about creating these elements. And some could be the soft part that's being used. Some are things that we're not going to mention because we want people to see the movie. But tell us more background of your thoughts, how you created the script. Well, like I mentioned, the script is grounded on a lot of research. And during we look into the pandemic, especially the beginning of the pandemic and some related events, we actually realized something, which is all this, like the scenes they did, the related events and the scenes they did in the pandemic, they're actually highly aligned with a military concept called the unrestricted warfare. That is actually where the name of the film comes from. This unrestricted warfare is a military concept brought up by two PLA, People's Liberation Army, colonels. They basically encourage China, encourage the CCP to use all means necessary, all set of the traditional warfare to defeat their enemies. So that's why nowadays we have the economic warfare. We have the Internet, the cyber warfare. We have the political warfare, you know, all kinds of. So it's kind of beyond our traditional understanding of a war. I mean, to most of our audience, we feel a war is happening on battlegrounds between soldiers. But that's no longer the case anymore. This invisible warfare actually happens every field in our life, especially considering how close we are tied to China at the moment. So a lot of this information actually inspired me. I mean, I find along the way it actually inspired me to put this into the plot. So, yeah, so we keep it entertaining, but also it actually has meaning for our reality. Now, like you said, many times when we think of the coercion and the war, warfare, we think of either torture or violence in some way. But in this movie, it really shows how the CCP, in this case, uses the soft power to pressure people, to make people do what they don't want to do, something bad, through the soft power, through appealing to their families or fame or money, or if nothing else works, then they go to worse extents. How was this received in the Chinese community in Canada? How is this movie perceived? Well, I have to say it's actually surprisingly well. I mean, so we actually released in the theaters, a nationwide theatrical release we had. And after I run into a lot of audience, and many of them are actually Chinese, because, again, this is something I think Chinese people want to talk about, but they want to talk about, but they don't, they just need to have someone, to have the courage, to stand up to, you know, to the CCP and tell a story like this. But deep down, they actually, I think they really appreciate it. Because when I run into one audience, she was actually a nurse back in the pandemic. She just arrived in Canada, and she told me that, she said, everything we portrayed in the film is actually real. I mean, the reality is only worse than what happened in the film. So basically, they were, all the girls were like, shaved their heads. They went to stay in hospital 24-7. It was chaotic. They are short on supplies and staff. Hospitals filled with patients are dying. And on the news, nothing happened. On the TV, everything's fine. So she was like this. Everything felt so unreal when she was in there. And her family suffers through the lockdown and everything. So when they arrived in Canada, they told me that, you know, everything we said in the film is actually true. They lived through it. They lived through it as a nurse in the hospital. So, you know, that's what I'm saying. For a lot of Chinese people, when they see things like this, I would say, even a lot of people, they are too scared to talk about it. But deep down, they will appreciate it. I think they appreciate it. There's also some element in the movie of selflessness. And to me, this is such a crucial part. And we'll play a short clip here. The only way to help the people is to give them the truth, allowing them to decide what they want for themselves. No future can be built upon lies. One of the characters, Andrew, is telling Sophie, another character, how by telling her the truth, it's going to help to make people make the right decision, why truth is so important, for making people making the right decision. And he has nothing to gain from it. And again, this reminds me of the movie Casablanca. At the very end, it shows this act of selflessness, where Rick is not going with Ilsa, you know, to run to the U.S., but he lets her go with her husband. It's an act of selflessness. If that movie, I think, was made with him going with her, it would probably be a top 100 or maybe top 500 movie. But that element itself, it shows a huge act of selflessness, how people care about someone else or for a bigger cause rather than themselves, made a huge differentiation, making it the second best movie. I feel you showed that at least in a few cases. And again, that comes from your own experience, or how did you come up with those scenes? When I was studying some of the real individuals, a lot of the characters in the film is actually based on the real individuals, including the whistleblower of the pandemic, Dr. Lee, and also some citizen reporters that risked their lives to enter the city and to deliver