(Minghui.org) Produced by New Tang Dynasty Television and New Realm Studios, the feature film Coming For You and its second installment, Eternal Fifty Minutes, recreated a segment of the history of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of Falun Gong with a touching plot and unpretentious performances.
The main characters, Liu Dawei and Liu Chengjun, are both played by Fan Wentuo, who immigrated to Toronto from China. Fan deeply moved the audience with his realistic and sincere portrayals of both Liu Dawei, who changed after practicing Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong), and Liu Chengjun, a Falun Gong practitioner who tapped into a state television (TV) broadcast to expose the CCP’s lies.
Poster for Coming For You
Poster for Eternal Fifty Minutes
The movies can be viewed for free at the links below:Coming For YouComing For You (2nd Installment) - Eternal Fifty Minutes
As a matter of fact, Fan Wentuo, who successfully interpreted the two main characters Liu Dawei and Liu Chengjun, did not receive professional acting training. How did he do it? A Minghui correspondent recently did an exclusive interview with him and found answers from his experience and that of his mother, Luo Yanjie.
Obtaining the Fa and Reading Zhuan Falun at Age Eight
Fan Wentuo was born into a schoolteacher’s family in Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province in 1986. Falun Dafa was introduced to Shuangcheng in 1992.
Fan Wentuo recalled, “My mother started practicing Falun Dafa in 1994. She is a retired athlete, and through her practice, the sequelae of her sports injuries disappeared, and she recovered from her heart disease.
“When I was eight years old, I began to read Zhuan Falun and practice Falun Gong with my mother. Following the Falun Gong principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, our family led a very happy and fulfilling life. Every morning, the exercise music would sound in the compound [where we lived].”
He often participated in the group exercises at East Gate Square in Shuangcheng City with his mother.
Falun Dafa practitioners did the exercises at East Gate Square in Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province in May 1999.
Safeguarding Dafa as a Teenager: I Only Want Justice for Falun Dafa
A nationwide persecution campaign against Falun Gong spread to Shuangcheng City on July 20, 1999, shattering the peace in the teachers’ compound where Fan Wentuo’s family lived.
Overnight, Falun Gong practitioners became a group hunted by the CCP. Starting in July 20, 1999, the CCP spread lies to discredit Falun Gong. These lies were broadcasted every day on TV, while Falun Gong practitioners from all over the country petitioned in Beijing, seeking justice for Falun Gong.
When 13-year-old Fan Wentuo learned from his mother that some Falun Gong practitioners in Shuangcheng City were also going to Beijing to petition, he said immediately, “I’m going too, I can’t be left behind.”
Seven Falun Gong practitioners, including Fan Wentuo and his mother from Shuangcheng City, arrived in Beijing after a ten-hour train ride in January 2000.
At dawn, the flag-raising ceremony was being held in Tiananmen Square. The place was filled with plainclothes police officers. Many Falun Gong practitioners were in the crowd. “I could tell who was a fellow practitioner and who was a plainclothes officer from their eyes,” Fan Wentuo recalled.
Suddenly, shouts of “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” cut through the silence and rang out from different parts of the Square. Police vehicles honked, and officers in plainclothes moved quickly through the crowd, their eyes scanning every face. The air was so tense that it seemed to freeze.
“Unfold [the banner] or not?” The mother looked at her son.
“Yes! Why not?” Fan Wentuo answered immediately.
Instantly, his mother pulled out a banner and unfolded it. “Falun Dafa is good! ...” Before she could finish her shouting, a plainclothes officer held her down. Almost simultaneously, Fan Wentuo and the five other practitioners were arrested. “We were dragged to a truck and taken to the Qianmen Police Station near Tiananmen.”
Fan recalled, “At first, my mother and I were detained in a huge metal cage in the basement of the Qianmen Police Station, which was already holding over 100 Falun Gong practitioners.” That afternoon, the police separated Fan from his mother and took him to the Chaoyang Prison.
“Before putting me in the cell, the police took me to a cold and windy hallway, told me to remove all my clothes, and then drenched me from head to toe with water that was close to freezing.” Winters in Beijing saw temperatures drop to -20C, and Fan shivered from the cold.
Three days later, Fan was picked up by the principal of his junior high school. “On the first day back at school, the teacher told the class not to talk to me. But two days later, the class was co-mingling with me.”
“When I went to Tiananmen Square at the age of 13, I had a very pure mind. Just like many other practitioners, I just wanted to speak out for justice for Dafa,” Fan said.
Arrested and Detained in a Labor Camp at Age 25 for Being Involved in Operating Material Production Sites
However, in the years that followed, Fan Wentuo and his mother did not stop clarifying the truth and exposing the staged “Tiananmen self-immolation” amid the CCP’s genocidal persecution of Falun Gong.
“From my second year of junior high school in 2000 to my college graduation in 2008, and the three years after that, I helped my mother make truth-clarification materials whenever I was home,” he said. “Because I was computer savvy, I also provided others technical support, such as computer and printer repair.”
Fan Wentuo was studying English at home to prepare for studying abroad one afternoon in November 2011. A group of police officers broke into his home, arrested him and his mother, and ransacked their home. Two months later, the authorities illegally sentenced his mother to 13 years in prison (November 13, 2011, to November 12, 2024). She is still incarcerated today.
During the detention, the police pressured Fan to write a “guarantee statement” to renounce Falun Gong. They said, “You are so young and can have a bright future. We know you are preparing to study abroad; as soon as you sign this guarantee statement saying that you will not practice Falun Gong anymore, you can get out.”
