Hsu Kun-hua (徐琨華), director of the film Murder of the Century (世紀血案), late on Sunday evening issued an apology, adding he would withdraw from the film’s production.
The film, based on the unsolved 1980 murders of democracy advocate Lin I-hsiung’s (林義雄) mother and twin seven-year-old daughters, has triggered a controversy after it came to light that it had been shot without the consent of the family.
Moreover, many have questioned Hsu’s personal involvement in the film, as he is a grandson of Hsu Mei-lin (徐梅鄰), the then-spokesman of the Taiwan Garrison Command — the primary secret police and state security organization operating under martial law, which conducted censorship and political repression at the time.
Photo: Screen grab from HKIFF Industry’s Facebook page
Hsu Kun-hua said the screenplay was written by producer Sam Su (蘇敬軾), adding that during their initial discussions, the consent of the people involved and their family members was raised, to which he said that Su had responded that, because Lin has stated publicly that he did not wish to speak about the misfortune suffered by his family, “we hoped to respect Lin’s wishes while moving forward with the film project.”
With regards to his identity as Hsu Mei-lin’s grandson, Hsu Kun-hua said he grew up in Taiwan’s democratic and free society, and understands the meaning of right, wrong and justice.
“The social scars left by the martial law era have yet to be fully healed and this has meant that my personal background and the tragedy of the Lin family case still involve a difficult and unavoidable process of adjustment,” he said.
“I failed to recognize that my identity itself constitutes a form of harm to the victims’ families. This was a lapse in judgement on my part and I am willing to accept all criticism,” he added.
Alongside expressing his apology to Lin, he announced that he would immediately remove himself from all involvement in the film’s post-production.
His statement followed apologies from other cast members, including Candy Yang (楊小黎), Jian Man-shu (簡嫚書), Nana Lee (李千娜) and Johnny Kou (寇世勳).
See ‘Murder’ on Page 8
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