Film Producer Huanglizi Sun helps Deliver Powerful, Award-winning Chinese Period Drama to International Screens

    LOS ANGELES, CA, December 21, 2015 /24-7PressRelease/ -- For film producer Huanglizi Sun, 2015 has been a prolific year defined by the success of four dynamic short films she produced, including the award-winning period drama, "Twin Lotus."

The black and white Chinese language film is directed by Yucheng Zhao. "Twin Lotus" follows the story of two twin sisters - Yulian and Yuhe - who are separated when they are just 7 years old because their parents take different paths in the 1930s pre-revolutionary China during the Japanese occupation. Yulian moves with her mother to Taiwan and Yuhe stays with her father in China.

The sisters reunite in jail 15 years later during the Chinese Civil War. Yuhe became the leader of the communist party student movement and Yulian is married to a Nationalist Party colonel.

Zhao wrote the original screenplay and stars in the film as both the elder Yulian and Yuhe characters. Co-starring as the father is Glenn Zhang, who directed "Petals in the Wind" and "Warm Winter Project." "Twin Lotus" also stars and introduces the talented Haotong Meng, who at 6-years old plays both the child Yulian and Yuhe characters.

Zhao met Sun in 2013 and asked Sun to be a producer for the film. The story hit close to come for Sun, a Changsha, China native, and she attached to the project.

"My grandparents were communists in China. They served for our country during the second World War," said Sun, who won the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Award in the category of Best Sports for "Cara," a short drama she produced, wrote and directed. "I had heard some of those stories from them. A lot of families were apart from each other during the war. That's why I wanted to be a part of this film because I can find some similarities with my family as well."

Sun, who also engages her producing talents at Mob Scene Creative + Productions in Beverly Hills, got her start by interning at China Lion Film Distribution Inc. and working at Hunan TV, China's second largest TV station. She handled many critical producing responsibilities for "Twin Lotus."

The film was produced in November 2014 and Sun worked in casting the film's actors, assembling a crew of more than 40 members and finding and securing filming locations in Los Angeles and Orange County.

"We found really beautiful filming locations with Chinese backgrounds, yards, and gardens," she said.

Xuhui Zhao, whose cinematography has been seen in more than 20 short films including the DGA Short Film Awards winner "Little Africa," served as director of photography for "Twin Lotus."

He said, "During pre-production, Huanglizi gave us a lot of choices in terms of locations. As the film is a period piece and shot in black and white, picking an ideal location was tricky. She has a knack of understanding the director's vision and the technical requirements to bring that vision to life. She found a lot of locations for us, giving us ample options to weigh in on and then locking down the ideal one for the shoot."

But bringing the project together had a certain producing challenge. "The biggest problem was finding the lead actor from the U.S. Auditioning took more than three months to find the right leading actors," said Sun. "We were looking for actors who could speak Mandarin and had a Chinese background."

The exhaustive casting process took an unexpected turn when Sun had a chance meeting with Meng at a mall in Pasadena. "We met her mother first. We told her, 'Your daughter is beautiful,'" Sun recalled. "She spoke Mandarin and English. She was an American, but fit the background we were looking for. Obviously the role was a challenge because the same actress plays both sisters and she was a first-time actress."

Despite casting obstacles and the need to find a capable child actor that fit the specific look for both roles, Sun knew then the movie could come to fruition. "After I met the little girl at the shopping mall, that's kind of like treasure for us," she said. "That was a moment my mind was telling me it has to be her. She can make the movie. She's the one. It was the kind of moment you have to make a decision."

During filming, in order to execute Meng's simultaneous acting as twin sisters, Sun said, "We changed her hair to make her look older. We bobbed her hair to make her look younger and had a pony tail for the older sister. She didn't want anyone else to touch her hair. There were six different wardrobes, but she didn't like any of them. She's a very cute girl, but a very tough girl. We communicated with her father first. We had her father to explain everything to her. It's tough for the actor and director."

After wrapping the tough production, "Twin Lotus" returned on the extraordinary work invested by Zhao, Sun, Meng and the entire cast and crew. The film won the 2015 World's Independent Film Festival (San Francisco) Best Narrative Short Award, as well as the 2015 Best International Film and Best Costume Design at the Los Angeles Movie Awards. It took home a Best Drama award at the 2015 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival and the Asia Pacific Golden Award at the 2015 Asia Pacific International Filmmaker Festival & Awards.

"Twin Lotus" furthered its international reach when it became an Official Selection at the 2015 Cannes Short Film Corner (France) and it also screened at the New York City Independent Film Festival. Sun added that Yucheng Zhao is promoting the film to the Chinese market for its future production as a miniseries.

"The level of sincerity and dedication Huanglizi was bringing to the project astonished me," Xuhui Zhao said. "She can manage the production costs, schedules and other logistics very well. She has great resources in terms of locations, crew members and even camera and grip gear rental. Huanglizi's effort on Twin Lotus made the film with low budget look like a high production film which raised the film value tremendously, thus, Twin Lotus is doing very well in the festivals."

Such outstanding producing achievements have become the norm for Sun. As producer, writer and director for 2015's short drama, "Cara," which tells the story of a teenage swimmer who faces a life defining decision, Sun provided again the filmmaking blueprint for success. "Cara" became an Official Selection at more than a dozen distinguished film festivals. The film won awards at the IFA International Film Festival, the Meet Film Festival, the San Francisco Film Awards, the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, the Best Shorts Competition and the IndieFEST Film Awards.

This year Sun produced the short drama, "Gnossienne," that is written and directed by Abhijit Gajwani, and tells the story of a grieving man disconnected from the outside world who finds some solace through his maid. The film was named an Official Selection at the Cannes Short Film Corner, the Pune Short Film Festival, the Roxbury International Film Festival, the Student Art Festival, the Salento International Film Festival, the Golden Diana Awards, the Pictoclik Showcase and the International Film Awards (Berlin).

Sun also produced Xinwan Yu's 2015 fantasy short film, "Fall." Her producing filmography also includes the short drama, "Repentance," from writer-director Xi Yang ("A Girl a Man a Dog"), the short film, "Mercury," directed by Sam Zhang and "Girlfriend" that she also wrote and directed.

For more information, visit:
http://www.huanglizisun.com
http://tinyurl.com/TwinLotusIMDb
http://tinyurl.com/HuangliziIMDb

Follow "Twin Lotus" on Facebook:
http://tinyurl.com/TwinLotusFacebook

Watch "Twin Lotus" on YouTube:
http://tinyurl.com/WatchTwinLotus

Huanglizi Sun is a film producer from Changsha, China.

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