RED CULTURE
(for JG DX EF)
Int. Lumber Yard
ERIC wanders purposefully through racks of hardwood, pushing
a lumber cart. He finally settles on a single pile. Working
quickly, he begins to sort the long boards, examining their grain, sighting
down the edge, and sniffing their aroma. A large "reject" pile quickly
forms at his feet, and a much smaller "accept" pile grows on the cart.
An EMPLOYEE appproaches, dressed in a carpenter's smock, long
sleeve t-shirt worn over a turtleneck, and a baseball cap. He points to
the untidy pile of wood on the floor.
EMPLOYEE
Can I hel' you, sir?
INt. Lumber Office
Eric and MANAGER stand across the counter from one another. The office is wood paneled, and littered with stain and finish samples. A few boards from the good stack lean against the counter.
MANAGER
Yeah, we can get you six-quarter purple heart at twenty-six
feet. You should take delivery in about two weeks.
Eric
Very simple.
Eric draws a red envelope from his back pocket and begins
laying cash onto the counter as if he was dealing cards.
INt. Workshop
A small carpenter's workshop, crowded with tools. A
phone, visible but camoflaged among the litter, rings. An answering
machine picks up, and we can hear the voice of DANWEN.
DANWEN
(VO)
Hi Eric, it's Danwen. I want you to be at the studio
now, so I can tell you about something that I heard about. It's a story
about the family with an uncle.
Box opera set
The boxes occupy a warm-hued world filled with paper screens,
wooden furniture, tools and shavings. Occaisonal glimpses of forest and
water in the background complicate the notion that the set is "inside".
Uncle Box stands alone.
DANWEN
(VO)
He's not married. At this time, it was the ninteen
seventies, and the family lived in an apartment in Beijing. This uncle,
the grandmother thought he is strange not to be married.
Grandmother box, much larger than Uncle box, stands on a
pedastal.
DANWEN
(VO)
You think maybe he's gay. Everyone outside the family thinks he is strange. He says he is afraid to get even his head wet on the top. He thinks his sperm will leak out?
We see the Uncle box with his lid lifed a fracton, revealing
shadowy mysteries within.
He works at a hydro-electric dam with the father who is his brother. They live together, but they don't speak, often. One day, his father comes to the apartment and tells his daughter and his grandmother that the uncled died walking into a forbidden place, inside the generator.
The Father and daughter boxes are arranged in a row, not
necessarily "facing" one another.
He did not have a reason to be at the place where he was electrocuted. No one was permitted to be there, and the electricity for Beijing was cut for one haf an hour to get him out. No one could say why he killed himself.
EXT. Dam
We see an enormous stone dam, the Bronx River Dam.
Hugely wide, and made from enormous rough-hewn stones, cars and trucks run to
and fro across the top.
DANWEN
(VO)
A fortune teller said to the grandmother that the uncle was
searching for a ghost. The ghost of a woman who was very sexy, who lured
him. And he walked into the place where he died.
INT. WORKSHOP
DANWEN
(VO)
So Eric, I hope you like this story. I've been talking for five minutes, so your answering machine is full. Call me when you are ready to help with Red Culture.
(SFX: Click)
The workshop is quiet for a moment. The phone rings
again, and the machine picks up.
Dominic
(VO)
Hi Eric, it's DominicBeep.
Int. Edit room 1
Porn sounds fill the room. Patrick sits, facing
away from an editing station. The sun cuts across his visual field,
obscuring the monitor.
CU on the monitor
We see an ass, in profile, wrapped in aluminum foil. A
male crotch is pressed against it, perhaps in the act of anal congress.
The crotch begins to withdraw, and we get a hint of penis.
PAN to Patrick
As soon as the camera turns away, there is an audible
"pop". Patrick is wearing sunglasses, concentrating on the scene before
him.
INT. EDIT ROOM 2
A hand takes two tissues from a tissue box in quick
succession, with an audible "fwip-fwip". The porn sounds
continue.
An identical editing station, but there is no sunlight, and
no video images on the screens.
Joey sits facing away at the sound editing station- the information on the sceen is technical and osilloscopic.
He turns his head and wipes his filtrum with the tissues, then hods headphones to his ears, concentrating as much on the sound as Patrick did on the image. Joey stops the sound, rewinds, scrubs over the "pop" several times, and then rewinds past audible dialog.
