The Unrestricted War - Movie Screening at UTSC + Q&A with Film Director

No, thank you. Thank you for having me Well Include the so we've shopped it for Two and a half months And we prepare for three months and it's about Ten months of post-production So yeah, so it's about a year and a half I Think it's building the six-piece. It has this military Compact look Yeah, we have the location manager We all love it and it's actually well as a very famous filming locations in Toronto Campus But the film yes, the film is obviously inspired by the And I was very moved by The story of the Also To me as a as a Chinese film maker This kind of topic is really hard for For filmmakers in China Really have And for a western Filmmakers, it's actually really hard for them to access this topic as well. So this doesn't need to do a lot of research background information Need to understand a lot of background information. So it's just really hard for a western filmmakers to make It's kind of become I guess our responsibility to talk about it We mainly focus on the Beginning of the pandemic so we want to reflect on what really happened It is a fictional story, it's not a documentary, but we did a very Huge amount of research And focus on what really happened on the first month, which is the most critical time for a pandemic to stop a pandemic And we did a lot of research on the resort floor Like you see some of the Espionage activities including scaring the virus from the P4 lab. It's all actually inspired by real events Virus from the P4 lab in Venepe, that actually happened in 2019 to Chinese scientists were trying to smuggle viral samples from the P4 lab to China and they were arrested by the Pennington case Yeah, so that was a lot of real events that actually inspired this story I Think that's really related to the concept of the unrestricted warfare That's the concept to PLA People's Liberation Army's colonel they brought up in the 19 late 90s So this strategy, yeah, it is very We are People in the special people in the West. They're not very for me familiar with this concept and all this bio Warfare is right now even the cyber warfare, you know, all these Economic warfare, right? It's all part of the unrestricted unrestricted warfare this is basically how the PLA colonels were saying that the China is using this this method to Also to use the methods all set of coming traditional warfare to defeat enemies like the United States and They are trying to hide this very well and on the surface So it is kind of hard for people to see because Yes, again, it's not like a traditional warfare. We can't see it. It happens on battlegrounds soldiers And for this kind of invisible warfare, it could really happen beside us right in our workplaces and even online some discussions online Like like the two Chinese scientists we were talking about they were working in the P4 lab in the military and people don't expect that they are actually spies and working for secret Chinese agencies But they actually they are actually part of the unrestricted warfare activity and there's like this kind of Events online as well, right? It's a lot of paid Online users have been shaped public opinions but they actually get paid from the CCP and to Express their opinion on things. So this this is like Yeah, this is something that we don't really say In the traditional warfare, but they are happening and that's exactly why I think this this kind of story is important The more we aware of this kind of activities unless they can harm us Oh Okay. Yeah, we were actually very careful about the information and we know it's a sensitive topic I mean a lot of most of the resource the Research we did is actually Well known by public already, you know, because we don't have a secret access to the government agencies So for example the you know, where was the inspirations the whistleblower doctor In the film now, we all know what happened to him, right? It's always the news during the beginning at the beginning of the pandemic, you know, he He sent out a message to his friends and family and they got explode on the Internet and he was arrested and forced to confess on TV Later on he was released and they admitted there is a pandemic you know, we all remember that nonsense like it could be me and Let's the scientists we were talking about. That's all we're Canadian news that we know how they've been trying to steal and ship the virus all over the country and to Chinese agencies, right and our government actually made announcement So they were arrested and fired obviously by the people at benefit Like we realize that they pause a very serious threat to our national security, so this is actually not it's not something we Hide in the dark is is it's all public information You Yeah About the target audience Yeah, I think I think it's a yes Well, it's a it's a fictional story, yes, it's it's mean for general public I would say because in the beginning Making this film. We kind of know that it's gonna be very challenging for especially for me as a Chinese Because I still have friends and family members in China I know we have an office a lot of pressure But like in the beginning when we were talking about this project We always think that you know after the pandemic You know as Chinese communities. We've been facing so many Misunderstandings right and the hate crime against the communities in increasing after the