DRAGON BOYS - WontonGuru approved

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8 full bowls of rice out of 8!

Dragon Boys is scheduled to air on CBC on January 7th and 8th at 8 pm ET/PT

Official Dragon Boys website: www.dragonboys.ca

DRAGON BOYS

Dragon Boys is a high-octane thriller and an extraordinary human drama, and features one of the most star-studded casts ever assembled for a Canadian production. Byron Mann, Steph Song, Tzi Ma, Lawrence Chou and Eric Tsang star in this four-hour CBC mini-series that centers 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 a sensational thrill-ride that weaves together three stories of contemporary West Coast life. Though fictional, it is based on meticulous research. Opening a window onto the world of Asian organized crime in West Coast Canada, the mini-series 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. Along the way, it explores themes relating to the immigrant experience, social dislocation, and personal and cultural identity.

The creative team behind the camera is as stellar as the cast. Director Jerry Ciccoritti (Trudeau, The Many Trials of One Jane Doe) has won a slate of awards, including seven Gemini Awards 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 scheduled to air on CBC on January 7th and 8th at 8 pm ET/PT
Official Dragon Boys website: www.dragonboys.ca

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

When Tzi Ma, the Chinese American actor who starred opposite Michael Caine in The Quiet American and Tom Hanks in The Ladykillers, was first sent the Dragon Boys script, the title page was missing. He read Part One, marvelling at the Asian Canadian writer who must have created it. When he found out the writer was in fact non-Asian Canadian Ian Weir, he was very surprised. The actor and writer had a lengthy telephone discussion, during which the actor offered his insights into the character, even though he had not yet been offered the part.

“I wanted the project to work, whether I was involved or not,” says Ma. The story in Dragon Boys reminded him of his experiences in New York City in the 1970’s, even though it was set in present-day Vancouver. “It rang very true for me,” he says. He’d been a social worker in Chinatown and understood how kids became involved in gangs. “I felt it was the only script that had ever talked about how this affects the victims and families. Normally, in such stories, they only talk about the gangs themselves. There is seldom an opportunity to look into the minds and hearts of the people who are affected. This was telling the other side.”

The only non-Canadian member of the cast, Ma is incredibly passionate about the project. He has strong opinions on how Western media portrays Asian North Americans. “We’re perpetual foreigners, always seen as that, no matter how many generations we’ve been here. We always have the opportunity to play Asians, but very seldom do we get a chance to play Asian Americans – or Canadians.”

Ma feels that Dragon Boys is a seminal project because “it represents us well, giving us three dimensionality and it examines the depth of complexity of who we are as human beings.”

With scads of research, a small army of cultural advisors and an amazing cast of Asian Canadian movie stars, writer Ian Weir and his fellow executive producer Michael Chechik set out to make the most ambitious television project ever about Asian North Americans.

Several years ago, Weir’s fascination with organized crime on the West Coast led him to research Asian organized crime. He read everything he could by Chinese Canadians and Americans. “Very quickly, it became a story about the culture, about human beings rather than crime per se,” he says. “Crime was a way in. Once immersed in that, questions of culture took over.” Weir read many novels by Chinese Canadian writers and thus began the lengthy, two-year process of immersing himself in another culture.

As the story of Dragon Boys came together, Weir worked intensively with two cultural consultants, historian and writer Jim Wong-Chu and journalist/filmmaker Colleen Leung. Also crucial to the development of the miniseries was Corporal David Au, an actual member of the Richmond RCMP Anti-Gang Squad. Au’s work with the production began early on and he worked closely with Byron Mann and the actors playing his fellow officers. “David ensured that the gang/crime and police elements were timely and realistic, and he also provided very valuable cultural feedback,” says Weir.
The production also worked with an array of Cantonese and Cambodian translators. The work of Cantonese translator and co-producer Hoi Bing Mo was key in pre-production as well as during principal photography. She assisted with Cantonese dialogue on set and her presence was required by the producers for many of their overseas calls to Hong Kong. “She was instrumental in some of those negotiations,” Chechik recalls.

The key characters were also developed in close consultation with the actors portraying them, bringing their reality and perspective to the story. Weir spent many hours with Ma and Byron Mann, discussing their characters, backgrounds, opinions and experiences.

“Crime drama works well on television,” says Weir. “It’s simply friendly to the medium. It gives you high stakes and characters in a crucible, having to make decisions, which is when character is revealed. So it’s a fertile backdrop against which to set a human story.”