the true news to the world. So they have to break through the censorship through the authoritarian government. That is very difficult because the whole city is surrounded by police and armies. I was inspired by a lot of those individuals. They actually gave me courage, too, because I've been working on these projects. As a Chinese-Canadian filmmaker, we knew in the beginning that we were going to face a lot of challenges and threats, even threats, real threats. Those real individuals actually encouraged me to finish this project. Like I said, it is the most valuable thing, I think, that we should cherish as humankind. I mean, nowadays in our cultural environment, I think it's getting harder and harder for people to treasure this kind of value because we are more focused on individual feelings, our personal feelings. But sometimes in some critical moments, those values really mean a lot. They really create a difference for all of us. So we need to find the courage to do the right thing sometimes. There are other parts where the power of compassion also seems like it's melting steel and is able to make breakthroughs that otherwise would not be possible. Please tell us about the difficulties you had in making the film and then bringing it to the public. Right from the beginning, because I talked to my producers at the very beginning, that making a film like that has got to put us in a lot of trouble. Because we have many crew members that are Chinese. They still have family members in China, including myself. Because in this movie, you're not only exposing the crimes of the Chinese regime, but you're exposing their dirty secrets. You're exposing how they do these crimes. So that's why I think it's most dangerous. Yes, it is. All the family members are actually facing a lot of pressure from the CCP. For example, my family members were called to a local government office and threatened by their secret place. They were asked to warn me after the meeting. They know everything about me. They know everything I do here in Canada. One of my immediate family members' income actually got cut off since the beginning of this project. It's almost two years now. It created a very difficult emotional and financial situation for us, especially for Chinese families. It's very, very difficult. That's for me. Even the other crew members, including our actors, it's a very similar situation. One of our lead actors actually received so much pressure that he has to withdraw three days before the shooting. That's just never happened in the film industry. Everything was customized. All the wardrobe and everything is ready. Three days before the shooting, he just can't stand the pressure anymore because his family all get so nervous. He actually has a friend working for a government agency that called him to go home. Otherwise, the Chinese government is going to go after you. You will be in serious danger. He's getting these phone calls in the middle of the night, like 2 a.m., 3 a.m. They call, just no one speaks on the other end. In the end, he just couldn't handle the pressure anymore. He told me that I have to leave. It just created a big chaos, but I don't blame him. For someone who grew up in the free world, I totally understand the kind of pressure he's going to face. The people in the free world don't understand how when you're facing a government like that, that's like one government against the individual. That kind of pressure is huge. It's unimaginable. I had a long conversation with him. I told him, don't feel sorry, don't feel bad, please, because this is not your fault. It's actually the CCP's fault. I'm just giving you an example of how hard it is to make a film like that. It's not only for Chinese. Even for Westerners, it's the same thing. You had to replace the main character three days before shooting. Dylan Bruce did a great job, I think. And Nadia Hata, she's also one of the main characters, did a great job. How did she handle, she happens to be Chinese, how did she handle the role? First of all, she's from Taiwan. She's Chinese, but she's from Taiwan. She's a very brave lady. And Dylan Bruce, too. They actually overcame it. They all worried, they worried a lot. Especially after what happened to the first lead. Everyone was worried. That's why I'm saying that I really appreciate the effort everyone put into the story. It's just amazing how... I guess everyone, in some extent, they were encouraged by the story, too. Like I said, it's not only a story, because this is based on a lot of real individuals. So what they did actually encouraged all of us as well. Now, again, this is your first feature film, which is amazing to come up with such a film. Can you please tell us, why is this important for you? Why was it important for you to create this script, this story and the movie itself? Well, I mean, as a Chinese-Canadian filmmaker, I have the access to the subject, let's see. For a lot of amazing directors in Hollywood, it's going to be very difficult for them to access information behind the subject. Because a lot of them, like I mentioned, they are buried or censored by the Chinese government. So we have to actually go through a lot of investigation to get those information out of China. We have