First-time director Jing Wang sees the pain that his mentor Jia Zhangke has experienced on the movie set as motivation for his filmmaking journey. The perfection, precision and attention to details…
on Sept. 9 before playing at the Toronto Film Festival later in the month, is the result of Wang putting Jia’s principles into practice. Set in the 2003 aftermath of the SARS epidemic, the thriller follows an ambitious young reporter who was investigating forged medical screenings for Hepatitis B carriers, who were heavily discriminated against in the society at the time because of misinformation about the disease.
While the film could be reminiscent of “Spotlight” and the timing of release coincidentally strikes a chord with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Wang says the film is about looking at society through the lens of a journalist, inspired by real stories that he learnt through the connections of Tang Yan, a former news media chief editor and one of the film’s executive producers . The life experiences of Han Fudong, the former chief reporter of the Southern Metropolis Daily, became the blueprint of Wang’s script. And Han Dong is the name of the lead character in Wang’s film. “His life story is the most dramatic and remarkable among all the reporters I have encountered,” says the Shangxi native, who was trained at the Beijing Film Academy. “A courageous and passionate small-town young man who embarked on a journey to become one of the most important journalists in China 17 years ago — it’s the kind of story that could exist only in that era. People back then aspired for a better tomorrow. They believed that changes were possible, and the power of individuals.” Through reading Han’s writings during his research, Wang discovered the topic of the Hepatitis B carriers from one of Han’s articles, from which he saw Han projecting his personal experiences and emotions onto the reportage he has written, just like filmmakers do in their movies. “This film tells a story about refusing to be beaten, as well as the right and courage to say no,” Wang says. “Han Dong is an important character not only in the film, but also in my life, because it symbolizes what kind of world that we and our children will live in.”
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