- 1 day ago
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Short filmTranscript
00:00Come with me to a place of wondrous contradictions.
00:04A place that is silent and unstirring, yet restless and alive.
00:10A place of untold peace and boundless dread.
00:16Come with me into the very cradle of darkness, where those who dwell, dwell alone.
00:30An antique store, alive with the ghosts of bygone days.
00:37Yet the proprietor, Albert Vong, has labored long and hard to block out the past.
00:43His own past.
00:46A survivor of the killing fields of Cambodia, Vong has consigned his painful memories to the tomb of his mind.
00:55For twenty years, he's kept the lid closed. A struggle that continues to this very day.
01:06My, what an elegant steak knife.
01:08Don't tell me, it's a priceless ceremonial piece.
01:11In feudal times, it was a weapon held sacred by royal court assassins, given by the king to those he
01:17favored most.
01:17Yeah, so they could butcher his enemies with heads held high.
01:20Story of our homeland in a nutshell.
01:25I thought you had classes all afternoon.
01:27That was yesterday, Dad. We have a date for dinner tonight, remember?
01:31Is it Friday already? You lose track of the dates when you live alone.
01:35I just saw Mr. Loy. He says you stop playing chess with him.
01:39That man's a fool. He chatters on about the old days like a fishwife.
01:44Mother would have hated to see you cut yourself off from your friends.
01:48Your mother was my only real friend.
01:51And when she passed away...
01:56Amy, let me live my life in peace.
01:59Cooped up in here? Shut out from the world around you?
02:03I'm sorry, Dad, but that's no way to live.
02:06I've been meaning to tell you. I invited a friend to join us for dinner tonight.
02:10You did what?
02:11His name is Stephen Kimra. He lives in my dorm. He's a graduate student in history.
02:16His parents are from the old country.
02:18I don't care where they are from. You know how I feel about having strangers in my house.
02:23I like this guy, Dad. I like him a lot.
02:26Actually, he reminds me of you.
02:28He's intense, intelligent, and caring, and I think he really likes me.
02:33Please, Dad, don't shut yourself off.
02:36Not from me.
02:47Thanks, Amy.
02:50Interesting design.
02:52From the looks, I'd say Qing Dynasty, 16th century.
02:57Nineteen.
02:58Of course. The, uh, Tung Chi Reign.
03:00Tung Chi.
03:02You should have seen Stephen admiring your collectibles downstairs.
03:05It was all I could do to tear them away.
03:08An appreciation of the past is a rare trade in the young.
03:11Well, I feel it's important that we should study the past, Mr. Vong.
03:15We live in a world that's quick to forget,
03:17especially when human suffering is concerned.
03:20Take our country, for example.
03:22The time of sorrows, of the hooded death squads.
03:25Would you believe my sister's children had never heard of these things?
03:28Maybe that is for the best.
03:30I can understand how you feel.
03:32Amy tells me you're one of the survivors.
03:38The world has a lot to learn from those who escaped the slaughter.
03:42Escaped?
03:43No one ever escaped.
03:45Not as long as they remember.
03:50I'm sorry, Steve.
03:51It's just that...
03:54I'll be right back.
04:05You brought him here to pry.
04:07No, Dad, I didn't.
04:08To make me talk about things I choose to forget.
04:11It's just that Stephen is writing his thesis paper about the time of sorrows.
04:14And when he asked me for my help, I thought that...
04:17Thought what?
04:17That I could be tricked into opening old wounds,
04:20share my suffering with a stranger.
04:24I know how guarded you are about your memories.
04:27But maybe sharing them could help heal your wounds.
04:30I want him out of my house.
04:31Out of my life.
04:34I'm sorry, Dad.
04:36I never meant to hurt you.
04:43Some things are best left untold.
04:55I'm sorry, Dad.
04:56I'm sorry.
04:58Oh, my God.
05:41Who's there?
05:44Who are you?
05:46What do you want?
05:48Answer me!
05:49You know who we are
05:52and why we've come back.
05:54Oh, my God.
06:22Oh, my God.
06:41Good morning, Dad.
06:43I know you go ballistic
06:44when I show up without calling,
06:45but I was passed in the bakery
06:47on my way to school, and...
06:49What's wrong, Dad?
06:50You're the pale as a ghost.
06:51I didn't sleep well last night.
06:54The nightmares again?
06:56I'm fine, Amy.
06:58Really, I am.
06:59Are you...
07:04friends of yours?
07:06They were, once.
07:09Then one day,
07:10they joined the secret police.
07:12They returned to my village,
07:14rounding up people
07:15they had known all their lives,
07:18rooting out subversion
07:19by any means possible.
07:22You have no idea
07:23the depth men will sing to
07:25in the name of following orders.
07:28I've tried to put the past behind me,
07:31prayed for strength
07:32to erase the terrible memories
07:34from my mind,
07:36but...
07:36it's no use.
07:38They won't let me.
07:40There's no shame
07:41in being a survivor,
07:42but maybe the only way
07:44to bury the past
07:45is to face it.
07:48Talk to Steve, Dad.
07:50Tell him what he needs to know.
07:52It's time to put these things to rest.
08:05Aimee?
08:18Aimee?
08:27I don't know.
08:58You're dead. All of you are dead.
09:02You're not the kind who die easily, Vom.
09:05No one knows this better than you.
09:23Dan?
09:26Are you here?
09:27That's weird.
09:28He never locks the door during business hours.
09:35Dad?
09:40Oh, my God.
09:44Izzy.
09:48It's okay, Amy.
09:49He's coming, too.
09:50It's all right, Dad.
09:52You're safe now.
09:53Dave, come back.
09:55Back from the dead to reclaim me.
