With five languages, the intricacies of tattoos to recreate again and again during filming, and a story born in the real-life experiences of the key creatives, Chinese-New Zealand series Inked is an endearing story that draws you in right from the start, as Jiayue Qiu (Lisa Zhang in her screen debut) tries to hide the reality of her life from her father.
On a wet, cold night in Auckland, Jiayue has hit rock bottom. Thanks to her ex-boyfriend, she's broke and homeless, and secretly seeking refuge in the sleep-out at her father's house. And that's only part of her troubles: He thinks she's studying medicine, but her dream is to become a professional tattooist.
Rong Qui (Gang Du) moved the family from Nanjing in China to Auckland ten years ago. Jiayue's mother struggled with the move and returned to China. Rong wants success for his daughter – but his vision doesn't include her being a tattoo artist. Add in a landlady chasing Jiayue for $1200 in unpaid rent, changes at the parlour where she's been secretly trying to learn the art of tattooing, alongside her best friend Yi Yang, and an unexpected arrival in town, and there's plenty to enrich the storylines of this drama, a breakthrough project for young filmmakers Zijun 'Jimmy' Yang and Mingjian Cui.
Jiayue (Lisa Zhang) dreams of becoming a tattoo artist. Source: Inked Pictures
Born from the pair's dream of writing and directing stories about international students and immigrants from China, like themselves, Inked – fittingly for a tale that is, in part, about tattoos – required a lot of attention to detail.
The many Chinese languages spoken in Inked
There are four dialects of Chinese spoken in Inked – Mandarin, Cantonese, Nankiness and Shanghainese – which is why it is subtitled in both English and Simplified Chinese. That sounds straightforward enough, until the production team explains the complexities of shooting in four dialects.
"Rong and Jiayue speak Nankiness, a dialect specific to Nanjing. Gang Du, who plays Rong, is from the area, so speaks this natively. But Lisa Zhang had to learn the Nankiness dialect from director Mingjian [MJ] Cui, who is also from Nanjing. Actor Jeffrey Wu (Yang Yi) does not speak Cantonese, so had to learn from Jimmy Yang and practise every day!
"Actor Grace Sun (who plays Yi's aunt, Ms Wang) is from Shanghai, which was great because MJ had always written Ms Wang to speak Shanghainese. Mingjian had to write three versions of the same script – Mandarin Chinese, English and Pinyin Chinese [phonetic spelling of Mandarin]. We had to make the Pinyin script specifically for our lead actor Lisa Zhang because while she can speak Mandarin, she cannot read Chinese characters!
"Most of our cast and crew were Chinese, so there was a lot of translating required at every moment, because the directors would communicate with the cast in Chinese and the crew in English. We made sure to have a Chinese-speaker in each department so that there was clear communication at all times. Our associate producer Helen Wu had to translate our call sheet into Chinese every single night, regardless of how late we finished each shoot. She deserves a medal for her fast and amazing work."
The tattoos of Inked
They may look real, but all the tattoos in Inked are fake. Jiayue's distinctive tattoos were designed by set dresser Nina Geng, and all other tattoos were designed by Auckland's Dreamhands Tattoo Studio.
Getting those tattoos just right was a time-consuming job: they had to be re-applied by head of makeup and special effects, Clarette Soh, and her team every second day. The large dragon on the arm of tattoo artist Aifei took more than two hours to apply and had to be applied in four pieces by two makeup artists. Every second shoot day, Jess Hong (who plays Aifei) and the makeup crew had to arrive on set much earlier than everyone else to get the tattoos applied in time for filming.
The production tattoo advisors from Dreamhands held a day-long workshop with the cast so they could learn how to tattoo, to help them seem authentic in their roles. They were taught (on fake tattoo skin) both how to use a tattoo machine and to stick-and-poke.
Tattoo artist Aifei (Jess Hong), left, with Jiayue (Lisa Zhang). Source: Inked Pictures
Some of the tattooing scenes are real, but these were done by professional tattooists in a tattoo studio that had been dressed to look like the set.
Community talent
Keen to make the show as authentically Chinese as possible, Cui and Yang chose to cast from the community. Most of the cast had never been on a set, or had only had experience as an extra. So who are the stars?
LISA ZHANG – Jiayue Qiu
Lisa Zhang's role in Inked was her screen debut. She has since starred as Devon in the 20th Century Studio thriller No Exit (2022) directed by Australian filmmaker Damien Power. Lisa is currently in the prestigious The Actors Program for 2022, an intensive year-long acting school based in Auckland.
GANG DU – Rong Qiu
Like his character, Gang Du is a Chinese father, and live in New Zealand with his daughter. "This is my first time being an actor, but it has been a very pleasant journey," he says. "The most impressive moment was the last day when we finished shooting. Everyone hugged and cried with happiness together. The show has different meanings to different people. To me, it has not only given me an opportunity to experience another person's life, but it's also given me a window to show New Zealand life to my family and friends who are living in China."
GRACE SUN – Ms Wang
Gang Du and Lisa Zhang as father and daughter Rong and Jiayue. Source: Inked Pictures
Grace Sun moved to New Zealand from China in 2003 as a skilled migrant. Fluent in Chinese and English, she has lived in Auckland for over 17 years, working for a number of government agencies. Inked is her first acting role.
JEFFREY WU – Yi Yang
Jeffrey Wu is an IT student. Inked was his first speaking role, but not his first time on screen. He was a background extra on Mulan, an experience that sparked his interest in acting.
JESS HONG – Aifei He
Jeffrey Wu as Yi Yang. Source: Inked Pictures
Jess Hong graduated from Te Kura Toi Whakaari o Aotearoa (NZ Drama School) in 2018. She has performed on stage and in television, with recent TV credits including NZ/UK series The Brokenwood Mysteries and Kiwi smash hit Creamerie (currently streaming ). She'll also be seen in the upcoming Netflix sci-fi series Three-Body Problem by Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, based on the novels of Liu Cixin.
Chasing dreams
How did Yang and Cui come to make a series about tattoo artists? In 2018, when the pair were newly graduated film students, Yang was working on a promotional video for Dreamhands, the only tattoo studio in Auckland founded by and housing Chinese artists. Cui recorded sound for the interviews, so the pair both learned the stories of these tattooists – their dreams, their ambitions and the struggle some faced when they learned their parents were against what they were doing.
Yang and Cui found these stories very relatable to their experience of wanting to become filmmakers while feeling torn and guilty about not being able to meet their parents' expectations.
But perhaps the seed was planted much earlier. After the project had secured funding, Cui was tidying up her desk and found a note from 2014 where she had jotted down a quick idea to herself: "Maybe it's a good idea to write about a Chinese daughter, who has got herself a tattoo, but has been hiding it from her dad?"
Inked is about much more than a single secret tattoo, but with its tale of dreams, secrets, friendship and family, it's proven to also be a (very) good idea.
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