“No way!” Fan Wentuo replied.
Fan Wentuo recalled, “I was very clear that this was a battle between good and evil, good and bad, and there was no middle ground. Falun Gong practitioners are not criminals. We are not the same as those inmates. So I would never sign it.”
Because he refused to sign the statement, Fan Wentuo was taken to the Suihua Forced Labor Camp. There, he was beaten, subjected to electric shocks, and forced to do long hours of labor. “Helpers” watched him 24 hours a day and even followed him to the toilet.
“Physical torture was not the worst, but mental torture was. You never knew what was going to happen next,” He said. “One second before, the guards were talking and laughing, and the next second they were frantically cursing, punching, kicking, and giving somebody a time-out ... it was horrible.”
After one year and three months of illegal detention and torture, Fan Wentuo was released from the labor camp in February 2013. On January 30, 2016, with financial support from family and friends, he left China for Toronto, Canada. He finally escaped from the evil persecution and embraced a new life.
Rescuing His Mother and Playing Lead Roles in Films
Although he studied architecture and art design in college, Fan Wentuo joined New Tang Dynasty TV in Canada as a lead actor. In fact, on and off-screen, his role has revolved around a constant theme: clarifying the truth and exposing the evil.
As soon as he arrived in Toronto, Fan Wentuo began to rescue his mother who had been unjustly sentenced to 13 years. He teamed up with local Falun Gong practitioners and contacted all levels of government in Canada to expose the CCP’s crimes and appeal for help.
Fan Wentuo joined overseas rallies to call for the release of his mother, Luo Yanjie, who had been sentenced to 13 years in a Chinese prison for her faith .
Fan said at a rally, “My mother has been illegally imprisoned, and all her communications with the outside are monitored. If she mentions any persecution she suffered, the visit will be immediately cut off, and she will be forbidden to have family visits. Therefore, I can only piece together the persecution my mother has suffered and her situation from other people’s accounts.
“My mother was forced to do labor during her detention in Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison. Her teeth fell out, but the prison authorities did not allow her to seek medical treatment, using the excuse that there was no doctor available, despite her advanced age.”
Fan’s mother has been illegally imprisoned for nearly a decade now, but he is unable to find out her current situation. The only thing he knows about his mother is the few words of comfort she told the family during their visits.
Before joining the cast of Eternal Fifty Minutes, Fan clearly remembered the director’s words, “In the 20 years of tireless efforts by Falun Gong practitioners in raising awareness about the persecution, the Changchun TV tapping was the most significant. A group of ordinary practitioners put everything on the line to spread the truth and make known the facts about Falun Gong. They are the epitome of millions of Falun Gong practitioners.
“This film is an effort to portray a group image of Falun Gong practitioners. It is to commemorate the practitioners who were tortured to death by the CCP for clarifying the truth about Falun Gong.”
Eternal Fifty Minutes is produced by New Realm Studios in Canada and is based on the staged Tiananmen Square “self-immolation” incident and the Changchun TV tapping incident. The film lays bare the CCP’s lies and shows the historical truth about Falun Gong. The main character, Liu Chengjun, was brutally tortured to death by the CCP.
Photos from Eternal Fifty Minutes, with each actor holding a posthumous photo of the Falun Gong practitioner they played. Fan Wentuo (right) holds the photo of Liu Chengjun.
“Because Liu Chengjun was a real character, and many people knew him better and deeper than I do, it was very important to bring out the character as realistically as possible,” Fan said. “Fortunately, a Mr. Jin who participated in the TV tapping operation joined us from South Korea and gave us a detailed description of many scenes and what happened at the time.
“Although there were many difficulties during the filming process, no matter how hard it was, compared to what the Falun Gong practitioners who were tortured to death went through, what was this bit of suffering? So I just bit my lip and got over it,” Fan said.
“I Hope The Film Can Make More People Understand The Truth”
Recalling the shooting of the film, Fan Wentuo said one story touched him deeply. It was a story shared by Mr. Jin:
When it was decided the TV tapping operation was going to be carried out the next day, the several Falun Gong practitioners who participated in the action spent the last little bit of money in a small restaurant for a very simple meal. Liu Chengjun had his son with him. He looked at the child, touched his head, and said to the practitioners sitting together, “This poor child of mine!”
Fan said, “At the time, my first child had just been born and I already had the experience of being a father. When I heard this story, my heart was deeply hurt.
“Just imagine, knowing that tomorrow is the day of parting, but you cannot say goodbye to the child. Knowing the tapping operation is not a must, and doing it will cost you your life, but you cannot let the child know.
“Liu Chengjun knew what he was facing, and his son was right next to him. To be able to take this step is not something that a normal person or a heroic person can do. Only a Dafa disciple can let go of life and death and give his life for the sake of all sentient beings to understand the truth.”
Fan Wentuo and his fellow cast members recreated the true emotions of the group of practitioners under unimaginable pressure. The scene of them telling their families the night before what to do after they’re gone brought many viewers to tears.
At the end of the interview, he said, “I sincerely hope the film can help people understand the truth about Falun Gong. For more than 20 years now, so many Falun Dafa practitioners in China have given their lives, and overseas practitioners have made so much effort so that people can understand the truth.
“My mother is still in prison, and each day in there is like a year. I hope the persecution will end soon so my mother can see her grandchildren and our family can be reunited.”
A recent photo of Fan Wentuo and his two sons
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Category: Media Reports