Weir says Dragon Boys is an intensely personal story for him. “I’ve always been fascinated by questions of self definition. I think we all are. The themes are universal. And as I went along and the characters began emerging, I simply fell in love with them. And once you’ve fallen in love with the characters, you need to tell their story.”

Ian Weir was thrilled with Jerry Ciccoritti’s response to Dragon Boys. “I think he’s the best director in Canada and he was first on our wish list. He responded the same way I did,” Weir says. “He talked very eloquently about how he himself was the child of immigrants. He saw the themes of generational conflict within families, and the defining issues of the child being different from the parents. He was responding to all those things, exactly what I saw as the heart and soul of the script.

“Jerry said, ‘The issue isn’t about being able to deliver a good thriller, it’s what’s the human truth that makes the human story compelling.’ Once I heard him say that, I knew he was perfect. Not merely the best, he also saw the project from the best possible angle.”

For his part, Ciccoritti admits he jumped at the chance to get involved. The child of Italian immigrants, he knew the immigrant experience in Canada. “It’s a fundamental part of my makeup. Almost everything I do, deals with these issues to a greater or lesser degree: the question of identity. There’s a split between here and there, and because of the split, there’s a lack of healing. And until they’re healed, they belong to neither place.”

Ciccoritti says it’s not a Chinese story, it’s a Canadian story. “And there are three cultures in every immigrant situation: the foreign, the landed and the in-between. Dragon Boys is the in-between culture.”

When executive producers Ian Weir and Michael Chechik set out to cast Dragon Boys, they never dreamed they’d end up with a slate of international stars. “The cast is well beyond anything we dared to hope for when we started this process,” says Chechik.

Having cast several projects in Vancouver, they knew of a number of great actors, but wondered how deep the Asian Canadian talent pool was in Vancouver and Toronto. “Our first few casting sessions were punctuated by the sounds of jaws bouncing off tables,” enthuses Weir. “The Asian Canadian acting pool has grown incredibly rich and deep in Vancouver. We could have easily cast the show four times over with tremendous people.”

Television productions don’t usually have access to many people on the level of feature stars. So when Byron Mann’s name came across their desk the executive producers were elated. “He’s a movie star,” says Weir. “It had never occurred to me that someone like him would want to do this.”

Mann loved the script. “It had a lot of heart and a heartbeat, and it didn’t shy away from being realistic,” he says. Mann stars as Tommy Jiang, a detective on the Richmond RCMP Anti-Gang Squad. While Mann feels that many Asians in North American stories are portrayed simplistically or one-dimensionally, he found the characters in Dragon Boys were “portrayed more realistically and sophisticatedly.”

And then Mann’s agent, Andrew Ooi, asked the producers if they would consider Tzi Ma for the role of Henry, the entrepreneur and family man. Weir laughed, sure the star would not accept a role that wasn’t the lead. But the writer and the actor connected via a three-hour telephone conversation, during which Ma offered his perspective on the script and character.

During that fateful phone call, the character and storyline of Henry Wah was reshaped. Weir had not yet written Part Two and with Ma’s input, a major story line for the second half began to emerge.

Needless to say, Ma got the role, and he was delighted to get the part. “I know where the script is coming from: a place that is a lot deeper than someone writing a script per se. There’s a connection, love and compassion about what he’s written.”

Talent agent and co-producer Andrew Ooi was instrumental in helping cast the mini-series. Chechik recalls searching for the actor to play the role of gangster kingpin Willie the Duck. “I told Andrew, ‘What we need is an Asian “Joe Pesci.”’ Andrew said, ‘You want Eric Tsang. Give me half an hour.’” One of the most celebrated stars in Asia, Tsang has appeared in 150 movies, including the Hong Kong box-office sensation Infernal Affairs. Chechik says, “Andrew called back promptly with fantastic news. He said Eric was available and added, ‘Guess what? He’s Canadian!’”

From there, the casting process snowballed. Tsang’s son, hot newcomer Derek Tsang, was also interested, and he was cast as gang member Fox Boy. And his best friend, film star and pop music sensation Lawrence Chou, came on board to star as the ambitious Movie Star. While the Tsangs and Chou all live in Hong Kong, they are Canadian citizens. Both Chou and Derek Tsang attended high school in Vancouver. In fact, with the exception of American Tzi Ma, the entire, star-studded cast of Dragon Boys is Canadian.

