Original subtitles

Song Yu! Song Yu!

Song Yu!

Repeat after me: When you die, I'll follow you.

I won't fear the Ioneliness of death.

When you die, I'll follow you.

I won't fear the Ioneliness of death.

We will be a pair of beautiful spirits.

No...

I don't want to be a beautiful spirits.

I like being flesh and blood.

I like the feeling of being inside your flesh and blood.

That's real.

I like the feeling of having you inside me,

...flesh or spirit.

You're too well wrapped-up

I like the feeling of being inside your flesh, that's real.

You're back!

You look good today!

I've just had a shower!

I felt blocked, couldn't draw a thing.

I lay down, and slept quite deeply.

Then I took a shower...

...and I feel much better now.

Dad, what were you thinking just then?

If Hong Kong were Swallowed up today...

...what would archaeologists of the future...

...make of our culture?

The twin lions outside the Hong Kong Bank?

I went to the exhibition, the Qin Emperor's terracotta army.

Even from the pictures...

...you sense the great power...

...the Chinese had 2,000 years ago.

Wouldn't mind having one of them for myself

When I was in the New China Archaeology Unit...

...I was always saying...

How many treasures lie buried in the Chinese earth.

So many dynasties to excavate...

the Xia, the Shang, the Zhou,

Spring and Autumn, the Warring States...

the Qin, the Han, Three Kingdoms,

the Wei, the Jin, Southern and Northern,

the Sui, the Tang, the Five Dynasties, the Song, the Yue.

Song Yu! Song Yu!

Mind your head!

Duck!

Mind you head!

Did Dr. Chan say that I've finally cracked up?

Dr. Chan says you're overworked. He prescribe...

...less work and more sex.

Put me down!

You want to be dropped or put down gently?

Gently, of course!

Put me down!

I'll suffocate you!

Think you can get rid of me?

You're stuck carrying me all your life.

Why do you always hang up your Grandma's wind-chimes?

I have to!

Grandma says we should hang it wherever we live.

...to protect ourselves.

Did all right for us in New York, didn't it?

I guess.

There can't be another guy like me in the whole world.

What go you mean?

No other guy has a girlfriend with a witch in the family.

Tough! Means you can't keep any secrets from me.

I'm sure, we'll do well in Hong Kong.

In spite of everything, your concerts were a success.

I've had bad premonitions for days now.

You're under stress.

Dr. Chan says the rehearsals were too much for you.

...on top of the move to Hong Kong.

That's why you're feeling strange.

I saw myself at the bottom of a lake.

But the figure surfaced, didn't it?

It'll teach you to pay more attention to me.

You know why I picked out this apartment?

Because this is the tallest building around here.

We can get up to anything without being seen.

Isn't it pricey?

Cheaper than New York.

Are you cold?

I'm hot.

Song Yu.

What is it?

What's got into you?

I saw a woman. A woman from the past.

So where's the one that looks like you?

These are more or less the same...

But the one in the lake was taller.

There are more than 7,000 of them.

Once we've settled,

we can go to Shaanxi to check out the real thing.

I'd love to see how you looked in the Qin Dynasty.

We might even find one of the woman you saw.

All of these figures come from tombs.

But the one I saw was in a lake.

So picture yourself

as one of the Qin Emperor's soldiers.

Were you a general or a private?

I wish I knew myself.

I might be one of the prisoners-of-war they beheaded!

The Qin Emperor believed in the afterlife.

The craftsman made terracotta figures of his entire army.

And had them buried with him, re-enacting his conquests.

His empire-building, his executions of prisoners.

His practice of burying his victims alive.

And his unification of the six countries.

These are actually the ghosts of his Empire.

They're almost like real people.

- Hark-Nam. - Li Chang!

When did you come to Hong Kong?

- I'm the curator of this exhibition. - Really?

Yuet Heung, this is my former colleague, Li Chang.

It's been 28 years, Say hello to Uncle Li!

- Uncle Li! - This is my daughter, Yuet Heung.

Miss Cheung!

Dad, You must excuse me for a moment!

Sure.

I knew you'd find your way here.

After all these years!

Grandma!

