This is a cross-cultural comedy/drama film written/directed by Brett Horton. The theatrical version stands at 2 hr. 28 min. The majority of it was shot in different phases from 2015- 2017, in Sichuan, China and San Francisco, California, USA. The latest theatrical version was completed in July, 2018 and has yet to be shown in public. As of Aug. 20th, there is now a film festival version that stands at approximately 117 minutes.
PRODUCTION NOTES
How This Came About
The idea for this movie was inspired by real events depicted in it, yet it delves heavily into the fictional. The fictional world represented, though, is mostly very close to what expat life is really like in China. The character Elle (Wei Lin) is based off of Brett Horton’s real-life family friend, Wang Qiong (English name, Joan) who came to teach Chinese in the USA for one year and lived with his parents through an exchange program with the Confucius Institute, based in Beijing. After her program, she went back to China, inviting friends to visit. Horton was contacted later by a teaching agency who had spoken to her, asking if he would like to come over for a yearlong teaching contract. He didn’t want to go for a year but rather for a few months to visit some classrooms and travel some in Asia. The agency persisted with a year contract, though, so he decided to give it a whirl, hearing stories of minimal, flexible schedules for foreign teachers and hoping to spend free time writing a book. Instead, briefly after being there, he got swept up in exploring the culture and making many foreign and local friends, and he became a regular musician at the nighttime venues. He was also invited to be a TV host at an English news program next door to his school, where he began producing a segment entitled “East Meets West” which eventually evolved into the Fortune Cookie Teller, meeting producers who encouraged the production.
Visa Situations
Brett Horton invited Brian Hallett, who plays himself and his alter ego, “Scott,” to help proofread awkward, complicated translations before the news program was taped. Horton did 24 episodes of the show before the authorities stepped in and told them not to be working there without the proper visa. As a result, due to complications with his agency, Brian Hallett had to leave the city and soon go back to Scotland. Horton had been offered a job by the TV station for just a short time each day yet it would’ve paid a monthly salary equal to his teaching job. Unfortunately, the TV station had no license to give him the proper visa, and this is a common situation in China. This is especially true for a job that concerns a foreigner in public, such as a TV station. Yet the rabbit hole had already been opened. Horton left the teaching job, which was an agency with a rather shady reputation as it turned out and began writing a script to send to the China Film Corporation in the hopes of orchestrating a foreign co-production. He left China for a year, traveled to Thailand, where he continued to write, then finished the script in Normandy, France. Upon returning, the snowball continued rolling into what it is now.
Chinese Show Business
Horton has met several people in the Chinese film and TV business, as a result of his experience at the TV station in Mianyang, Sichuan, China and also through several other connections including with CCTV in Beijing, which is China Central Television, the largest network in the country. They have been interested in the premise of the Fortune Cookie Teller, yet independent cinema has been a highly endangered art form in China. There is a small quota of foreign made films that are officially distributed into the country each year. As well, there is a small quota of foreign co-productions made each year, which are mostly or all claimed by the major studios in Hollywood. Independent film festivals are almost unheard of in China and some have been shut down. In order for a co-production to take place, a Chinese production company must sponsor a foreign company. Horton spoke with a Chinese friend with a new production company who suggested filming some scenes in the hopes to show to investors. This was done yet due to the quickly changing population of expats in the city, and the fact there are only a few hundred foreigners in the city of millions, Horton went ahead and shot more scenes to turn it into a more complete package, sensing any opportunity of continuity could very easily be lost. The coming and going of so many people in the film is reminiscent of an expat’s actual experience in a Chinese city.
The CCTV Documentary
It turned out that the Confucius Institute in Beijing and CCTV collaborated together to make a documentary series that was broadcast on CCTV. Several film crews were dispersed around the world to interview foreign teachers and Chinese teachers in other countries. Wang Qiong (Joan) was interviewed in China, the Horton family was interviewed in their hometown, Ponca City, Oklahoma, and Brett Horton was interviewed by a film crew in the English Garden in Munich, Germany, shortly after he finished the script. The title of the documentary series was very similar to his earlier TV segment. Brett Horton’s interview was unaired possibly because of his criticism of his teaching experience there, but the documentary features a picture of Joan and Brett playing jianzi together, which is the Chinese version of hacky sack, using a weighted shuttlecock with a feather attached.