pandemic So we kind of want to make this film this story to show the people around the world that Chinese people is actually The biggest victim of all this like a lot of really brave and kind kinds people there Unfortunately leaving in this authoritarian regime that they don't really have a choice or have a freedom to express themselves They try to do the right thing, but it's very difficult situation for them to you know make the decision and they may pay the highest price and For ordinary citizens like this suffer the most From what happened inside the country and me personally I lost like family and really close friends like during the pandemic So yeah, so I guess this is film to me. I think the world can can see it It will help I Guess help everyone to understand what happened and why is important because like we We all need to prevent it from happening again And that's the main point You Well Yeah, I guess like for lockdown that's I mean To prevent the pandemic, I guess we have to be transparent in the beginning. That's exactly what we were We were facing in the beginning of this pandemic, right so we kind of Feeding this opaque box operation from the CCP so they arrested the whistleblower the seal of information, so basically the Manipulate this Like House crisis a local public health crisis For their political purposes. This is what to me, this is what actually happened and But eventually the same get out of control it become a global pandemic So I guess the most important thing to me and what we learn like that. We have to have transparent Information we have to have independent investigation and media to During the situation like that otherwise like there's no way to control The virus the spread of the virus. So we yeah, I think that's the most important You Well, I mean for our respective warfare we were talking about earlier I think Just bring this concept to to the light. So more people Realize there is actually This invisible warfare Around us. It's not like a traditional war. It happens on battlefield these soldiers. It's actually could happen anywhere so as long as we start realistic start to realize this and pay attention to those details and I think The less that this strategy can hurt us So I guess for as the regular citizens it's the best thing to do is to I guess spread a word and Let people more and more people Realize this that's I think that's the least we can do You Yeah, so far I mean about for this film like we really Like the research around the the early stage of the COVID-19 From that we know that the PLA people's liberation army has direct control to That that's that's the Something we learned during the research But we didn't let go all set of that event too much to study For But I'm sure there's Secret activities because I know they won't just stop right there. It's gonna we know that The scientists stealing from the people have invented but that's just one people lab. There are so many corporations around the world So, yeah, I think there's a good reason to You Yeah, so we have we have few Producers on this film and we have a lot of Chinese community backups actually surprisingly, we received a lot of support from the Chinese community as you can see that we the number of background actors It's actually really hard to make a film like this in Toronto in Canada because we don't really have that kind of resource Resources here. But yeah, because we get the support from the local Chinese community so this film can actually happen And also we we get support from a local Chinese medias like NTD Television and people times. Those are great. It's been a great support to us during the Producers are mainly Canadian producers They're they're all passionate about the topic. So yeah, this is like a normal like a production team you have to find finance and You know finance through the whole production Process hope you can recoup the money Yeah Yeah, I think that's the that's a great point Actually, I I watched that on the news to and I was actually concerned as well exactly the same exactly the points you were talking about about the electronic the the Trade with China. Yeah, like you said exactly the electronic vehicles are actually different. They are live information collectors they basically can collect all kinds of information on the road and Like that's that's I mean the cameras like on the UV, right? So I think that's something definitely like I was I will really recommend the our government Paying close close attention to to the technology. I think that's as consumers. That's not much we can do Right, but like that's as a garment we can we could actually learn Inspections through this vehicles and all that like You know, so to prevent them I would say prevent them sending critical informations To foreign government that that should be doable. I think technical perspective but yeah, like I I do Feel the same way. Yeah, our government the Canadian army should be careful of this. Yeah, I'm not saying let's talk trade with China I mean China is a big economy like a partner like you can't we can't just cut off everything but I'm just saying that we need to pay extra attention Just like what happened to the minute before lab, right? So we need to we know this happened before and we know well, like There's very big potential risks. So that's why we gotta be extra careful careful about it We should be extra careful about it Anytime