“The whole casting process was a wonderful revelation,” says Weir. “The sheer number of wonderful actors we have in Vancouver in the Asian Canadian community. And we have a cast full of international movie stars, which doesn’t happen in Canadian projects.”

Canadian actress and Asian star, Steph Song was recently voted the "#1 Sexiest in the World" by readers of FHM Singapore magazine. In Dragon Boys, Song stars as Chavy Pan, a beautiful young woman who buys her way, illegally, to Canada only to have her dreams of becoming a model shattered by having to work as a prostitute to pay off her debt. While Song was already fluent in English, Hokkien and Spanish, she added a fourth language to her repertoire, learning Cambodian to play the part of Chavy.

“I love my cast,” says director Jerry Ciccoritti. “There’s a lot of kismet. Individually, they’re all great, but when an entire cast coalesces they all vibrate on the same tone, they all fit, and that’s what makes a great movie.”

Ian Weir equates being a dramatist with digging a mine shaft. “You create the shaft for the actor to go into, but it’s the actor who, working with the director, finds the gold.”

Ian Weir discusses the phenomenon of Vancouver’s recent emergence as a world-class Pacific Rim city “as opposed to the essentially small town it was 25 years ago. It was a small, Anglo post-colonial outpost. And more than any other, it’s the Chinese culture which has reshaped that in extraordinarily positive ways. And if you’re looking to tell a story about the West Coast today, you need to look at Chinese culture as an absolutely dominant part of that story because it’s had such a big impact on shaping the community we live in.”

While 10 per cent of the population of British Columbia is Chinese Canadian, Chinese is the mother tongue of 15 per cent of the people living in the Lower Mainland, the area in and around Vancouver. And 60 per cent of the population of Richmond, the large suburb south of Vancouver where Dragon Boys is set, is Chinese Canadian.
Nonetheless, “It’s very rare for Asian Canadian actors to play roles in which we see our private lives,” says Jean Yoon, who plays massage parlour doyenne Belinda Lok. She says that in TV and films, she usually plays “normal, assimilated Asian Canadians: reporters, doctors, nurses, there to advance the plot. It’s unusual to actually be part of the plot, with a beginning, middle and end to my story. It’s very satisfying.”

Weir says he was very heartened to hear from his cast of Chinese Canadian actors that they were thrilled by the project. “For once, it was a project in which all the leads are Asian Canadian, with three dimensional characters with full and compelling lives. As artists, they were being given a chance to do what they as artists do best, which is create vibrant, powerful, strong characters, as opposed to being trapped into the stereotypical secondary and tertiary roles traditionally offered.”

Byron Mann enjoyed his collaboration with Weir. “Ian was open to ideas and suggestions. And he wasn’t afraid to go dark and tell the truth.”

Mann also enjoyed working with Ciccoritti. “Jerry’s very intense and adheres to a high level of creativity and he encourages you to be on that level, too. It’s a very high level of performance and you feel kind of safe. He understands the immigrant experience and family. He understands what these people are going through and what their story’s about.”

Jean Yoon agrees, and was especially impressed by Ciccoritti’s wanting to get together during pre-production. “I had never had a director want to meet before hand to discuss the role and that makes a huge difference. We’re all doing better work than we’re used to doing,” she laughs.


For 40 days, from October through December 2005, Dragon Boys filmed on location in the City of Langley, 40 minutes southeast of Vancouver.

“Dragon Boys is about family and community, but mostly, it’s about love,” says Tzi Ma. “It’s a dangerous script. It has so many characters that are so good and so rewarding to play. I don’t know when the actors will get another chance to play such interesting characters again.”

Dragon Boys is produced by Anchor Point Pictures Inc. with the participation of the Canadian Television Fund, created by the Government of Canada and the Canadian cable industry; Telefilm Canada: Equity Investment Program; and CTF: License Fee Program; in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; with the participation of the Province of British Columbia Film Incentive BC; Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit; the CanWest Western Independent Producers Fund; and the COGECO Program Development Fund. Dragon Boys is produced in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

ABOUT THE CAST

BYRON MANN (Tommy Jiang) first burst onto the Hollywood radar in the action-adventure Streetfighter, starring opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme and the late Raul Julia. A month after Streetfighter wrapped, Mann segued into another starring role in Crying Freeman, an action-thriller cult film based on one of the world's most popular anime comic-book by renowned illustrator Ryoichi Ikegami.