- Grandma! - Ah Lei!

- Grandma! - This must be Mr. Song?

Yes, Grandma, he's Mr. Song. He's come to meet you.

Grandma's blind, but she 'sees' things anyway.

She knew right away it was you.

Come, Mr. Song. I've been waiting for you.

It's not the first time I've 'seen' you.

Grandma, I'm sorry I didn't come earlier.

Not at all, today's the right day.

Come closer.

Sit here.

Mr. Song... Don't mind me.

I'm Ah Lei's grandmother... and I'm a witch.

Ah Kei wrote to me 8 years ago from America.

...saying she'd met you.

I've wanted to meet you ever since.

Now we're face to face at last.

Have you encountered anything disturbing recently?

Yes, I have.

A few days ago, he dreamed of an ancient figure,

...that I looked just like him.

When did you come to Hong Kong?

...he said the figures there...

...we're just like the one in his dream.

The Qin Emperor's army?

Have you seen anything else in your dream?

There was a woman...

Grandma! I hung up the wind-chime in the new place,

as you told me to.

Could it be haunted?

It's not the apartment.

When were you born?

In 1957.

What lunar month? What day?

Fifth month, eighth day.

Time of day?

Around midnight,

Ding you year, 5th month, 8th day, midnight...

Qin Dynasty man.

Mr. Song!

You are from 2,197 years ago.

You belong to the Qin Dynasty.

Grandma, what are you saying? Are you serious?

"I sit weary as dawn breaks, my mind unquiet."

"My parents bore me unbidden..."

"starved in the daytime, fed on bitterness at night."

"Paying back debts from my former life..."

"Ah, the turmoil of my thoughts."

Mr. Song, these are matters from your former life,

beyond your grasp.

Go outside and mull them over.

Whatever fate may bring... it will be good.

I have things to say to Ah Lai.

"I sit weary as dawn breaks, my mind unquiet."

"My parents bore me unbidden..."

"starved in the daytime, fed on bitterness at night."

"Paying back debts from my former life..."

"Ah, the turmoil of my thoughts."

"Paying back debts from my former life..."

"Ah, the turmoil of my thoughts."

Grandma, what do you want to tell me?

How can Song Yu belong to the Qin Dynasty?

Let him go! His woman is waiting for him now.

He mustn't be late for her.

What are you talk about? What woman?

The one he thought he saw?

Yes, she's the one!

She and he are from the same age... 2,197 years age.

They belong to the Qin Dynasty.

I don't know why she's waited so long to meet him.

His body is steeped in her blood.

You must not touch him.

Ah Lei! Let him go!

I'm sorry, Mr. Song is out right now.

Can I take a message for him?

Never mind, Thank you!

One cannot cheat God.

God is right above you.

One has to pay for what one has done.

It's only a matter of time.

Sir, what are they doing?

Retiring the old gods.

These gods have been here for generations.

Now they are going away, and new ones are coming.

But even gods are sensitive about these things.

If we don't express our gratitude for their years sensitivity.

They'll be angry.

Foreigners cough up plenty for them, you know.

Some of them even went to Yugoslavia!

Do you know how to drive!

Who are you?

I've seen you before.

I just want a good look at you, don't get me wrong.

Where have you seen me?

Go, then! Unless you chop off my head...

...I know that I'll see you again.

I've seen you four times and I wasn't dreaming.

I dreamed about you and saw you when I woke up.

I don't know how many times.

What was I doing in your dream?

Making love with me.

I was here with my girlfriend when you appeared.

Time slipped away.

You parted your thighs, moved your body and your head.

...and danced a strange dance.

You undressed in front of me.

The ancient you...

That's the kitchen!

I saw you being strangled by two Qin soldiers.

I remember the song you hummed.

I'm a born musician.

I can remember any tune once I've heard it.

I could arrange it for the synthesizer.

We're probably the only ones in the world.

Who've heard Qin music.

But no-one would believe that it is.

They'd take it as my going back to my roots.

Is it really Qin Dynasty music?

What?

Are you sure I was humming a Qin Song?

My girlfriend's Grandma is a witch.

As soon as she met me, she told me...

