Dragon Boys: Canadian Asian Gang Drama

[kimpossible]

Canadian YWers will have to keep us posted on whether or not it sucks. I'm sorta having Vanishing Son flashbacks as I read the plotlines.

CBC NEWS RELEASE
November 4, 2005

PRODUCTION BEGINS ON CBC MINISERIES “DRAGON BOYS” STARRING BYRON MANN, STEPH SONG, TZI MA AND ERIC TSANG, DIRECTED BY JERRY CICCORITTI

Featuring one of the most star-studded casts ever assembled for a Canadian production, DRAGON BOYS, a four-hour mini-series for CBC Television, is currently filming in and around Vancouver.

Byron Mann, Steph Song, Tzi Ma, Lawrence Chou and Eric Tsang star in DRAGON BOYS, an extraordinary human drama which centres on a Chinese Canadian RCMP detective and an immigrant family who confront a deadly threat from Asian organized crime. DRAGON BOYS is written by Ian Weir and directed by Jerry Ciccoritti. Ian Weir and Michael Chechik are executive producers; Howard Dancyger is producer.

Set in Richmond and Vancouver, British Columbia, DRAGON BOYS is both compelling family drama and a high-octane thriller that weaves together four stories that evoke a rich tapestry of contemporary West Coast life.

Byron Mann (Red Corner, Catwoman) stars as RCMP Detective Tommy Jiang who sees a chance to bring down senior gangsters (Eric Tsang, Lawrence Chou) by turning one of them against the others. But as he’s drawn into a high-stakes game of bluff and double-bluff, he risks losing everything as he faces an irrevocable choice about who he is and how far he is willing to go.

Since emigrating from China, Henry Wah (Tzi Ma, The Quiet American) and his wife (Christina Ma, Long Life, Prosperity and Happiness) have worked doggedly to build a life for themselves, but in the process he has grown distant from his son, Jason (Simon Wong). Now 17 and the target of racial bullying, Jason is helped by a Chinese-Canadian student with gang connections. When a robbery goes horrifically wrong, Jason runs for his life and Henry desperately tries to save him.

A factory worker in southern Cambodia, Chavy Pahn (Steph Song, Everything’s Gone Green), arranges for documents and a plane ticket to Vancouver. But instead of a modelling career, she discovers she’s trapped with no friends, no passport and no way to pay off a $30,000 debt. Warehoused with 10 other girls and forced into prostitution, she sees a chance for escape when she catches the eye of a much-feared gang enforcer (Darryl Quon), the most dangerous man she will ever meet.

Examining the tensions and complexities within the multi-ethnic fabric of contemporary Vancouver, DRAGON BOYS explores the immigrant experience, social dislocation, generational conflict within families and personal and cultural identity. Based on meticulous research, it opens a window onto the world of Asian organized crime in West Coast Canada. It also examines how the impact of organized crime ripples through the wider community, both in terms of the social and economic toll it takes and the stereotypes it propagates.

One of the most celebrated stars in Asia, Eric Tsang stars as crime boss William Lok. Tsang has appeared in some 150 films, including the Hong Kong box-office sensation Infernal Affairs. His son, Derek Tsang, is also journeying from Hong Kong to play a key role.

“The cast is well beyond anything we dared to hope for when we started this process,” says Ian Weir. “The local Asian-Canadian acting pool has grown tremendously rich and deep over the past decade and, in addition, the project has attracted international stars.”

The creative team behind the camera is as stellar as the cast. Director Jerry Ciccoritti (Shania, Trudeau, The Many Trials of One Jane Doe) has won a slate of awards, including seven Geminis for Best Director. Writer and executive producer Ian Weir is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter and creator of the long-running teen drama, Edgemont. President of Omni Film Productions, executive producer Michael Chechik’s many credits include Edgemont, Champions of the Wild and The Odyssey.

DRAGON BOYS is produced by Anchor Point Pictures Inc. in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. DRAGON BOYS will film for 40 days until mid December. The two-part, four-hour mini-series will be broadcast on the CBC on March 12 and 13, 2006

[Leinad]

cool... hope they show it in nz

[SunWuKong]

Canadian YWers will have to keep us posted on whether or not it sucks. I'm sorta having Vanishing Son flashbacks as I read the plotlines.

i watched one episode of Vanishing Son. i cringed at the way Russell Wong was playing the cello, or acting like he was playing it, at any rate. i don't mind that his fingering is all wrong, because the soundtrack is usually laid down later. but he couldn't even keep his bow perpendicular to the strings and on part of the strings where the bow is supposed to be. at the very least somebody could have corrected him.

[teknoluv]

Thanks for the heads up, will mark it in my calendar. Looking forward to it. :)

[Faithless]

Is it Vanishing Son meets the Sopranos?

They're still talking about Dragon Boys in Canada. This article tries to make a point of mentioning how director Ian Weir has gone out of his way to make this authentic.

Weir dug deeper and spoke to community leaders, rode with the Richmond RCMP gang squad, and brought in Chinese-Canadian advisers.

And when the actors were hired, he let them shape the characters.

"When I first read the script, it was more generic. We've put a lot of time into making it more authentic," said Mann.

In fact, the line about the noodle recipes and the railroad came from a real cop who has been working as a consultant.