In the courtroom thriller Red Corner, directed by Jon Avnet, Mann starred opposite Richard Gere as a charismatic Beijing princeling who holds the secret to the film's murder mystery. Shortly afterward, Mann played the sexy villain opposite Mark Wahlberg and Chow Yun-Fat in the Oliver Stone-produced cop drama, The Corruptor, directed by James Foley. Returning to his roots, Mann worked for renowned Hong Kong director Tony Ching in Invincible, a state-of-the-art martial arts action film, starring opposite Billy Zane, and produced by Mel Gibson and Jet Li. During that time, Mann also co-starred in James Cameron's hit TV series, Dark Angel, recurring as Detective Matt Sung, a sympathetic detective protecting the series' heroine, played by Jessica Alba.

In early 2003, Mann rejoined director Tony Ching and starred opposite Steven Seagal in Belly of the Beast, playing a CIA operative who risks his life to save Seagal's character in the political thriller set in Thailand. That fall, Mann co-starred with Halley Berry and Sharon Stone in Warner Brothers' Catwoman playing a corporate executive who works with Stone's character to battle against Catwoman. In 2004, Mann starred opposite Oscar-nominee Tom Berenger in Sniper 3, playing a Vietnamese undercover detective who partners with Berenger's character to hunt down a renegade American G.I. in modern-day Ho Chi Minh City. Mann and Berenger develop a father-son relationship through the course of the film. Mann most-recently top-lined the Italian horror film The Counting House, the first co-production between Italy and Hong Kong, directed by well-known Italian commercial director duo Dipertos - Carlo Giudice and Paolo Marcellini. He is currently filming the feature film Blond and Blonder opposite Pamela Anderson and Denise Richards.

A child of a cosmopolitan upbringing, Mann was brought up by an American-Chinese mother and attended a British boarding school in Hong Kong where he spent much of his youth. Having won many theatre awards in high-school, Mann attended the University of California in Los Angeles where he graduated Magna Cum Laude in philosophy with Phi Beta Kappa honours. He then attended law school at the University of Southern California, but soon realized that the legal profession was not his cup of tea. He returned to Hong Kong to soul-search, only to find himself acting in commercials and films there. Within weeks, he was hired for the NBC telefilm The Last Flight Out, which was shot in Thailand and cast out of Hong Kong; the producer of that film suggested that Mann return to Los Angeles where he could study acting and develop as an actor. He took his advice, returned to Los Angeles, and never looked back.

An accomplished martial artist, Mann is fluent in Chinese and has a solid fan base both in Asia and the U.S. He is a championship-calibre tennis player, having won many junior-circuit tennis tournaments. He is also an avid golfer, and resides in Los Angeles, Vancouver and Hong Kong.




STEPH SONG (Chavy Pahn) was recently voted by readers of FHM Singapore as the "#1 Sexiest in the World" on the magazine's list of the 100 Sexiest Women 2006. Other accolades include Singapore’s New Paper heralding her as “the breakout star of 2003.” In just three years, Song has starred in a phenomenal nine TV series and three features. Her sitcom, Achar! was a winner at the New York Worldwide Television Awards, second only to the American comedy, Frasier.

In 2004, Asian FHM readers voted Song as one of the 10 sexiest women in the world. A rough and tumble tomboy at heart, she found that result highly amusing.

Raised in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Steph returned to Canada for the breakthrough role opposite Paulo Costanzo in the feature, Everything’s Gone Green. Penned by author Douglas Coupland, the film is slated for release early next year. She is currently filming the pilot JPod, for CBC Television, also co-written by Douglas Coupland based on his best-selling book. Other upcoming roles include Rogue, starring Jet Li.

For her role in Dragon Boys, Song learned Cambodian from scratch, adding it to her language list of English, Hokkien and Spanish.




TZI MA (Henry Wa) -- An endlessly imaginative and compelling actor, Tzi Ma has created a score of memorable film, television and stage characters. From his recent roles as Hinh, a deadly efficient assassin and nationalist spy masquerading as Michael Caine’s ever-invaluable assistant in The Quiet American, to his hilarious, lit-cigarette swallowing take on The General in Joel and Ethan Coen’s The Ladykillers, Ma always delivers the unexpected.