She said I belonged to the Qin Dynasty, 2,197 years age.

Couldn't you see in your dreams...

I was dressed like a man in the terracotta army.

And if I belong to the Qin Dynasty... so do you!

I saw you in a Qin House, wearing Qin clothes.

...humming a Qin Song!

You fridge is empty.

It was left by the last tenants.

Are you hungry?

I just wondered.

I've never been as confused as I am today.

We knew each other in the Qin Dynasty?

Right.

Do you think we were married?

Do you think we were lovers?

Yes.

That must be right.

Otherwise I'd feel ashamed to make love to a man.

...the very first time I met him.

When I was here with my girlfriend, I saw you.

That was the first time.

You danced a strange dance in front of me.

You began to undress.

I told my girlfriend, but she didn't believe.

I already felt very intimate with you.

As if I knew that we were married...

...two thousand years ago.

And the second time?

As on Cheung Chau Island, the gods were being left behind.

You hummed the song, did your dance...

...and took off another layer of clothing.

Like a Qin Dynasty striptease?

How may layers of clothes?

Three.

Two!

Too well wrapped-up.

That's exactly what you said in my dream.

2,000 years ago, you were a considerate.

You stayed with me past the point of climax.

You loved to kiss my neck.

Then you moved down my body...

and kissed me between the breasts.

I thought you would kiss my breasts...

But instead you took my white jade in your month.

I wear a white jade between my breasts.

What's wrong?

Are you hiding something that you've seen?

I saw you being strangled by two Qin soldiers.

Nice hot water!

Apart for 2,000 years.

Calls for a celebration, Some wine...

...some instant noodles.

I was seven when Dad brought me to Hong Kong.

At that age, I was crazy about cherries.

I'd stuff myself all year, till I made myself sick.

I've felt queasy at the sight of them ever since.

But now I feel like eating a whole jar.

I must be crazy!

Where were you born?

My father's from Beijing.

My mother's from Heilong jiang.

I was born in Shaanxi.

Fancy that, so was I.

My father was excavating the ruins there at that time.

It's not a dream?

No, it's not.

How old are you?

I'm 28.

So am I.

Could we have been born in the same year...

...same day, same time, same place?

The lunar calendar: Fifth month, eighth day midnight.

Same for me.

You mentioned a girlfriend?

She loves you very much?

And you love her very much?

But I met you 2,000 years before her.

It'll break her heart to find out.

If not for these 2,000 years...

We wouldn't have been here shopping.

Would we?

Don't laugh at me.

I've never dreamed about making love to a man before.

Eat up.

They were just like us, after making love...

...they'd eat and drink!

And then she cried:

Don't.

Why would she cry?

She said "Don't".

"Don't be playful when death is so close."

That was our last meal together.

Why was she crying?

What did you see that you haven't told me?

There was something else, wasn't there?

What's all this about our "last meal"?

Four days ago...

I had a vision of myself during my concert.

I saw a terracotta. The figure coming up from the bottom of a lake.

It looked exactly like me.

Why didn't you tell me before?

Someone sculpted a figure of me in the Qin Dynasty.

Who did it, and why?

Why should it resemble me so exactly?

It was almost like my own corpse.

I saw you being strangled by two Qin soldiers.

Why was I being executed?

I don't know!

Foreign people eat eggs this way? It's not scientific.

They break the yolk first,

and eat it with the white.

What a wasteful, messy way of doing it.

You can use bread to mop up the rest.

Looks barbaric!

That's what foreigners do.

Our canteen was open-air then, too, wasn't it?

But things now...

...are different in so many ways.

I've had dozens of dinner invitations since I came Hong Kong.

I always ask for western food if possible.

I've always admired western ways remember?

You were always the great Chinese chauvinist.

You're taken to western ways like a fish to water.

Where as I've never been outside China before.

You are doing alright as an expert on Qin terracotta.

Hasn't it struck you? If it hadn't been for that night.

I almost drowned.

I don't remember if I swam to the shore...

...of if the currents carried me.

Anyhow, I was lucky.

I was out cold for nearly half a day.

I couldn't find Wang Han when I came to, nor you.

