448 - Chinese Box, Hong Kong, 1997. Dir. Wayne Wang.
How is it I want so badly the one woman I can't have?
John asks himself this question on December 31, 1996. New Year's Eve.
The day before the year that Hong Kong will return from British to Chinese rule. Six months before July 1, 1997.
John, a British reporter in Hong Kong, has published a book, How to Make Money in Asia. The British are exiting. By July 1 many thousands of them will have returned home to Britain.
John loves Hong Kong.
Sometimes you just fall in love with a place without really knowing why.
John is thinking in voiceover.
He has fallen in love with Hong Kong the way has fallen in love with Vivian.
Vivian is local. She owns a bar. She is engaged to a prosperous and potent businessman named Chang.
John continues thinking.
So much of Hong Kong exists below the surface.
If they could see what I see, hidden in her eyes.
He watches Vivian from across the room. Looks at her. Remembers her. Pines for her.
The New Year's Eve party is filled to capacity with influential and affluent people.
Chang. Amiable. Affable. Cordial.
Chang appears frequently on television when they need a great businessman to interview. His decisions move markets. He wields great influence and authority.
Yet sitting at the bar he presents himself as a meek and mild man. He is John's acquaintance. The two men get along. He is untroubled by John's affections.
John thinks.
There is an old game we play, telling ourselves this is enough.
A man pulls a gun on the party.
People panic.
He tells them not to worry. What he is about to do is for him alone. He wants no one to assume any blame. He puts the gun in his mouth. Cut to:
Crowd reaction.
Sound of gunfire.
On the news they cite the Front Line Theater Group. A group that helps people stage their own demise. As live, public theater. The Theater of Assisted Suicide
The City of Hope is becoming a city of fear. Why? Because the Chinese want to change all the laws dealing with human rights.
So says the man on camera. On the news.
John continues to think in voiceover.
There are moments when you see your life very clearly. The things you left undone. That time in Beijing. We were both ready for one another. It seemed inevitable that we would become lovers. And yet we let it pass. And then it slipped away.
He appeals to her. She resists him.
I need something else. Not here today and gone tomorrow.
You won't find that in Hong Kong.
I have. That's why I want you to come away with me.
I can't.
She cannot go away with him because she is with Chang. Waiting for him.
John receives the doctor's report.
Leukemia. 3-6 months.
John listens calmly. His eyes reveal canyons of feeling.
Screamin' Jay Hawkins sings, "Hong Kong."
A montage of images present us with a slice of time. The zeitgeist. Change.
The dog runs on the treadmill.
Panting.
That dog does that all the time. Just to please his master. They put him back in the cage alone in the dark. Just so that when they fight he'll win for them.
John sits at the bar with Chang. He tells Chang a joke.
You know why Chinese people like blondes?
So they can sleep with them and not remember their wives.
Chang reminds John that he told him that riddle.
John loses it. He has found a picture of Vivian's past. When she worked at a love nest. Probably the Black Moon. The most expensive night club in Hong Kong.
John spends days at the bar. Ordering drinks from Vivian. Sitting next to Chang. Knowing that Vivian is waiting for Chang. Waiting patiently, impatiently, as Chang focuses on work. Sensing that Chang might never marry Vivian because of her past. Because his family would not approve. Knowing that he would take her in a moment. Watching the woman he loves love another man.
John gets drunk.
Maybe I should be an agent. I want to change my job. Maybe I should do that. What do they earn for that?
His use of the word agent is a euphemism for pimp.
He makes a scene. Grabs the microphone. Offers Vivian for sale. Shows the picture. Makes a fool of himself.
Chang stops him.
What's wrong?
Nothing. Except that I love this woman and she loves you.
Chang arranges for Vivian and him to take their wedding pictures. He wears a tuxedo. She wears her wedding gown. They will send the picture to Vivian's mother.
They will not get married.
The photographer says, "You should get married one day."