2005 offered Ma even more opportunities to brand his indelible stamp on widely diverse projects, with a slate of shows including: a multi-episode cliffhanger for the critically acclaimed hit series 24; the inspirational family drama Akeelah & The Bee; Nick Cassavetes’ Alpha Dog; the Indie experimental film by new filmmaker Juwan Chung, Baby, on which Ma also undertook the role of associate producer; an episode of JAG that aired in the spring, and the Indie movie Red Doors, which premieres at the 4th Annual Tribeca Film Festival in New York and was closing film for the L.A. VC Filmfest.

Tzi Ma was born in Hong Kong and raised in New York City. Surrounded by music, diverse cultures and an eclectic lifestyle, he defied tradition to study classical theatre and dance. Drive and versatility resulted in steady stage and film work and since that time he has appeared in such television series as The Practice, Jag, The Bernie Mac Show, Chicago Hope, Millennium, Jake 2.0, Martial Law, ER, Law & Order, Boomtown, as the star of the series Yellowthread Street, and in the popular recurring role of Det. Harold Ng on NYPD Blue. His numerous feature films include Rush Hour, Golden Gate, Dante’s Peak, Rapid Fire, Chain Reaction, and the acclaimed Indie feature Catfish in Black Bean Sauce.

On stage he garnered critical and popular acclaim with his starring role of Master Wang/Sammy Fong in the revised version of Flower Drum Song by David Henry Hwang, at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Ma also appeared in two plays written especially for him, The Dance and the Railroad, by Tony award-winning playwright Hwang (M. Butterfly) and In Perpetuity Throughout The Universe by Eric Overmyer.
Ma has received numerous awards and nominations for his work, including the Cine Golden Eagle Award for Best Actor and a Dramalogue Best Choreographer /Best Director Award for The Dance And The Railroad; an Ace Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in the MOW The Forgotten; and a Garland Award nomination for Best Actor, as well as a Los Angeles City Council Citation, for Flower Drum Song. Ma maintains homes in New York and Los Angeles.




CHRISTINA MA (Mae Wah) began her film career on the other side of the camera as a hair and make up designer. She has gone on to appear in a slate of films, television series and theatrical productions.

Ma’s features include Mina Shum’s Long Life, Prosperity and Happiness, Close Call, The White Fox, Kiss the Girls, The Best Revenge and Good-bye Hong Kong. Her numerous television credits include recurring roles on Martial Law, Crossroads Café, Yellowthread Street and The Young and the Restless and guest starring on Poltergeist: The Legacy, Nightman, Madison Heights, Burning Zone, ER, Touched by an Angel, The Profiler and Day of Reckoning. She has starred in an array of plays, including playing the title role in Hanako and Judy in Duke Kahanamoku, both directed by actor Tzi Ma.




LAWRENCE CHOU (Movie Star/Simon Au) -- Born in Hong Kong and raised in Vancouver, Lawrence Chou first developed his strong passion for music when he was a child. With his exceptional vocal talent, Chou won numerous singing contests in Vancouver and eventually earned a record deal with BMG in 1998. With two EPs and three LPs to his name, Chou quickly established himself as one of the brightest young singers in Taiwan, and was awarded the Best Male Newcomer award in 1998 by Channel V - the equivalent of MTV in Asia.

Chou further revealed his musical talent as a producer (or co-producer) on four albums by other artists since 1999 including Mavis Fan's highly acclaimed Jazz album.

Chou made his debut cameo in an omnibus film Hero in Love in 2001 and quickly won the heart of the Hong Kong audience. Immediately afterwards, he collaborated with the film’s director (radio celebrity Gi See Gu Bi) once more and played the lead character in Merry Go Round, earning himself a nomination for Best Newcomer at the Hong Kong Academy Awards 2002. His recent films include the sensational The Eye, A.V. and Dragon Squad.




SIMON WONG (Jason Wah) was born in Hong Kong and moved to Vancouver with his family when he was 10. His first acting job was a recurring role in the Family Channel series, The Adventures of Nilus the Sandman. Since then, Wong has appeared in the horror movie for television, Saint Sinner, been a series regular on Beggars and Choosers, lent his voice to the video game, Rise to Honor, with Jet Li, and been seen in the motion picture Antitrust.

Wong has guest-starred on a slate of episodic television series, including Queer as Folk, Kevin Hill, Da Vinci’s Inquest, Smallville, The Chris Isaak Show, The Twilight Zone, Millennium and he has had recurring roles on Jeremiah and The Immortal.