INT. EDIT ROOM 1
Patrick sits facing away from the editing station.
ZOOM to an OTS of the screen. Onscreen, a COUPLE sits
on a porch in old high-backed wicker chairs. The woman has her back to
the man, who tenderly brushes her long hair. The camera tracks foreward
towards the window, framing out the couple and then even the window
frame. The camera bumps into the window at the end of the shot, jiggling,
and then pans out to the field where the crew, Joey, Patrick, the Couple and
ASSORTED CREWMEMBERS
stand, relaxing and smoking.
The phone rings inside the
editing room.
INT. Studio day
A sharply dressed plumber (Dominic) lies beneath the sink, head in shadow. He wears a sharp-looking suit, matching shirt, and has his tie off, draped over his ankles. His shoes point towards the ceiling, keeping his tie in place, and beneath him he has spread a clean trashbag.
Dominic
It's too polished. Your stuff needs more distressing, so you can see how it's put together. There's not enough process. It's not pornographic enough.
Dominic looks down his body, turning his attention away from
the plumbing and staring across the long expanse of his body at an unseen Eric.
Dominic
It's the broken obejct which is most itself. It extends
no function to the world, like the whisker in the mole of a dead woman.
Dominic grabs a wrench and continues to work on the pipes.
Dominic
(Continued)
To the woman, it means nothing. To the untouchable
blackening her teeth, it means nothing.
Dominic concludes his work on the plumbing and begins to arrange himself, washing
his hands, balling up the trashbag and putting on his tie.
Dominic
I left an advance on the table. I want all the boxes, but I need something else, a showstopper. Why don't we get a boy into one of your boxes. We'll get a skinny kid in a speedo, and you can put him in a giant box in the middle of the exhibit. We won't tell anybody he isn't you.
CU Eric's hands
He snatches a thick wad of money off the table and quikly
leaves without revealing his face.
Clatter as the hatch to the workshop is opened and Eric
ducks into the basement.
Int. Harmony Atrium
Against the backdrop of a climbing wall, Danwen sites at a
table with a cup of coffee, reviewing documents on her laptop. Her mobile
phone lies on the table next to the computer, and a Spencer novel lies next to
that.
Danwen removes a chop from a special compartment in her
laptop and presses it onto the mousepad. A red seal appears on the screen
at the bottom of a document.
Her mobile phone rings with a twitter of birds.
DANWEN
Wei? I'm sorry, Danwen isn't available right now, she is busy. Can I take a message?
Danwen puts down the phone, as Eric approaches from behind the camera.
DANWEN
Eric! Are you ready to help me? I have so much
work here.
ERIC
I'm ready, Danwen. I have the wood you needed.
It's being delivered right now.
DANWEN
How much?
Eric slips a receipt from his pocket, and lays it on the
table.
DANWEN
You are an expensive man.
Eric shrugs and holds out his hand. Just like Eric did
at the lumber yard, Danwen deals out cash onto the table. She then takes
her chop, inks it, and stamps the top note.
Int. Subway Day
ALAN, a middle-aged Chinese man, plays a battered er-hu while
sitting on a milk-crate. Joy comes over to him with his neck crained to
one side, rubbing it in pain. He tosses a bill into the shoebox Alan has
set out to catch change.
CU on shoebox
We see Danwen's chop printed on it.
Joey
I'll pay you to play music in my movie. I make films,
and I need a musician; you're very good.
Alan
Thank you.
JOEY
I want you to write a song for me. It's the story of a
guy who is murdered by a ghost.
ALAN
(Nochalant)
Okay, whatever.
INT. STUDIO Day
Dominic paces back and forth, doing the Mastriani 8 1/2 plumber two-step. He is sharply dressed, as usual, and carries a cell-phone on a slim hip holster.
He goes to the sink and draws a glass of water, rolling it
around in his mouth and tasting it before putting the glass down.
He then pulls out his cell, flips it open and dials a
number. The phone in the studio immediately begins ringing- the
answering machine picks up.
ERIC
(VO)
Hi, you've reached Eric Fertman, please leave a message after
the tone... beep.
