Archive:
January 2009
Top 10 Countries
of Origin for
immigrants 2001-2006

1.  China 14%
2.  India 11.6%
3.  Philippines 7%
4.  Pakistan 5.2%
5.  USA  3.5%
6.  South Korea  3.2%
7.  Romania 2.5%
8.  Iran   2.3%
9.  England 2.3%
10. Columbia  1.9%
Source: Statistics Canada

 
 ClickBlog.org

The movie features an international cast including Oscar winner Peter O'Toole, Hongkong veteran Tony Leung KaFai (The Lover), Sam Neill, and Canadian actor Luke Macfarlane.   Sun Li, a fiesty and gregarious Shanghai movie actress plays the role of Little Tiger, a street urchin who disguised as a boy and immigrated to Canada in the late 1800, in search of her railroad-worker father who went to British Columbia.  

The movie is a history drama, as well as a cross-cultural love story action-adventure that will educate as well as entertain audiences.  For Chinese-Canadian, the movie Iron Road tells the heartbreak struggles of the nameless and voiceless railroad workers, many of whom perished during the construction of the railroad.   Under extremely dangerous working condition, Chinese migrant workers were abused and exploited as cheap labour in serving the ambitions of Canadian railroad tycoons who must complete the dangerous task of building a transcontinental railroad.

The movie was directed by David Wu, who originated from Hongkong, now also a Canadian immigrant living in Canada.  The movie crew spent 31 days in "China Wood" Hengdian World Studios, which is located five hours away from Shanghai.  The Canadian railroad construction scenes were filmed in Kamloops, Kelowna and Lynn Canyon, British Columbia. 

Harsh working conditions and human tragedies are retold in this movie softened by a tender love story between Little Tiger (played by Sun Li) and Canadian actor Luke MacFarlane who plays the role of the playboy son of Canadian Railroad Tycoon played by Sam Neill.

The movie "Iron Road" won several awards including:

Leo Awards, held by the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Foundation of British Columbia:

Best Cinematography in a Feature Length Drama -- Attila Szalay

Best Production Design in a Feature Length Drama -- Linda Del Rosario

Best Costume Design in a Feature Length Drama -- Maya Mani

Best Make-Up in a Feature Length Drama -- Joanne Kinchella

Audience Favorite Award at the Dominican Film Festival

Best Actress award for Sun Li in the 2nd Fiction Fest in July 2008, Rome, Italy

It was told that Sun Li had to bind down her breasts, and behave like a boy in playing the role of Little Tiger.
 

Canadians get to see the 2-part mini series for two Sundays on CBC from 8 pm to 10 pm August 9 and 16.

Producer Anne Tait in Toronto,  optioned the film rights to a contemporary opera entitled Iron Road Opera written by Mark Brownell and Chan Ka Nin who were searching for a West Coast producer.  The opera was inspired by a discovery that there was one woman among the 265 migrants to Canada, at a time when women were not allowed in Canada.

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