DARRYL QUON (Sorrows) began his career in the mid-1990s as a stunt performer in Crying Freeman. After a number of industry professionals told him that he had a unique look and screen presence, Quon got himself an agent. Since then, he’s divided his time between acting and stunts, in addition to performing stunt acting roles, which require both skill sets.

As an actor and stunt performer, Quon has appeared in such major features as The Chronicles of Riddick, The Corruptor, Romeo Must Die, I Robot, X Men 2 as well as television shows such as Smallville, Andromeda, Dark Angel and Millennium to name a few.

Born and raised in Vancouver, Quon is considered one of the local industry’s main "wire techs" when it comes to doing Hong Kong style wire stunts. He has practiced an array of martial arts, including kung fu, karate, tae kwon do, kick boxing and muay thai.




ERIC TSANG (William Lok/Willie the Duck) – One of the most celebrated stars in Asia, Eric Tsang is a dramatic actor who has appeared in over 130 movies – he also moonlights as a TV gameshow host. Tsang began his career as a martial arts stuntman in the movies. He then went on to direct such Kung Fu classics as The Challenger and The Loot before establishing himself as one of Hong Kong’s most gifted comedians.
His performance in Peter Chan’s Comrades: Almost A Love Story earned him a Best Supporting Actor trophy at the Hong Kong Film Awards. In 1989, he was cast in director Wayne Wang’s film Eat A Bowl Of Tea, which received a worldwide release. His many acting credits include the Hong Kong and international box office sensation, Infernal Affairs.

The multi-talented Tsang has also written and produced numerous Chinese films.




JEAN YOON (Belinda Lok) is an actor, playwright, writer, theatre artist and arts advocate. Born in Illinois and raised in Toronto, she has lived and worked in Vancouver, Edmonton, Harbin City and Yanji City in North Eastern China, and makes Toronto her home.

Yoon’s screen credits include the social worker June Kim in This is Wonderland, Liang Marlowe in L’Or, Officer Lau in Verdict in Blood, as well as The 9/11 History Project, Train 48, Chasing Cain II: Face, Blue Murder, Odyssey 5 and independent Asian-Canadian films such as Jane Luk’s How to be More Chinese and Jane Kim’s Wide-Eyed.

Yoon is known in the Toronto theatre community as the writer/creator of The Yoko Ono Project, a multimedia performance art comedy, produced by Loud Mouth Asian Babes and Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto 2000, at the Firehall Arts Centre in Vancouver 2001 and published by Broken Jaw Press in 2002. Her comically magical adaptation of a Korean folktale Hongbu & Nolbu: The Tale of the Magic Pumpkins premiered at the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People last spring to great response from Korean and mainstream audiences alike.

She recently returned to the stage in the role of Fumiko Ishioka in the premiere production of Hana’s Suitcase at the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People; and on screen in CBC’s This Is Wonderland.


CHANG TSENG (Mr. Yen) is a major star, respected director, and extravagantly successful producer in his native Hong Kong. After more than 50 years of working in virtually every area of film and television, Chang packed his bags, moved to Canada, and began working as an actor on North American screens, small and large.

Here since 1994, he has landed colourful character roles on such films as Shanghai Noon and Romeo Must Die. Meanwhile, he writes a column for a Vancouver paper, and has a regular spot on Chinese Radio, for which he also does Mandarin language programming. To top it off, he has also authored several non-fiction books.

The Beijing-born actor made a name for himself by starring in what are now considered classics -- The Family and Ming Fong. With new found fame, he moved on to bigger features, Rose Cliff, Romance of Snow Land, Golden Eagle and South Sea Surf. By the late 60s, he forged a deal writing, directing and producing for the Great Wall Movie Entertainment Company. He starred in his directorial debut, The Whirlpool, which sold out in theatres, and he followed this hit by directing a A Pregnant Crisis and The Cuckoo Flower. He also directed documentaries, such as The National Minority Sports Games of China and some travelogue-type films.

His many television credits include Chameleon, March to Tiger Mountain, Reefer Madness, Murdoch Mysteries, Stephen King’s Kingdom Hospital, L’Or and These Arms of Mine. Recent features include Dr. Jeckyl & Mr. Hyde, Cheaters with Mary Tyler Moore and Martin Lawrence, Mina Shum’s Long Life, Prosperity, and Happiness, for which he received a nomination for a 2003 Best Supporting Actor Leo Award, Agent Cody Banks ; The Inlaws with Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks, Rage to Reason, and the Chinese film Bamboo Shoot opposite John Lone and Coco Lee.


