Writer seeks investors for Hawai'i film production
By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
Patience brought Consulina Wong to this script showcase in Honolulu.
The actress turned screenwriter and producer stood at the front of the cramped staging area, pages in hand, trading heated lines with a dour Jason Scott Lee. Surrounding them, an audience of about 100 invited guests watched in contemplative silence, eyes drifting occasionally to the darkened rafters in search of images not yet actualized.
The images will become reality — or a reasonable celluloid facsimile — with time and, more importantly, with money. At this time, it is enough that there are words and the voices to carry them.
"We've come a long way," Wong said, "but there's so much more that we have to do."
In a relatively rare event for Hawai'i's nascent film industry, Wong assembled a cast of 14 actors at Kumu Kahua Theatre to read from her ambitious new screenplay, "The Silk Curtain."
The reading was intended to draw attention to the project. Over the coming weeks, Wong and her associates will begin the delicate process of wooing prospective investors for what Wong hopes will be a first for the state — an epic film conceived, nurtured and delivered in Hawai'i.
"The Silk Curtain" is a liberal adaptation of the life of Yehenara, the empress dowager who ruled China for 47 pivotal years at the turn of the 20th century.
Yehenara, akin in spirit and struggle to England's Elizabeth, has fascinated Wong all of her adult life.
"I remember seeing a movie about her when I was 12 years old," Wong said.
"I can't say why I was drawn to her, but my hair stood up and I just knew that one day I would portray her somehow. And this was before I even knew I was going to be an actress."
Yet it wasn't until 1999, after years of film experience in Hong Kong and Hollywood, that Wong felt confident enough to make her premonition come true.
Wong, who grew up in Hong Kong and Hawai'i, had written two previous screenplays while working for Golden Princess Amusement, the company that produced John Woo's first movies, but she'd written nothing as creatively and emotionally demanding as "The Silk Curtain."
Wong spent several months scouring the stacks at Hamilton Library searching for anything she could find about Yehenara. Her sources included the journals of Robert Hart, an Irishman who served the British Consul in China for forty years.
Wong also visited the Forbidden City in Beijing twice and got a close-up look at the quarters where Yehenara resided.
"I met a lot of people working in shops or restaurants in Beijing who have their own stories about the empress," Wong recalled. "They still remember and they speak of her fondly, as if they still miss that era."
The result of Wong's effort is a sprawling story interweaving the life of Yehenara with the political intrigue of the Manchu Court and the turbulent influence of Western imperialism in China.
The screenplay was strong enough to convince Wong's longtime friend Michael Cimino — Oscar-winning director of "The Deer Hunter," "Year of the Dragon" and the ill-fated "Heaven's Gate" — and Philip Lee, producer of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," to sign on as co-producers.
"The minute I finished reading the script I knew it was an epic film and I encouraged her to move ahead with it," said Wayne Ward, who played the role of Robert Hart at the reading. Ward helped to recruit Jason Scott Lee, son of a family friend, who flew from Los Angeles just to do the reading.
Wong said she'd like financing to come from investors in Hawai'i and Hong Kong, and for some of the postproduction work to be done in Hawai'i. Filming, of course, would have to be done in China.
"I think Hawai'i can support a film from creation to postproduction," Wong says. "I feel strongly that there is a way to really use our resources to develop Hawai'i as a film center and not just use it as a backdrop for movies."
