Will Tiao dishes about making of 'Formosa Betrayed'

Tufts alumnus Will Tiao (LA '96) is the writer and star of "Formosa Betrayed," an evocative political thriller that examines conspiracies in the Taiwanese government in the 1980s. Tiao sat down with the Daily to discuss his inspirations for the film, the challenges of bringing an indie film into the public light and the message he hopes to impart on audiences.

Rebecca Santiago: What inspired you to write the film?

Will Tiao: In a lot of ways, it stems back to my days at Tufts. I was an International Relations major, and I founded the Taiwanese Association for Students at Tufts my senior year, back in 1996. Back then, China had lobbed missiles off the coast of Taiwan because Taiwan was having its first democratic presidential election. I held a panel discussion between four different panelists: one who represented the nationalist government in Taiwan at the time, another the pro-independence viewpoint, another who took a mainland Chinese viewpoint and one for the U.S. side. I kind of let them go at it. We were in an auditorium for 250 people, but like 300 people showed up. It was a really vigorous debate, and I remember thinking, "There is really something here. People are really interested in this." And of course, my parents are from Taiwan, and they were political dissidents.

RS: Which parts of the film were based on true-life events?

WT: Actually, all of the events and characters are inspired by actual events. There were student spies from Taiwan who were spying on the other Chinese and Taiwanese students, and some of that spying, which was sanctioned by the government of Taiwan, led to murders. Some of those murders were linked specifically to the Chinese mafia and were eventually linked back to the government in Taiwan. So everything was based on actual events, but we dramatized the situation. We took a number of actual events and we combined them.

RS: What did you hope to get out of making this film? And what do you hope audiences, and Americans in particular, will take away from it?

WT: Well, I think that this issue of Taiwan democracy and independence are something that most Americans are really unfamiliar with, and I think it's very important that they get up to speed.
    Of all the potential flash points with China, the only one that could potentially lead to military conflict between the United States and China is the issue of Taiwan and Taiwan independence. There's over 1,000 missiles pointed at Taiwan right now, and if Taiwan declares [itself] by name or if countries begin to recognize Taiwan, that could provoke China to military conflict. The United States is bound by what's known as the Taiwan Relations Act to help defend Taiwan if it comes under attack. I think most Americans are completely ignorant of this fact.
    The film explores these [issues] in an entertaining way, but we hope that at the end of the day, that not only will [audiences] be entertained, but they'll learn something along the way. And hopefully they'll begin to research on their own, because the movie definitely provokes more questions than it provides answers.

RS: Is there a reason for naming the movie "Formosa Betrayed" instead of "Taiwan Betrayed?"

WT: Yes, actually. Formosa was the name given by Portuguese sailors when they were sailing by Taiwan: "Isla Formosa," beautiful island. Until 1945, Taiwan was actually called Formosa, under Japanese rule. To this day, there are a number of Taiwanese independence activists who would prefer the name Formosa over Taiwan. We thought that it's also kind of evocative because a lot of people don't know what Formosa is — is it a person, is it a woman? You know, what is Formosa?  And we liked that.

RS: What were some challenges that arose from working within a modest budget?

WT: The first major challenge to making this movie was financing. I mean, this is not your typical studio movie, so a modest budget is still a whole lot of money to raise. We did it literally without any studio backing; it was all independent financers who invested in the film. The second challenge was the shoot on two continents, in the States and in Asia; that was difficult because we didn't have as much manpower as we would have liked.
    The third major issue that we ran into was getting it distributed into movie theaters. We were very much in danger of [going straight to DVD] because we didn't have any big stars — we didn't have Johnny Depp or Jude Law or anything like that.

RS: What drove you to play Ming?

WT: I originally developed this project for selfish reasons; there aren't a lot of roles for Asian-American actors. So when I came [to Hollywood], I looked at people who I really admired, who had written their way in through [movies like] "Good Will Hunting" (1997) and "Slingblade" (1996). Over the period it took to write the film, my role started getting cut way, way down because I was so focused on producing. [When] my director, Adam Kane, came on board, [he] felt something was missing and came up with the character of Ming. He wanted me to play [him] because he thought we needed someone we could emotionally go with, to feel the Taiwanese journey and to relate to the Taiwanese struggle on a human level.

RS: What's in the future for Formosa Films LLC?

WT: I definitely trend towards movies that have a politically or socially conscious message, so I'm looking at a number of projects right now that fit that mold. I have a project I'm developing based on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, one that's set in Brazil [about] a class struggle, another one that's a cross-cultural love story between a Japanese-American soldier and an Italian woman during World War II. Our hope is that we can become a company that's associated, hopefully, not only with quality material, but also with material that's commercial. But still not what you would see in everyday Hollywood fare.