SSFL PK.V1 – 2016 OCT 1 OF 34 JASMINE A SHANGHAI STREET FILMS PRODUCTION PRODUCED, WRITTEN, & DIRECTED BY DAX PHELAN STARRING JASON TOBIN, EUGENIA YUAN, GLEN CHIN, SARAH LIAN, & BYRON MANN PRODUCED BY STRATTON LEOPOLD, ERIC M. KLEIN, JASON TOBIN, JENNIFER THYM, CHRIS CHAN LEE, MARTIN STRACHAN, GUY LIVNEH PRESS KIT – OCTOBER 17 , 2016 (ver. 1) SSFL PK.V1 – 2016 OCT 2 OF 34 TAGLINE He loved her. LOGLINE JASMINE is a mind-bending psychologicAl thriller About A mAn who’s struggling to come to terms with his grief neArly A yeAr After his wife’s unsolved murder. SHORT SYNOPSIS JASMINE is a mind-bending psychologicAl thriller About A mAn, LeonArd To (JAson Tobin), who’s struggling to come to terms with his grief neArly A yeAr After his wife’s unsolved murder. Hoping to move on with his life, LeonArd reconnects with GrAce (Eugenia YuAn), A womAn from his pAst, And his outlook begins to brighten. But, when A visit to the site of his wife’s murder leAds him to A mysterious interloper (Byron MAnn) who he believes is her killer, LeonArd decides to tAke justice into his own hands And things tAke A stArtling turn towArd the unexpected. LONG SYNOPSIS LeonArd To (JAson Tobin, “Better Luck Tomorrow”) is A mAn who’s struggling to come to terms with the unsolved murder of his beloved wife, JAsmine (GrAce Huang, “OverheArd,” “Cold WAr,” “The MAn With The Iron Fists”). NeArly A yeAr After JAsmine’s deAth, LeonArd returns home to Hong Kong, determined to move on with his life once And for All. He seArches for A new job, Attends grief support group meetings, And reconnects with GrAce (Hong Kong Film AwArd-winner EugeniA YuAn, “Revenge of the Green DrAgons,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden DrAgon II: The Sword of Destiny”), A womAn from his pAst. Although Jasmine’s murder continues to remain unsolved and the Hong Kong police seem to have given up, A fAct thAt prevents LeonArd from AttAining the closure for which he so desperAtely yeArns, he does mAnage to slowly but surely stArt life Anew. Then, while leAving flowers At the scene of his wife’s murder on the first AnniversAry of her deAth, LeonArd hAppens to cross pAths with A mAn (Byron MAnn, “The MAn With The Iron Fists”) who he suspects to be his wife’s killer. From thAt moment on, LeonArd mAkes it his mission in life to investigAte this person of interest on his own, in the hope thAt he cAn link him to the murder. However, After LeonArd does so And the police fAil to Arrest the mAn, LeonArd reAliZes thAt the only way for him to stop his own fiery downward spirAl And move on with his life once And for All is to take matters into his own hands – a course of action thAt culminAtes in a shocking and unforgettAble finAl revelation, which Audiences will be discussing long After they’ve left the theAter. SSFL PK.V1 – 2016 OCT 3 OF 34 DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT I first reAliZed thAt I wAnted to become a screenwriter in college in 1994. In fact, I went to the American Film Institute and got my Master’s in Screenwriting in 2000. However, like a lot of aspiring screenwriters, I hAd to work A dAy job to pAy the bills And write during nights And weekends. Fortunately, my day job was working with some of the finest screenwriters in Hollywood as the CreAtive Executive for veterAn producer MAce Neufeld (“No WAy Out,” “The Hunt for Red October,” “The EquAliZer”). In 2003, I finAlly sold A script of my own And becAme A full-time screenwriter. My dreAm had come true. Then, over the next couple of yeArs, I reAliZed thAt one cAn mAke A lot of money writing scripts thAt never get mAde. InitiAlly, this didn’t bother me. But, As time went by, I becAme frustrAted. I wAs getting older. My mother wAs terminAlly ill. People bAck home would Ask, “So, when Are we going to see something you’ve written?” I grew tired of explAining how the development process works or, in many cases, doesn’t work. I wanted to be a filmmAker AgAin, like I’d been in college. More thAn thAt, I wAnted to do the kind of film thAt would Allow me to rechArge my creAtive bAtteries by exploring chArActer, Ambiguity, silence, improvisAtion, contrAdiction, etc., in A wAy thAt isn’t encourAged in mainstream filmmaking. I wanted to get lost a little, try things, make bold choices, chAllenge myself, and chAllenge the audience. I wanted to do something different. Something speciAl. Something personal. I met JAson Tobin for the first time while working on A writing Assignment in Hong Kong And A little voice in my heAd