Actors demand halt to film on Lin Family murders

Taipei, Feb. 10 (CNA) Three cast members of an unreleased film about the unsolved 1980 murders of dissident Lin I-hsiung's (林義雄) family, on Tuesday demanded their likenesses and voices not be used, seeking to block the movie's release.

Jian Man-shu (簡嫚書), Hsia Teng-hung (夏騰宏) and River Huang (黃河), the lead actors in "The Century Bloodshed" (世紀血案), issued a statement after revelations that the film was shot without consent from Lin or his family and faced other controversies.

The production team deliberately concealed that the film was made without the approval of the Lin family, leading the cast and crew to participate unknowingly and causing further harm to the family and society, they said, offering their deepest apologies.

The actors said that before signing onto the project, they and the crew repeatedly asked whether the film had "legal authorization" from the parties involved, and the production team guaranteed all "legal authorization" had been secured, according to the statement.

The production team also deliberately hid major controversies in the script, they said.

The actors said in the statement that they would never have accepted the roles had they known the family had not approved the movie, adding that the production team's actions have caused great harm to those involved in the massacre and their families.

They have each retained lawyers to formally demand that the film's production immediately cease using their likenesses, names, voices, performances, or any related works, and to block the film's production, release, or any form of exposure, they said.

Legal action will be taken if the production team fails to comply, the statement said.

Kuo Mu-sheng (郭木盛), the producer of the film, confirmed Tuesday evening that the film will be postponed indefinitely.

The film was jointly produced by Feisitu Culture and Entertainment Co., Ltd. and Feng Shang International Culture Media Ltd., and was scheduled to be released in 2027.

Lin I-hsiung's mother and 6-year-old twin daughters were killed at their Taipei home on Feb. 28, 1980, while Lin, then a prominent opposition figure, was imprisoned over the pro-democracy Kaohsiung Incident. The perpetrators have never been identified.

The Chinese-language Mirror Media on Monday cited a leaked script, showing that the movie suggests another dissident orchestrated the killings.

In a 2020 report, the Transitional Justice Commission noted that while investigators initially pursued the theory, it was "flawed," based on "false assumptions" that "cannot be established at all and should not continue to guide investigative direction."

The commission's report also said authorities failed to properly investigate how the crime could have occurred while the Lin residence was under constant government surveillance.

It added that investigators at the time did not seriously examine whether it was ordered by the then Kuomintang (KMT) regime or carried out by rogue personnel -- flaws that narrowed the investigation from the start and led to missed opportunities to solve the case.

(By Wang Hsin-yu, Lee Hsin-Yin and Shih Hsiu-chuan)

Enditem/AW