to interview a lot of people to get what really happened, to understand what really happened. So it's very hard for them to access. And for Chinese filmmakers, it's just simply impossible for them to do it, because there are so many brilliant Chinese directors, but they just can't do a film like this. So for me, I feel, and me and my producer as well, that's why we feel responsible to bring this story to light. We need to really reflect on it. Like I mentioned, I think it's important for us to reflect on what happened, so we can prevent it for the future. Because we may not really have a second chance if this happens again. If something worse than COVID happens in the future, if we are not prepared, we may not have a second chance. So that's why I feel like we do really have the responsibility to do this. And hopefully what we do here now, as a starting point, we will encourage more people to, more great directors will do a film like this. COVID is one thing and the pandemic is one thing, but another aspect of the movie that I found was that, pretty much every other day, we hear about some Chinese spy being arrested in the US for revealing information or stealing information technology and taking it to China. Almost every other day, or every day basically. But we don't really know how it happens, or we don't really know what makes those people to do this. And through this movie, we really get a sense, we get a very good sense how they are being threatened and how they are made to do this. Because they get arrested, they're going to be in big trouble, but they still do it. And we really get a sense of how this happens. So I think that that's a very crucial part. Yeah, exactly. That's exactly how the concepts, it fits into the concepts of our risk to the warfare. So it is a warfare that is invisible, but it's actually individuals against a territory in government. So that's why individuals, even a corporation, a company, it will feel so helpless. It feels like they could be manipulated because you are actually against authoritarian regime in a warfare. So that's why it's so hard for us to handle as individuals. So that's exactly the reason we need to be aware of this. And the Western governments need to be more aware of this so they can better protect their citizens and their corporations. Speaking of unrestricted war, I noticed that on IMDb, all of a sudden, there's a lot of negative comments about the movie. First, there's positive, and all of a sudden, one after the other, there's negative comments. Looking at the comments, you tell me more. Have you studied this and where are they coming from? Because it looks pretty strange to me. Yeah, yeah. Mainly, it's just all the negative comments, it happens in one or two days on the last month. So basically, we had a theatrical release. We have some audience reviews. So obviously, those are coming from the Canadian audience in the theaters. So we have a pretty good score as 8.something Batman, right? And then we had an online release in the U.S. on Ganging World. And suddenly, in one day, we have these fake accounts, these cyber warriors, as I call them, cyber warriors from the CCP. So basically, these are one-day-old accounts, just created, and they are starting to read and review this movie. And they only have one reading and one review, and these accounts are one day old. And obviously, they are cyber warriors, right? And again, these are all part of the unrestricted warfare. So it's like a government's effort to hire those people. Because it's not easy to create accounts that go through all these regulations and to do this, right? You need to spend money and manpower to do this. This is how you see a government actually hiring people to do this. And what happens to me, it's the same thing. So making this film is actually like experiencing unrestricted warfare in real life, right? So all this is you witness how authoritarian government uses power to attack you. Even for a film, they will just do that. Yes. What would be your message to the audience, to the audience who sees the film, or who are about to see the movie? What would be your message to them? Well, I hope everyone enjoyed the story. I think it's a very exciting thriller. It's a political thriller, a medical thriller. It's very exciting to watch. And I hope everyone do enjoy the story. And also, like I mentioned, the story is grounded in many research, and based on a lot of real individuals. I think let's reflect on what happened, and hopefully it can help us find the courage to confront what is wrong in the future. And the filming is all done in Canada, right? Yes, it is, all in Canada. There is no way we enter China. That's one of the big difficulties we have to face. But I would say, I have to say this, what surprised me during the filming is we got so much support from the local Chinese community. Even a lot of people are scared. For example, we try to scout the locations. We want to rent some places, a Chinese restaurant. The owners are really scared that the government is going to go after them. So it was very challenging. But we also receive so much support. For example, we get people from the Hong Kong community. We have this Hong Kong protest happening on Hong Kong Street. So