Original subtitles

[light piano music]

♪ Come sit at the table under October's ♪

♪ April skies

♪ Once we'd seen eye to eye

♪ I'd known that I'd pass you by ♪

♪ And I try

♪ The bells chime

♪ Seven times

♪ Completed at nine

♪ The world moves on right by

[train chugging]

- [Man Voiceover] Everywhere there's meaning,

order, shared knowledge.

Somehow we connect.

Somehow we understand each other

if you know the code.

But if you don't know the code,

you can't interpret.

- Easy for airline shipments.

A plywood crate with foam padding

around a sealed coffin.

The lid has to be securely sealed

because of pressure changes in the cargo hold.

- The bullet entered between the sixth and seventh ribs.

It ruptured the lung, it punctured the aorta

and then it glanced off the right scapula on the way out.

- When you're dealing with international students

you come to expect just about anything.

Nobody could have expected this.

[patriotic anthem music in foreign language]

- [Interviewer] What's your favorite thing about America?

- The people, friendly.

- [Interviewer] Friendly?

- Yes.

- Chen told me that you've been on TV before in China.

Could you tell us about that?

- The television was doing a special report

on students who go to America.

- What was that like, seeing yourself on TV?

- I laughed.

It was embarrassing.

- Flea flicker on three!

One, two, three!

- [Everyone] Littles!

- Three, 69, blue 67,

Madagascar! - Dad!

- Six nine 47!

- [Kids] Dad!

- All right, all right.

Hut hut!

[clapping] Good, son, good.

Bring it back.

Huddle up.

Flea flicker on two, flea flicker on two.

- Ah.

So, honorable Mitchell.

Please explain frea fricker.

- [chuckling] It's flea.

- Right.

Free.

Where the Japanese sometimes transpose their Rs and Rs,

we Chinese almost never do it.

- Okay, touche.

Okay so, fray.

Okay so flea, right?

- A flea, a tiny insect.

- Yeah, like a insect, like a bug.

- Bug!

Volkswagen!

- No, that's...

- No, secret listening device.

For spying, for overhear conversation!

- To annoy, like when you say "Eh, you bug the hell

out of me!"

[Mitchell laughing]

Why do you laugh, Mitchell?

- I bug your pardon?

[Chinese men laughing]

- [clapping] I bug your pardon.

- Okay, okay.

So flea is an insect, right?

But a flea flicker is a play in football.

Like a pass pattern, right?

- Okay.

- Like, okay, so you're the quarterback.

[train chugging]

- [Mitchell Voiceover] My brilliant Red Chinese.

The thousand forks in the path that brought them here

of all places.

They could have studied anywhere in the world.

Paris, London, the Leningrad Institute of Technology.

They could have ended up in a dorm

or a boarding house or a youth hostel.

- Double sided tape.

- [Mitchell Voiceover] But they didn't.

- Brilliant!

- That's great.

Quarterback.

And the half back goes like this.

Like whoosh, but at the last second

right before he passes the line of scrimmage,

he passes it back quickly to the quarterback, like that.

But all of a sudden, during the whole time

the wide receiver's been shooting up the field.

Pooo, what? [chuckling]

It's like a plan.

Like a secret code, you know what I mean?

- Ooo, what?

It's a way to play so you know where to throw the ball.

- Somebody's been watching some football, right?

- Poo, what? - This guy right here.

Football. - What do you say?

[train chugging]

- Dex, Dex.

Is it true? Are you really gonna teach them how to drive?

That's great.

Come on, Dex, you have to.

I need some action footage.

Something outdoors, something moving

or the film will stagnate.

It won't be like an interview.

You won't even have to say a word.

Come on, Dex, what do you say?

- I've got a class to teach, Billy.

- Many of the survivors were brought here

to St. Mary's Hospital

where they were treated for smoke inhalation.

This is Gabrielle Glazer reporting live from New York.

- Mitchell.

If a person say he is from New York,

does that mean that he lives in New York

or that his ancestors live there?

- If I'm moving to New York, I will be from China.

But living in New York.

[man speaks in foreign language]

[speaks in foreign language]

[speaks in foreign language]

- [Man On TV] Ah that's it, we'll camp here for tonight.

