Special Note: Sunday’s Matinee on April 18th will also include a Q & A session with the film’s writer, actor and producer Will Tiao! Join us for the after party at Mai Lee from 7:30pm to 9:00pm.
Political thriller “Formosa Betrayed” has local connections
By: Joe Williams
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Louis and Taiwan are separated by 7,500 miles and countless cultural differences, but a new thriller set on the island formerly known as Formosa might not have happened without local support.
“Formosa Betrayed,” which opens today (4/16) at the AMC Creve Coeur, was financed in large part by investors from Missouri. Will Tiao, a co-producer, co-writer and co-star of the film, told me in a recent interview that about a quarter of the operating budget came from St. Louisans.
Tiao, who was born in Kansas to Taiwanese parents, trained as a cellist and worked in two White Houses before embarking on a film career, connected with potential investors through a local financial services company called the Alvery Bartlett Group. To generate interest, they brought to St. Louis some preliminary footage and star James Van Der Beek, who plays an FBI agent who travels to Taiwan to investigate the murder of a Chinese-American. (Van Der Beek also threw out the first pitch at a Cardinals game.)
Tiao said that although the Taiwanese-American community in St. Louis is relatively small compared to those in coastal cities, it is cohesive–and eager to dispel misinformation about their homeland.
For most of the past 400 years, the tropical island 75 miles east of the Chinese mainland was known as Formosa. It was briefly colonized by the Portugese and Spanish, then was absorbed into the jurisdiction of China’s Fujian province. In the late 19th century, Formosa was claimed by Japan, which controlled it until the end of World War II. After the defeated Japanese were expelled, another invading force took their place: the Chinese Nationalist army of Chiang Kai-shek, which fled across the Formosa Strait in 1949 to escape Mao Zedong’s Red Army, which had prevailed in the Chinese civil war.
Chiang brought a million followers to an island with an existing population of 12 million native Taiwanese (many of whom were of Polynesian, not Chinese descent); yet soon his militaristic Kuominatang (KMT) party seized control of the government.
“Chiang came out of the Triad gangs in Shanghai,” Tiao said, ”so essentially he was a mob boss, and he brought that gangster mentality to Taiwan.”
In “Formosa Betrayed,” Tiao plays an activist in the outlawed pro-democracy movement, whose members were often beaten, jailed or disappeared by the KMT.
“Martial law was only lifted in 1987, so there is still some tension there, and Taiwan has never had what South Africa had, which is a truth and reconciliation commission.”
It also hadn’t had an era of peace to match its half century of prosperity.
“Taiwan is still the one potential military flashpoint between the US and China. There are a thousand nuclear missiles pointed at Taiwan, and although the U.S. no longer recognizes it as a sovereign nation, we are obligated by law to defend Taiwan if it gets attacked. So for Americans, this is an issue that could affect us more than Tibet, or trade policy or China’s internal human rights policies.”
Because of Chinese pressure, only 23 nations now recognize Taiwan’s autonomy, and most of those are small Pacific Island nations whose allegiance was bought with aid money. Mainland China seems to be biding its time, expecting to eventually annex Taiwan the way it did Hong Kong and Macau. But Tiao, 36, doesn’t foresee it happening in his lifetime.
“Taiwan is not like Hong Kong, which is a city directly connected to the Chinese mainland,” Tiao said. ”It’s a country, with its own currency and its own military. I personally doubt that it will ever became part of mainland China. Taiwan has developed a different culture. It’s arguably the free-est democracy in Asia. More than 90 percent of the people vote. And it’s an economic powerhouse. Over 80 percent of the world’s semiconductors are produced there.
“As we say in the movie, China needs Taiwan, but Taiwan doesn’t need China.”
Tiao will be at the Creve Coeur Cinema on Sunday afternoon and answer questions after the screenings at 2:45 and 5:15 p.m.
End Article
Here is another article about the film in today’s St. Louis Post Dispatch!
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/reviews.nsf/movie/story/3B4E65D8093448D78625770500804FAE?OpenDocument
Here is the trailer for “Formosa Betrayed” : http://www.youtube.com/v/2KbAGhECVZE
Watch Formosa Betrayed’s own James Van Der Beek interviewed on Fox Sports Midwest before he throws out the Cardinal’s First Pitch.
Additional Reviews:
http://www.filmcritic.com/reviews/2009/formosa-betrayed/
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100317/REVIEWS/100319985
Residential Mortgage Tools and Small Business Cash Management,
Every third Thursday of the month! Mingle and network with young professionals from a variety of fields. Build your centers of influence. Try out new venues with discounted drinks and foods. Share your ideas for upcoming YAPA activities. Locations change month-to-month. Check the YAPA calendar for updated information and any last minute changes. 