Dominic
(His voice echoes, rebroadcast throughout the
apartment)
Yeah, hi, Eric, this is Dominic. Listen, I'm at your
studio right now, but you're not around. I want to see how much work
you've gotten done for me. I'll be here until seven, if you get
this. Remember, 'A man who removes junk from your woodshed is a
praiseworthy man.'"
He closes his phone and re-holsters it.
The plumber pokes around the studio.
An "exploratory" TRACKING SHOT takes on his POV
We hear Chinese music swell in the background.
A voice sings, in Mandarin.
ALAN
(VO, singing, subtitled)
The grandmother has died of sorrow. The father and the
daughter are without her or their strange uncle!
Dominic comes across the father and daughter boxes, set as they
were in their initial appearance, but within the context of the studio.
ALAN
(Continued)
The daughter works in a photochemical store. She
becomes paralyzed. She cannot work. She cannot even move her lips
to speak. They were once tender cinnabar, but now they are white spotted,
and must be wiped with tea. Her body is nearly dead; her breath is
freezing! It is the jealous ghost!
INT. EDIT ROOM 1 Night
Patrick watches Alan sing and play the er-hu on one
monitor. On the other is the frozen image of the dam.
ALAN
(Continued)
A fortune teller says, 'move the grave of your uncle; move
the grave of your grandmother'"
INT. STUDIO DAY
The uncle and grandmother box sit together inside a large,
shallow triangular box, with the lid removed and sitting nearby. The box
is equlateral, with conspicuous white detailing.
ALAN
(Continued)
They are inauspiciously placed!
INT. STUDIO DAY
Dominic reaches out to the daughter box, and removes something
from inside.
ALAN
(Continued)
The government will not allow superstition! The bodies will not be moved, and the daughter will never be cured. Papa must move exhume the bodies in secret!
INT. EDIT ROOM 1 Night
Again, we see Alan on the monitor, with both Patrick and Joey
watching.
ALAN
(Continued)
The smell of a decayed corpse is terrible! The father
is afraid of the police, and he must work quickly!
INT. Office
MOS-
The office is a stripped-down space. Stacks of
materials are pushed against the walls, and on makeshift sawhorse tables.
Danwen directs various personages off screen, standing at a real desk, the only
peice of furniture in the room.
ALAN
(Continued, VO)
The man takes the grandmother's corpse, and he takes the
uncle's corpse, and he buries them in a riverbank. But Beijing becomes
dry, and the river bank crumbles. The bodies are revealed!
Eric enters from behind the camera, and hands Danwen a
ticket. Danwen smiles and accepts it, and they kiss one another on the
cheek.
INT. STUDIO Night
Dominic slips the object from the Daughter Box into his jacket pocket. He
limps over to the sink, and takes another sip of water from the glass.
ALAN
(Continued, VO)
The police arrest the father, and judge him to be guilty. He is in prison, and the daughter is sick, with only the neighbors to see her. Her lips become dry, and her eyes go blind. There is no one to carefor her!
INT. SUBWAY DAY
Allan sits on his milk-crate, singing and playing.
ALAN
On the night of the father's execution, the daughter is
cured! It is the ghost again. The ghost allows the blind daughter
to go to the prison and see papa. She is very ugly now, and the ghost is
not jealous any more.
Ext. Small Airport
MOS-
Danwen walks, towing a rollie behind her, reading the Spencer
novel with her other hand.
ALAN
(Continued, VO)
They are happy for a night. Then the father is killed.
INT. STUDIO NIGHT
Dominic walks over to the basement hatch, opens it, and
descends into the workshop.
INT. WORKSHOP NIGHT
Dominic discovers the father, uncle and grandmother boxes
sitting together in a large scarlet bowl.
ALAN
(Continued, VO)
The daughter can see again after two years. Her lips beocme soft and cinnabar again.
EXT. DAM Day
Danwen, alone, looks out over the water, and opens her cell
phone.
ALAN
(Continued, VO)
She is beautiful again, but she walks with a limp, so the
ghost is no longer jealous.
Danwen dials a number.
INT. EDIT ROOM 1 Day
Joey and Patrick sit at the editing station. Light
streams in from an open window. They are watching the long outtake scene
again. It is just beginning when Joey's cell phone rings.
He answers.
JOEY
Wei?
EXT. DAM DAY
Danwen greets Joey in a a torrent of untranslated
Mandarin. Embracing, they chat happily at the edge of the water.