John walks the streets with a video camera. He spots a woman on the subway. Her face covered. Hiding something. He zooms in on her eyes. He follows her.
She peddles commodities to the people. Rolex watches. Cartier handbags. Dunhill lighters. Possibly all fake. And canned air. From before the changeover. So that you can retain forever the molecules of history.
She sees John's camera. Walks up to him. Smacks it out of his hands.
Days later she will find him again and offer to do the interview with him. For $1,400. Jean knows how to make a deal.
But she sets the terms. He can ask no questions. He must give her the camera. She will go away and talk on it. And give it back to him.
When he gets it back he projects her face on the wall. He projects her face on the ceiling. He projects her face on his face.
Watches her with his roommate Jim in the room. As Jim plays his guitar and softly sings.
They believe a map of the face is a map of a life, and you can read everything in it.
Jean opens up to John. She tells him why her face is scarred. Why she covers her face. She shows him where she and her boyfriend William used to hide their love letters. She is still waiting for him.
It is ten years later.
John finds William. John is a reporter. He can find things. He brings William to Jean. And in a powerful scene William does not remember Jean. Does not remember any love letters. Does not know what she is talking about. Does not understand why John brought him here. Thinks it is all a prank. He is getting married next week to a girl Jean also remembers from childhood. He is frustrated with this whole fiasco. He walks off. John looks at Jean. He was trying to help. He understands her devastation because he lives it too. She rationalizes as they sit on the bus going back. "That wasn't William." Then she exits the emergency door and disappears in the streets.
Vivian watches Marlene Dietrich in Foreign Affair and sings along.
Some men at the bar get drunk and talk rudely to Vivian. Chang defends her. Smashes a glass bottle over the instigator's head. Even calls her his wife. But Vivian in that moment realizes this is the best she will ever get from him.
John thinks.
That night Vivian watched the boldest show of support Chang had ever made. But by now she had learned the limit of his commitment. And for her it was not enough. For in the strict mores of Chinese society the stigma of her past would prevent her from ever being an acceptable wife.
Vivian comes to John. Three times. First, he rejects her. He is upset. He is trying to move on. Then she pretends to be Jenny and tries to make it playful through the guise of a game. That does not work either. Finally, he concedes. He loves her.
They have their time together. The one he has dreamed of all these years.
He writes about it in his diary. He writes her a letter.
He boards the ship to take him home. His aims his video camera at himself and speaks into it while lounging on the deck with the sun in his face.
He drops the camera onto his lap. Closes his eyes.
The camera records his sleep. His slumber. His death.
John--
Out of your life you give me a moment. Me, sure that in spite of the past, and in spite of the future, this tick of our lifetime's one moment you love me.
Vivian--
You always wonder if you'll have courage when you need it the most. I'm grateful to John for putting me to this test. Like the city, I have to start over again.
Director Wayne Wang writes a love letter to his beloved home of Hong Kong. You may know him for directing The Joy Luck Club (1993).
That night Vivian watched the boldest show of support Chang had ever made. But by now she had learned the limit of his commitment. And for her, it was not enough. For in the strict mores of Chinese society, the stigma of her past would prevent her from ever being an acceptable wife. Read more: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=chinese-box
That night Vivian watched the boldest show of support Chang had ever made. But by now she had learned the limit of his commitment. And for her, it was not enough. For in the strict mores of Chinese society, the stigma of her past would prevent her from ever being an acceptable wife. Read more: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=chinese-box* * * * *
Jean's story was inspired by the short story "Last Act. The Madhouse" by Rachel Ingalls.
Books on John's Bookshelves
Pin, Shn. Military Methods.
Wong, Jan. Red China Blues.
Kristof, Nicholas, and Sheryl WuDunn. China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power.
Salisbury, Harrison. The New Emperors.
Witzel, Morgan, and Tim Ambler. Doing Business in China.
Doing Business in the New China. ?
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