"I actually called him up . . . and said, 'What would you say in this environment,' " Mann said.

Mann isn't a household name in the white world, but he and many of the show's other stars constantly appear in Vancouver's Chinese language media outlets.

Filming in a suburban Asian mall, he was mobbed by fans.

"This, quite frankly, is a cast far above the level of anything you could expect to get on a Canadian television production. We were in this mall shooting and in the video store, there's a huge poster of Byron promoting his latest movie. Everyone in the mall wanted to talk to him," said Weir.

Asian crime drama Dragon Boys aims for realistic depiction of race relations (http://www.cjad.com/content/cp_article.asp?id=/global_feeds/CanadianPress/EntertainmentNews/e120729A.htm)

Updated at 13:46 on December 7, 2005, EST.

VANCOUVER (CP) - An edgy CBC show about Asian organized crime in British Columbia is trying to take race relations to a new level of realism on Canada's small screen.

Shooting in Vancouver, star Byron Mann says Dragon Boys goes well beyond what most TV productions deliver. "Usually, the race issue is tiptoed around very cautiously," said Mann, who plays a Chinese-Canadian RCMP detective trying to bring down a senior gang leader.

Or it's serious, painful and dramatic, he added.

In the multi-plot Dragon Boys, cops casually crack racial jokes.

"In one scene, the police superintendent gives me a pep talk," says Mann (Red Corner, Catwoman). "My Caucasian partner asks me what it's about. He says, 'So, what were you and the superintendent talking about? Trading noodle recipes?'

"I say 'No, we were trying to come up with a way to convince you guys to build us a railroad.' "

Mann says that's how people on the street, and people from different cultures who work long days with each other, actually speak.

The stories in Dragon Boys are also real, says writer Ian Weir (Edgemont).

The show, directed by Jerry Ciccoritti (Shania, Trudeau), weaves together the lives of Asian-Canadians living in B.C.'s Lower Mainland. One story focuses on a family: the son has been targeted by young criminals and his father struggles to connect with him.

Another plot involves a Cambodian woman who is an illegal immigrant, trapped working as a prostitute in a massage parlour.

Other subplots intersect these dramas, which all come together in the style of the thriller Traffic, says Mann.

Weir said CBC jumped on the project immediately, excited to see a drama driven by Asian-Canadians.

"They are here and on the street, but they're not represented on TV in the same way," he said.

Celebrated Asian star Eric Tsang, who has appeared in about 150 films, plays a crime boss, while his son Derek Tsang has also come from Hong Kong to act in the drama.

"I was absolutely blown away by the reaction from really big Asian stars who have just flown so far to do this," says Weir. "They are saying to me, this is the role I've been waiting for my whole life."

The two-part four-hour drama, which will air on CBC next September, presents Asians in lead roles very different from than the minor stereotypical characters that pepper North American TV today.

Weir, who's white, asked his Chinese-Canadian friends to help him draw the characters.

"My friend Derek said, 'I grew up in North Vancouver, I'm just as white as you are,' " Weir said.

"But as we kept talking he started remembering things. He remembered being on the bus one day and having an elderly Caucasian man sit down beside him and start speaking Cantonese, thinking Derek would be pleased.

"Derek said, 'Sorry man, I'm from North Vancouver, I don't speak Cantonese.' "

Weir dug deeper and spoke to community leaders, rode with the Richmond RCMP gang squad, and brought in Chinese-Canadian advisers.

And when the actors were hired, he let them shape the characters.

"When I first read the script, it was more generic. We've put a lot of time into making it more authentic," said Mann.

In fact, the line about the noodle recipes and the railroad came from a real cop who has been working as a consultant.

"I actually called him up . . . and said, 'What would you say in this environment,' " Mann said.

Mann isn't a household name in the white world, but he and many of the show's other stars constantly appear in Vancouver's Chinese language media outlets.

Filming in a suburban Asian mall, he was mobbed by fans.

"This, quite frankly, is a cast far above the level of anything you could expect to get on a Canadian television production. We were in this mall shooting and in the video store, there's a huge poster of Byron promoting his latest movie. Everyone in the mall wanted to talk to him," said Weir.

Dragon Boys is produced by Anchor Point Pictures with the CBC.

[Faithless]

Airing soon in Canada (http://www.canada.com/topics/entertainment/story.html?id=ab96ea7f-d384-4289-bd89-449ae479b0b2&k=39524)?

"It is a total gem, and everyone knew it was a gem while we were making it," says Mann, who plays RCMP Det. Tommy Jiang in the edge-of-your-seat two-part miniseries airing Sunday, Jan. 7 and Monday, Jan. 8 at 8 p.m. EST.

[sageb1]

Hmmph.

When they did the last movie about JC issei and nisei and a few sanseis in internment camp, very few local actors went into it.

i don't even know *any* local JC actors.

*idea*
maybe I should become a JC actor.

[sageb1]

i'd love to do a re enactment of the Ontario prison camp when the canadian army boys sprayed the camp with machine gun fire.

that incident scared some nissei boys so much they asked to be returned to BC to the internment camps of their families.

the reason for being in angler: a riot that was instigated by the BC gov't by keeping them too long in too small of a space.