Smoke & Mirrors
This is a short film i directed. Treatment Fictional Smoke and mirrors Short Synopsis A boy moves to china to get away from his bad past, falls in love with the daughter of a highly ranked yakuza member. Romantisizing violence is a key point in this. Set in East Asia, a 23 year old slightly mislead british male moves to the streets of shanghai at the age of 15 to go and live with his uncle after getting sentenced in prison for life for the murder of his wife after a bank heist went wrong after hearing the plan off a rival of his. The rival makes the original "boost" to which the farther then holds him and the three vans at gun point with his crew, they steal the gold and whilst making his escape goes to pick up his wife only to end up leading the rivals, now thirsty for his blood straight to her. There is a shootout and she ends up getting murdered and he gets framed for her death. Whilst in Shanghai and after 8 years of feeling like he doesn't belong, he accidentally bumps into the beautiful daughter of a high profile Yakuza member. After a long affair he then falls in love with her and has to go down a gritty path of self destruction, gang violence, drug dealing and petty violence to keep the farther of his girlfriend happy who is also a business partner with his daughters ex boyfriend. However, When he discovers that his girlfriend is hiding a pregnancy and the child his and that the yakuza are planning on wiping him out because of a mistake he made by letting the ex boyfriend free, he realizes has to call in a few old favors from some very dark places within his and his dads past from which he was trying to escape by moving to china. With everything to loose and with his life on the line he has to make a choice, Kill the mob boss or leave the mother of his child and watch her get sold on into the shady underground of the shanghai streets to which he know's that he will never see her again. However, the past he tried to escape comes up with an opportunity that he could never resist and a solution to all of his problems. Everything comes together for him after finding out the truth about his mothers death and they begin to plan a heist just like the one his farther was involved in, to kill the ex boyfriend and then use his money to get his new family away from the past and keep them safe. Characters and background information Hao/Howard (translation means the good) - Main Character, Changed name from Howard when moved to asia. Mother was murdered as a child, farther was framed for his murder and lives with his uncle in china, Falls in love with a beautiful girl who turns out to be the daughter of the infamous Yakuza mob boss "Huang" and partner of his right hand man "Kong" Uncle T (Trevor) - Hao's Unlce and carer, helps look after Hao after he moved to china Maria - Dead mother of Howard, was murdered in a heist gone wrong Phillip - Farther of Hao, retired from a life of crime when Hao was born, worked in the British crime underbelly and the underground crime organizations, Came out of retirement to take part of a heist of gold. Heist went wrong and Maria got killed in the crossfire. Xia (roughly means Welcoming; hospitable) - Mob Boss's daughter, and the lover of Hao Huang (roughly means emperor; rich) - Yakuza head man, Very scary imposing figure. Kong (Roughly means empty, hollow) - Xia's ex Fieonce Frank - Phillips right hand man back in the day, Frank and Phill used to run the UK underground back in the day. Hao has a serious hatred for Frank as he belives it was his fault his mother was killed