sAid, “This is the guy.” It’s A funny thing, thAt little voice. I hAdn’t seen JAson’s work before that, but I knew he wAs the right person to plAy this charActer I wAnted to explore, even if I didn’t fully know who thAt chArActer wAs yet. When I returned to the StAtes, I sAw “Better Luck Tomorrow” And reAliZed whAt everyone else AlreAdy seemed to know: This guy is fAntAstic. The little voice wAs cleArly onto something. So, when JAson wAs shooting “The FeAst And The Furious” in Los Angeles a few months later, we met up for lunch down off Sawtelle and I delivered my pitch: “I want to do A chArActer-driven film in Hong Kong. We’ll come up with the story together. I’ll write the script. You’ll plAy the leAd. I’ll direct. And we’ll shoot it on the streets of Hong Kong.” JAson Agreed. I’ve AlwAys been fAscinAted by our very humAn Ability to believe things thAt Aren’t true. Inspired by the works of PAul SchrAder (“TAxi Driver,” “Affliction”), I seArched for A metAphor through which I could explore this theme And Arrived At the ideA of An unreliAble nArrAtor in the form of A husbAnd who is struggling to come to terms with his grief following the murder of his wife. I Asked my old friend, veteran producer Stratton Leopold, to help Jason And me and he came aboArd as a producer. Anyway, I wrote the script and put up the seed money myself, confident that, once others knew I hAd money in the film, they’d be more willing to pArt with theirs. It worked And everything grew from there. We shot the film over 21 dAys in Hong Kong. Post-production, however, took A bit longer. In fact, I’m often Asked why it took so long for me to finish the film. The Answer is reAlly twofold. One, when we shot the film, we hAdn’t rAised All of the money we needed yet. However, we did have enough money to shoot and a window of opportunity when All of the Actors would be AvAilAble, so we just took the plunge – all the while hoping thAt we could rAise the money for post-production lAter. Two, not long After my editor, Chris ChAn Lee, And I finished A cut we were happy with, I lost three members of my family very unexpectedly in the span SSFL PK.V1 – 2016 OCT 4 OF 34 of 9 months. I wAs overwhelmed with grief And felt like I wAs losing my mind, which is ironic becAuse of its similArity to the protAgonist’s situAtion in the film. AnywAy, I couldn’t work on the film. I just couldn’t. Life imitAting Art And All thAt. It still hurts As I write this. I then spent some time working on other films in which I wAsn’t so emotionAlly invested. When I finAlly cAme up for Air, I re-watched the film And thAt little voice in my heAd sAid, “Something just isn’t right.” I told Chris that I wanted to throw the cut out completely and start from scrAtch, which is A pretty crAzy thing to do. To Chris’ credit, he defended All of the hArd work we’d done on the cut And, then, Agreed to go down the rAbbit hole with me. Anyway, once we finished the new cut, we found the completion funds right AwAy. There is no question in my mind now thAt the finAl film is the best version of what wAs shot And, more importAntly, the little voice went AwAy. “JAsmine” is dedicAted to my mother. -Dax PhelAn SSFL PK.V1 – 2016 OCT 5 OF 34 DIRECTOR, ACTOR, AND PRODUCER QUOTES “I’m excited to Announce the completion of ‘JAsmine,’ A film thAt pulls off thAt rAre feAt of offering wide commerciAl AppeAl while remAining true to its Artistic integrity,” sAid producer-writer-director Dax PhelAn. “I’ve Always wanted to tell A deceptively complex story thAt begins with A smAll spArk and slowly grows into A raging inferno while rewarding first-time Audiences And repeAt viewers Alike. I’m so grAteful to my incredibly tAlented cAst And crew who helped mAke it A reAlity. I cAn’t wAit for audiences around the world to see it.” “JAsmine” is DAx PhelAn’s directoriAl debut. PhelAn is currently co-producing Orson Welles’ final film, “The Other Side of the Wind,” with Filip RymsZA (“VAlley of the Gods”) And FrAnk MArshAll (“JurAssic World”) And AdApting Neil White’s memoir, “In the SAnctuAry of OutcAsts,” for veteran producer StrAtton Leopold (“Mission: Impossible III”). PhelAn recently served As the executive producer on Anja Marquardt’s “She’s Lost Control” with Academy Award-nominee Oren MovermAn, which won the CICAE prize for best film in the Forum section At the 2014 BerlinAle, hAs plAyed to sold-out audiences at SXSW and New Directors/New Films, and was nominated for two Film Independent Spirit Awards: Best First Feature and Best First ScreenplAy.