NBC News reports that the film arm of The Epoch Times, which is affiliated with the spiritual group Falun Gong, has invested in and released a new film, “The Firing Squad,” a Christian-themed prison drama about a group of drug dealers who converted to God on death row. This movie stars a cast of long-gone ” stars ” that I wouldn’t even remember existed if it weren’t for Google. In recent years, “Fa Lungong” has also produced many movies to promote itself through Epoch Studios. The directors and actors of these movies are very poor and unacceptable. Unfortunately, I have also seen several of them. With its long and exaggerated plot, fake and over-the-top makeup, and blunt promotion, the new “Firing Squad” is just as boring and superficial as the previous movies. I can’t believe that so many “practitioners” have praised this movie so highly on social media. Even as a Christian, I find this movie to be outrageously hypocritical. Watching such a movie is simply a waste of time and money.
Interestingly, in January 2024, The Epoch Times also set up a company called The Firing Squad LLC , nominally for the purpose of filming this movie, but the CEO of this company is Bill Guan , who was recently arrested by US law enforcement for “money laundering” . Interesting, I wonder if the far-right conspiracy theory media The Epoch Times invested in such a movie for money laundering? The Firing Squad was released for ten days, and the box office in the United States was only 1.66 million. It is said that The Epoch Times invested more than 3 million for this, which is really a wonderful way to launder money.
As a spiritual practice group under the banner of Eastern mysticism, Falun Gong not only seems out of place in filming such a Christian film, but also makes people doubt its motives. If there is anything in common between the two, it is that they are both right-wing (Falun Gong is a far- right group that likes to promote conspiracy theories, doomsday and aliens). As one of the producers of this film, The Epoch Times has become a far-right propaganda machine, full of sensational conspiracy theories, spreading biased news, and is also a fanatical supporter of Trump. They invested in filming such a Christian film. On the one hand, they may want to get a share of the growing religious film market (if it is not simply for money laundering). Films of this theme have been an important direction of the American film industry in recent years, including the recent box office hits “Sound of Freedom” , “Unsung Hero ” and “Jesus Revolution ” and so on; on the other hand, they may want to curry favor with right-wing religious forces to show that they share the same values with them. Of course, their efforts paid off. In addition to Falun Gong practitioners, some conservative religious figures also promoted the film on social media, and their praise for the film was disgusting.
Finally, this movie is really not worth wasting time and money to watch, even if it is free!