I was nursing my new-born daughter,

My wife's body was still in the cabin.

I waited till dawn.

I was scared stiff.

I just wanted to get away, so I gave up on you.

I've felt guilty about it for the past 28 years.

We were all frightened.

We later found Wang Han's body floating.

The fish had started nibbling it.

You should have called to say.

You weren't coming back last night?

Dad, I'm sorry.

This is my friend, Song Yu.

My father.

Were you with him all day yesterday?

How long have you know each other?

How come you never mentioned him?

Dad, we don't know how long we've know each other.

That's what I want to talk to you about.

Hark Ham, you have friend is here, I'm intruding on you.

I'll be on my way.

Ah Chang, what's the rush?

You give me a moment to find out what's been going on.

I need to think it over.

Think what over?

I'll give you a call later.

Yuet-Heung!

What did you mean about...

...not knowing how long ago you met?

We met each other yesterday, but I...

You met him only yesterday?

And you spent last night with him?

How dare he show his face here?

He seems like the man I've waited for all my life.

I've dreamed about him many times.

I'm sorry, Ah Lei!

Was she really waiting for you?

Was there really a woman waiting for you?

Yes!

How did you know?

Where was she waiting?

At the exhibition.

And is she the woman you saw at the roof?

Yes.

The two of you spent the night there?

Yes.

So I guessed right.

I waited for you and nearly came looking for you.

...but thought better of it.

She's waited 2,000 years for you.

There's no place for me in the story, is there?

Grandma told me to leave the two of you alone.

You daren't hold me any more?

Not after spending one night with that woman.

There were only two of us before.

Now there's someone else.

Wah-Lai.

Cheung Yuet-Heung.

I've know Song Yu for eight years...

...but you've known him for 2,000 years.

I've lost him, that's all there is to say.

We can't be sure.

Maybe it's only a dream.

Grandma told me not to meddle in a love like yours.

She told me to give way to you...

...to let you pass as if you were ghosts.

But if you were ghosts, you wouldn't be here now.

In my dream, he said he preferred flesh and blood.

But I'd rather we were spirits.

If we were spirits we wouldn't have to face this time.

I have no part in your former lives.

I'll leave your way clear!

Miss Cheung, you lived many centuries ago.

You died for him then!

But now you're a modern woman.

Would you do the same again?

Doesn't it look like your daughter's boyfriend?

I thought he looked familiar when I saw him yesterday.

But I couldn't place him.

Later he told me how he'd seen a figure...

...that closely resembled him...

...rising to the surface of a lake.

That's when I remember the terracotta we found.

Did it really surface like that?

Do you remember this red jade?

Her name's Cheung, Cheung Yuet-Heung.

Did she have the same name last time?

I didn't think we used

each other's names in the dream.

You were called Sunny Yu and Yuet-Heung then.

That would be perfect!

Let's eat.

There's one thing I don't understand, though.

Why weren't you

reincarnated before now?

I could see that you belonged to the Qin Dynasty.

It's taken you 2,000 years to be reincarnated.

...and you've found each other.

You told Ah Lei that Yuet-Hang followed me into death.

Mr. Song, I've touched your head and face.

I know that you were executed in your former life.

But I don't know how you offended the Qin Emperor,

or anything about your name, your background, your identity.

We died cruel deaths in our former lives.

What will happen to us this time?

Some relive their former lives quite closely.

Others follow a different path.

Things will go their appointed way.

It's Ah Lei who suffers worst right now.

Its as if I've been unfaithful to her these 8 years.

8 years was the allotted span for your relations.

You are a good man.

Ah Lei will understand, she must find her own way.

Thank you, I'll leave you now.

- Ah Lei! - Grandma!

Let him go!

Dad.

Mr. Song.

He Was my colleague in the New China Archaeology.

Mr. Li Chang!

Last month in Shaanxi he found a terracotta figure.

...just like the one in your vision.

I can't explain.

How the figure rose to the surface of the lake.

Our Research Department thought...

...it was due to an earth tremor.

They Authorities hushed it up, to avoid superstition.

I was responsible for restoring it.

That's why I know about it,

and deliberately brought the photo to Hong Kong.