DEREK TSANG (Fox Boy) is the son of actor and filmmaker, Eric Tsang. His film credits include A.V., It Had to be You!, The Park and Shadow.


LAUREN LEE SMITH (Kath) was born in Vancouver. At the age of 13, while living in Los Angeles, she was discovered by a fashion scout and thus embarked on a six-year career as a professional model. At 19, when she returned to Vancouver, she began her acting career by being cast in Get Carter. Her television career then took off with MTV’s 2Gether, and the pilot for James Cameron’s Dark Angel.

Her first leading role for television was in the title role of the mini-series, Christy : Choice of the Heart, opposite Diane Ladd. Recently, she has been recurring in SHOWTIME’s The L-Word, and stars in Clement Virgo’s Lie With Me. She’ll next be seen in Terry Zwigoff’s Art School Confidential opposite John Malkovitch.


MICHAEL ADAMTHWAITE (Fat Ass) was born in North York, Toronto, and attended various schools across Canada and in England. While in England, Michael won the role of a streetwise bully in the BBC mini-series Little Lord Fauntleroy. Later, in Victoria, B.C., he participated in community theatre. In 2000, he moved to Vancouver where he has concentrated on film and television.

Recent feature credits include Chaos, Eight Below, Like Mike 2: Streetbal, and Wild Guys, while on television he has appeared in episodes of Stargate SG-1, Kingdom Hospital, Saved, The Evidence, Dead Like Me and Smallville. He also starred as the voice of Colossus on the animated series X-Men: Evolution.

SYNOPSIS

Tommy Jiang (BYRON MANN, Red Corner, Catwoman) is a tough, smart detective on the RCMP Asian Gang Squad, a rising star whose career success stands in stark contrast to strains and tensions in his personal life. When he’s seconded to an elite Task Force in the midst of a community uproar over organized crime, Tommy sees a chance to bring down senior gangsters (ERIC TSANG, Infernal Affairs) by turning one of them against the others. But there are wheels within wheels, and Tommy is soon drawn into a high-stakes game of bluff and double-bluff. As tensions rise, Tommy must grapple with a master manipulator (LAWRENCE CHOU, The Eye) who’s pursuing a ruthless agenda – and with his own conflicted sense of personal and cultural identity. Ultimately, Tommy risks losing everything as he faces an irrevocable choice about who he is and how far he is willing to go.

Henry Wah (TZI MA, The Quiet American) emigrated from China 20 years ago, fell in love, and worked doggedly to build a new life with his wife Mae (CHRISTINA MA, Long Life, Prosperity and Happiness). They’ve finally succeeded in opening their own business, but in the process Henry has grown distant from his son. Now 17, Jason (SIMON WONG) is a vulnerable kid with a chip on his shoulder. The target of racial bullying at school, Jason is helped out by a Chinese-Canadian student with gang connections, and Henry realizes too late what his son is being drawn into. When a robbery goes horrifically wrong, Jason runs for his life, and Henry launches a desperate attempt to save him.

A factory worker in southern Cambodia, Chavy Pahn (STEPH SONG, Everything’s Gone Green) dreamed that she could parlay her good looks into a modeling career, and arranged with a Snakehead for documents and a plane ticket to Vancouver. Arriving, she discovers she’s trapped. With no friends, no passport and no way to pay off a $30,000 debt, she is warehoused with 10 other girls in a one-bedroom apartment and forced to work as a prostitute in a massage parlour owned by the wife (JEAN YOON) of a senior gangster. Chavy sees a chance for escape when she catches the eye of a much-feared gang enforcer whose status could protect her. But it’s a desperate gamble, for Sorrows (DARRYL QUON) is the most dangerous man she will ever meet.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

JERRY CICCORITTI (Director) -- One of Canada’s most provocative and in-demand directors, Jerry Ciccoritti has directed feature films, television movies, and mini-series, and garnered accolades in all mediums over the course of his career. His features have consistently been invited to film festivals throughout the world and, for television, he has been awarded a Gemini for Best Film, seven Gemini Awards for Best Director, two Directors Guild of Canada Awards and a Genie nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

A second-generation Italian-Canadian, Ciccoritti has always made telling Canadian stories, particularly stories that reflect issues of the immigrant experience in Canada, a career priority. He has directed biographies of some of our most influential and inspiring citizens, including the critically acclaimed Trudeau mini-series: with Trudeau, Ciccoritti made exciting and dynamic television about a Canadian for Canadians, and changed the face of home-grown television in the process. In the recent past he directed the adaptation of the beloved novel Lives of the Saints, recounting the personal story of an Italian family that immigrated to Canada; the harrowing true story of a woman’s fight for justice in The Many Trials of One Jane Doe; a true account of the murder of Nancy Eaton; and, most recently for CBC, the emotional bio-pic Shania Twain: A Life in Eight Albums.