09:57To punish me for surviving.
10:03Oh.
10:13I'll go make more tea.
10:14Sure don't need some help?
10:16I can manage.
10:17If you could just keep my father company.
10:18I'd be glad to.
10:29Those men you said came back.
10:32They worked at the S-34 interrogation camp, didn't they?
10:36An amazing achievement.
10:38You're escaping that charnel house.
10:40How did you ever manage such a feat?
10:42I don't want to talk about it.
10:44Did you know out of 14,000 prisoners held at S-34, there were no other known survivors?
10:50I want to be left alone.
10:51Years later, after the death squad leaders were captured, many victims from other camps
10:56came to testify, but you weren't among them, were you?
10:58No more.
10:59After the trial, many people traveled for miles just to witness the executions.
11:04How appropriate.
11:05They got to wear their hoods before the nooses tightened around their necks.
11:09But you weren't there to witness it, were you, Mr. Vong?
11:11In fact, you never even left this store.
11:14What are you saying?
11:16What are you accusing me of?
11:18Just searching for the truth.
11:20The truth?
11:21I'll show you the truth.
11:23A souvenir from S-34.
11:25A scar so deep it refuses to heal.
11:28Is that proof enough of the pain I endured?
11:32But the question is, who was the one wielding the blade?
11:35That's enough!
11:37What the hell are you doing?
11:39I'm sorry, Amy, you don't...
11:40I don't even want to hear your explanations.
11:41Get out right now.
11:42Get out of my father's house.
11:45Wait.
11:56Go ahead.
12:01Hey, you Tom.
12:02I felt like this.
12:03I don't want to love you.
12:03Do not datentatatatuna.
12:06I don't want to-
12:07Do not say anything about this Abby yeah,
12:08I don't want to eat ma脆...
12:17I don't want to eat ma.
12:23We saved it for you, comrade.
12:29It seems like only yesterday when you wore that hood with pride.
12:35It's useless, Vaughn.
12:37All the flames of hell won't burn away the past.
12:40No, there has to be an end to it.
12:43You've nothing to be ashamed of.
12:45Your duty was to extract confession.
12:48And this you did with great success.
12:51I had no choice. I was under orders.
12:54There was always a choice.
12:55And you chose to survive.
12:58You survived when that prisoner slashed your throat.
13:03When the war turned against us,
13:05you bribed your way to safety, to a new life in a new land.
13:09No one ever dares suspect.
13:11Not even your wife.
13:14It's all different now. I'm not a man I was.
13:17Amy's friend doesn't see it that way.
13:20He's determined to expose you,
13:22to bring you to justice at all costs.
13:26That's why we've come back to help you.
13:29No.
13:30You've survived too long to back down now.
13:33I can't.
13:34Not anymore.
13:40It's over, Dad. He's gone now.
13:43Gone?
13:44Kimra will never come back again.
13:56God forgive me for bringing him into this house.
13:59I thought his intentions were pure,
14:01but all he ever wanted was to spew his filthy accusations,
14:05his terrible lies.
14:06That's all they were.
14:08Nothing but lies.
14:11There's just no way you could be guilty of such atrocities.
14:16A person lives with someone all their life.
14:19They know who that person really is.
14:22Because he's been into this house,
14:25where he's been due.
14:29A person lives with someone else.
14:37A person lives around hisIS night.
14:39I tell his friends.
14:40My God, I tell my friends those days.
14:48We were born.
14:48I say,
14:48Oh,
14:55yes this is Stephen Kimra need to talk again mr. vong about what justice long
15:02overdue only this time we talk alone despair Amy the shock I'll be there in
15:08an hour
15:22know what you have to do it was only last year when the records were found right
15:33there in the bloodstained floors of the back rooms of s-34 where these
15:37meticulously kept files of those who commanded the prison these these daily
15:42logs of torture and genocide these documents of death among the hooded
15:48interrogators there was this one who stood out a man so merciless that he
15:53became known by his own comrades as brother death seems that after a long
15:59day of beating out confessions or performing executions brother death
16:04would retire to his room and while away the hours admiring the beautiful antiques
16:09he obsessively collected
16:16it was also quite fastidious about documenting his victims among the
16:21thousands butchered during his tenure several names seem to spring to mind my
16:26grandparents for example near the top of the list
16:35what you propose to do with me I'm willing to offer you a chance to turn
16:39yourself in quietly so what's it going to be brother death
17:12amy
17:16you killed him amy I swear I didn't even when he threatened me I couldn't
17:22threatened you with what
17:27where are you going to call the police no don't all those things he said about you they were true
17:35weren't they amy
17:36amy
17:38my whole life I looked up to you like you were some kind of saint
17:41god help me
17:43and all the time you were living a lie
17:46pretending to be a victim to save your own worthless skin
17:49you're still my little girl my own flesh and blood
17:52don't touch me you're not my father you're not even human I don't know who you are
17:57I never did
18:00and I never will
18:03amy
18:04come back
18:05amy
18:06amy
18:06amy
18:06amy
18:09amy
18:21amy
18:23amy
18:26amy
18:27I think
18:27amy
18:27amy
18:28amy
18:32amy
18:37amy
18:55m
19:02Oh my god, Amy!
19:33Die!
19:35Die!
19:38Die!
19:40Die!
19:41Die!
19:45Die!
19:57Die!
20:05The ghosts of a guilt-ridden past are a patient lot.
20:10They can lie and wait for years, festering in the darkness of memories,
20:15hungering to mete out the justice that's been long deferred.
20:19When at last the hangman calls, he often wears a familiar face.
20:25In the case of Albert Vaughan, the face of his executioner was all too familiar.
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