...to remind Hark-Ham.

The figure I saw was intact, though.

It needed restoration?

There were some cracks in it.

We build a hut by the lake to work on it.

It will be moved to the museum when we've finished.

How did it come to be in the lake to begin with?

We accidentally dropped it in.

28 years ago, I was in Shaanxi with the Archaeology.

Li Chang, Wang Han and I were good friends.

The three of us together used our spare time.

...to go off alone...

...and make exploratory digs of our own.

You know my pet maxim...

countless treasures are buried in China's earth.

That day, we found one of them.

This was long before.

The Qin Emperor's terracotta army was found.

But we know we'd found

something invaluable.

And a red jade.

Mr. Song have you ever seen this jade before?

I saw this in my dream, but it was white jade.

It was originally white!

It was stained red with blood!

We aren't looking for anything particular that day.

My wife had come along for the boat-ride.

That evening she went into labour prematurely.

She bore Yuet-Heung and passed away.

Hey, Cheung, come and see this!

Then something even stranger happen to Wang Han.

He was suddenly a man possessed.

He wanted the red jade for himself.

Wang Han!

Wang Han, what are you doing?

Hands off!

Hands off, it's mine!

Wang Han! Li Chang!

I clung to Yuet-Heung until dawn, then I gave you up.

I saw a peasant couple on the shore,

holding a new-born baby.

They waved and held up the child.

I can't explain why...

...but I held up Yuet-Heung and waved back.

I always pack for you when you go off somewhere.

Its your job to close it.

Ah Lei, you've been everything to me these last 8 years.

There was no Yuet-Heung then.

The 8 years were no lie.

Not just a dream?

Not not a dream.

I wish they had been a dream.

Embrace me one last time.

Mind your head!

Song Yu!

Song Yu!

Song Yu!

Ah Lei!

Ah Lei!

I'll call for help!

8 years or 2,000 years, it's still love.

It was our dream that destroyed her.

What can we do now?

When you died before, I followed you into death.

Now you're born anew, I've followed you back into birth.

Do you think that new-born babies...

...can see on their first day of life?

How do you expect me to remember that?

If babies can see.

...then we saw each other on our first day.

I'm an only child.

I want to have many children of my own.

So do I.

I'm glad.

At least we have now children.

Back then, they didn't want children.

If you had a son, he'd have to fight for the Emperor.

...build a great wall, build his tomb.

And a woman's lot is only to bury her man.

After making love, they were just like us.

Eating and drinking.

But next day, he was executed.

She was left to clean the room, as usual.

To look at her.

No one would have guessed she'd kill herself that night.

Sweeping...

Polishing...

She shed three layers of clothing...

...revealing her white back.

A woman without her man.

White linen.

Mirror.

Comb.

Hairpin.

Dagger.

Fresh clothes.

Her man loved to kiss her neck.

She held the white linen against her breasts.

A woman without her man.

The dagger!

She put on the fresh clothes.

She stood by the window and waited.

Fifteen of his friends brought his body back.

They were craftsmen from the six kingdoms...

press-ganged by the Qin Emperor to build his tomb.

Hearing they might divulge the secrets of the tomb.

The Qin Emperor, feared they would divulge the secrets of the tomb.

...he then, had them executed, one by one.

She bathed his body.

Finally she cut up her man's body...

...and mixed it with clay,

molded a figure in his likeness and fired it in shape.

Then she cut her own throat...

...where her man had so loved to kiss her neck.

Her face pressed to his...

...her body pressed to his...

...her blood ebbed out and dried...

...covering both of them.

We will become a pair of beautiful spirits.

No, I don't want to be a beautiful spirits.

I like flesh and blood.

We are flesh and blood.

Bu what about Wah-Lei?

If we hadn't lived our former lives...

...you'd still be with Wah Lai.

Yes.

The past was like a bad dream.

But now the present is another nightmare,

decent furniture, this'll be a lovely place.

Do you think we'll see each other again?

Perhaps...

I'll glimpse you from afar...

...and know that we've shared a deep love.

Yes, a very deep love.

In a dream...

We'll be a pair of beautiful spirits.