Ciccoritti first began working in film in his 20’s, writing and directing low-budget indie horror films including Psycho Girls and Graveyard Shift I and II establishing himself as a genre cult figure.

Ciccoritti turned his hand to television in the early 90’s, where he quickly earned critical acclaim and awards working on projects including The Hitchhiker, La Femme Nikita, CatWalk, Due South, and the groundbreaking mini-series Straight Up I and II. It was his work on television movies, however, that brought him the greatest degree of recognition. Ciccoritti was awarded Gemini Awards for Best Direction for Net Worth (1997), Chasing Cain I: Vows (2001), and for both Trudeau (2002) and The Many Trials of One Jane Doe (2003).

While honing his distinctive style in television, Ciccoritti continued making feature films such as the controversial, Paris, France (1993), a box-office hit and included in the collection “The 50 Most Erotic Films of All Time.” His 1999 feature The Life Before This was selected for the Toronto and Berlin film festivals and earned Catherine O’Hara a Genie Award as Best Supporting Actress. Boy Meets Girl (1998), which also premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, was named Best Film at the Cologne Film Festival.

In 2004 Ciccoritti brought a very personal film, Blood, adapted from the stage play of the same name, to the Toronto International Film Festival. A highly experimental work that challenges notions of singular perception and truth, Blood became a festival favourite, won him a Genie nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay and, most recently won him a Director’s Guild of Canada award nomination for Best Achievement in Direction for a feature film.

Alongside his nomination for Blood, Ciccoritti has also been nominated by the Directors Guild for Best Achievement in Direction in the TV movie/mini-series category, for Lives of the Saints. It is the first time Ciccoritti has been nominated for television and feature film simultaneously; a very fitting acknowledgement for a man who has worked so fluidly in both mediums.

His most recent TV movies include CBC’s Shania: a Life in Eight Chapters, and CTV’s Murder in the Hamptons, which broadcast to record numbers in the US last July.




IAN WEIR (Writer, Executive Producer) is an award-winning screenwriter, playwright and novelist. Prior to Dragon Boys, he was creator and executive producer of the long-running CBC teen drama Edgemont. Other TV credits include more than 100 episodes for nearly two dozen series, ranging from Nothing Too Good For a Cowboy, Cold Squad and Odyssey to ReBoot, Beachcombers and One Life to Live.
Weir's stage plays, which include St. George, Bloody Business and The Idler, have been produced across Canada, as well as in the U.S. and England. Other credits include nine radio plays (three produced by the BBC, and six by the CBC) and three young adult novels. Current screen projects include Troll, a raucous comic mini-series about Death and a never-quite-made-it rock ‘n’ roller, and Reflections of Eden, the Birute Galdikas story. Ian Weir lives in Langley, British Columbia, with his wife Jude and their daughter Amy.




MICHAEL CHECHIK (Executive Producer) has been an independent producer of documentaries, television series and dramatic productions since 1975. Chechik started his career by making environmental films including the award winning Greenpeace - Voyages To Save The Whales. He then executive produced the children's fantasy/adventure television series The Odyssey for CBC. This series has aired in over 60 countries, was nominated for an International Emmy Award and has won numerous awards, including a Gemini for Best Youth Program. Chechik’s work has included several factual television series including Quiet Places, Ancient Clues, and two full commissions for Animal Planet U.S., Spidermania and The Man Who Would Be Moose. He was executive producer and creator of Champions of the Wild for Discovery Canada, a 65-part natural history series filmed world-wide featuring experts in animal research and protection.

More recently, Chechik was the executive producer of 70 episodes of the popular teen drama Edgemont for the CBC, as well as the first season of the hit adult comedy series for CTV, Robson Arms. Other recent productions include the 26-episode high-definition yoga series Namaste and Cantata for the King, an innovative performing arts special for CBC.

Chechik is president of Omni Film Productions, a versatile, growing Vancouver company with a reputation for quality and integrity.