Falun Gong is a religious movement that was founded in China in the 1990s. At first, the movement was not on the radar of the Communist government. But as the groups practicing the outdoor Buddhist/ Taoist exercise movements that encourage independent thinking. Meditation is also a large part of the practice. The end goal is the purification of the heart attainment of spiritual salvation. There are some cultist and alt-right sentiments mixed in here that the Documentary through the eyes of practitioners does not touch. The government saw them as an ever-increasing threat. The Party line was that Falun Gong promotes teachings that are dangerous and not in keeping with the cultural and social progress the Party wishes to obtain. A heretical organization that causes social instability. The government talking points were repeated over and over on State television in living rooms across the county every night when families gathered to eat their dinner.
To combat this false narrative in the eyes of its practitioners a plan was hatched to hack into the state TV signal in Changchun City and broadcast the truth about the movement. The next segments are perhaps the best of the film. Staging, training and planning for the takeover ahead of the March 5th, 2002 go date. The recruitment and prep hit all the beats of classic heist pictures from the past. Here the training includes learning to scale a cable pole. Keeping the planning meetings secret and avoiding the police who have a list of practitioners on their arrest for interrogation list.
The film is a combination of first person accounts and 3D animation re-enactment of events. Illustrator/ Comic book Artist Daxiong a practitioner that fled from China to Canada helms the visuals. They are crisp on the screen as they seem to pop with each frame. The good, bad ,and violent are all broadly on display. Animated scenes of captured members being tortured in prison are followed by tender reunions of those that escaped often feeling guilty they survived The other main voice in the piece goes by the moniker of Mr. White. He too escaped prosecution and lives with his family in Seoul, South Korea. Mr. White carriers a heavier burden than Daxiong possessing a deep case of survivor's guilt that rushes to the service when he talks about colleagues that have passed or those that were captured in the same back alleys and laneways of Changchun City where he used to roam.
The timing of the film is apt as current groups that stray from the expected path are cracked down even harder in recent years. Once independent Hong Kong has been drawn back to the practices of the Mainland. The percussion and treatment of the Uighurs is front and centre and China has turned a menacing eye towards Taiwan with recent military shows of force circling that island. It's a wonderfully shot and paced film that I can recommend.
***1/2 Out of 4.
Eternal Spring | Jason Loftus | Canada | 2022 | 86 Minutes.
Tags: Documentary, Animation, Falun Gong, Hacking, State TV, China, Religious Prosecution, Prison, Torture, Escape, Toronto, Seoul, New York City.
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