basically, we have 200 people from the Hong Kong community just join the background actors for free. They would just say, oh, we don't have to pay us. And we bring our own office, we bring our own signs, because we know exactly what happened, we were there. So we're going to make everything look so authentic. And sometimes we have a community group from some Chinese hiking group, some Chinese Falun Gong practitioner group. There are just so many Chinese communities being so supportive to us. That's why we can fill the streets. Because this is actually a big topic. So we need a lot of background actors in the hospital, on the streets. So we have hundreds of people on the streets in the middle of the night. So they bring their entire family here to work for the film. They are not charging us. So this is the kind of support we receive from the community. I was very surprised, because I was very touched and surprised. That's why I told you in the beginning that making a film like that, I do believe deep down for Chinese people, especially in the recent 15 years, more and more influencers like yourself, that they are delivering this real message, this truth, into the Chinese community. So they are breaking the brainwash system that the CCP built for them. So it's really weakening them. So I think this film, it is really a film about, ultimately it's about weakening, a weakening of the nation, weakening about Chinese people. There's another theme that's pretty much constant through the movie, and I can't help but notice that. It's a theme where people want to do the right thing, but they are being pushed, by the CCP in this case, to do the wrong thing. They're being pressured in so many different ways. So they have to struggle with this. It's either they do something really bad, or they follow their conscience, they do the right thing, but they can lose their family, their job, their career, probably their life. So there's this constant struggle, like how people can choose the right thing. Any thoughts on that? Any comments? Because I think that's a very powerful theme throughout the movie. It has something to do with my personal experience as a Chinese. Because I grew up there in China. I came to Canada when I was 22 years old. So basically, I knew exactly how people were brainwashed since they were kids, and how this systematic control works. The two main things, the means they use to control people, one is hatred, the second is fear. It happens everywhere, in every corner of the Chinese society. So this manipulation, based on hatred and fear, from the kids, we were taught to hate Americans, hate Japanese, hate the Taiwanese, hate whoever says something against the CCP. They try to blame the concept of a government, the CCP government, and China. So whoever criticizes the CCP is actually humiliating China. So this is how they built this hatred in our head since we were young. And the second thing, that's what you were saying, is fear. So they use your families against you, like what they did to my family against me. Even though I'm in Canada already, they still use this to bring fear to me, and hope to crack me. In China, they will use all means necessary to do that. They use their teachers and parents. That's actually what happened in Cultural Revolution. That's exactly how they turned the children to beat up their teachers, their parents. That's how exactly they use fear and hatred to the extreme. I guess what you mentioned, for some of the characters in the film, even the villains in the film, there's no true villains in my opinion. Some of the people are doing really bad things in the Chinese society. In some degree, they are victims too. They are victims of the authoritarian system themselves because they were shaped that way. Because they were brought up in fear and in hatred. And there's so much to lose, and they have to make these choices unbeatingly. And eventually, they shape their life into what it is. And they have to keep the system running by hurting other people. Otherwise, they will face reckoning. It is complicated. It is very sad. No man is innocent, and at the same time, everyone is a victim. And you portrayed this through a character in a movie, The General. I think it's very well done. Jan, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it. It's an amazing movie. I hope a lot of people get to see it. I want to ask you one more thing. If people on this show have questions about the movie, can you tell them that you would answer them? Because they may have questions. It's an amazing movie. Would you be able to answer them? Would you answer to us and we would reply to them in the comments? Yes, absolutely. I'm happy to do that. Fantastic. So if our audience has questions, I have questions. And I think it's, in some ways, a mystery, but at the same time, it's pretty clear. Again, Jan, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it, and we look forward to your next movie. Thank you for having me. Thank you. Thank you for watching another episode of Bay Area Innovators. If you enjoyed this episode and you know someone who should be on our show, please send us an email at sfbay.epochtimes.com. We would love to hear from you. Thank you, and see you next week.