- [Man On TV] Please Mr. Callahan,

let's not stop here, I got a weird feeling

about this place.

- [Mr. Callahan] You get a weird feeling

about a lot of places.

[car honking] - This time my weird feeling's

weirder than my usual weird.

- [Mr. Callahan] Believe me, I have discovered

that experience is more reliable than feelings.

Now you can trust me, this is a safe place to camp.

[kooky music]

[Chinese men laughing]

- It's so good.

[buzzer buzzing]

- Susan.

- Suzanne?

You mean Suzanne Betts?

- Yes, Suzanne Betts.

We're going in her car to go shopping.

- You did not tell me this.

[energetic music]

♪ I was venturing

♪ The vines in the trees

♪ Burning sand around my knees

♪ As we near the training bees

- Love bite.

Happy Halloween, Dex.

[train chugging]

- Son of a bitch.

How long has this been going on?

- Two weeks.

Before Thanksgiving, after Halloween.

- Two weeks?

I'll be goddamned.

- You're okay, Mitchell?

- Why?

- Oh I thought that you...

That she was...

- No, no.

No.

I hardly know her, really.

What would happen to Chen

if you were still in China?

- His parents would be ashamed.

He's counter-revolutionary.

He will not be allowed to dress like that.

- That's all?

- And what more?

- I don't know, I thought

maybe they put him in a re-education camp

or like a work camp or something.

- For wearing Western clothes?

- For being a Capitalist Rhodern.

For falling in love.

- You are a very ironic man sometimes, Mitchell.

You do not think people fall in love in China?

- No, I thought romantic love was a Western idea.

I thought you Marxists think of everything

in economic terms.

- Chen is young.

She confuses him.

- I wonder what her excuse is.

- [Tzu] Pardon?

[train chugging]

[splatting]

- Jeez!

Monty, Monty!

Monty, I'm gonna tell your dad!

What?

Die!

- I am freaking out!

[car honking]

- Mitchell.

You should not call us anymore the Red Chinese.

We are Chinese.

The only Chinese from China.

There is only one China and it will be united.

[man cackling]

- [Suzanne] Hey, Dex.

Ah!

[light rock music]

[speaks in foreign language]

- Beer, my master?

- Hey, Kimi.

- [Billy] Oh my god, do that again.

- Huh?

- Do that again, do it again.

- [Chen] Do what?

- What you just did, do that again, that was perfect.

What you did before with the masks and the beer.

Do that.

Yeah but at the same,

like at the same time.

- Same time? - [Billy] At the same time.

- Ah, okay.

One, two, three.

- You are an asshole.

And so is Carter.

I'm voting for Anderson.

- Get real.

Anderson is a total joke, honey.

He can't even get it up.

Believe me, I know.

- Because these effects are so powerful,

any message in the ordinary sense of content

or information has far less impact

than the medium itself.

Thus, the meaning is the message.

- Marshall McCoy.

- Yeah, so?

So images and concepts

should always take precedence over story.

And it is my lifelong aesthetic mission

to purge cinema of its decadent narrative element.

- What is purge?

- There's no such word.

Billy just made it up, right, Billy?

- No I didn't, that's a word.

- All the way - He made it up

he must've made it up. - From China!

- You just made up a word.

- China to Pakistan, Pakistan to Paris.

- Very nice, Paris airport, yes.

- Paris to here.

But let's say, let's just say

that instead of Pakistan, you went to Budapest

and that there's this whole ether world.

And in this ether, I say possible world,

- Leibniz!

Very interesting, Leibniz.

- Darn, you know Leibniz?

I'm doing my dissertation on Leibniz. [laughing]

♪ Fun with her

- Love bite.

Happy Halloween, Dex.

- [Dexter] Wow.

- You like?

- [Dexter] I am amazed. [laughing]

Usually you're so, you know,

- Demure?

- Yeah. [laughing]

Demure, that's what, yeah.

- Yeah, well, tell me Dex,

you can't get wild on Halloween.

- That was a great party.

- [Suzanne] Oh.

Wow, I'd totally forgotten about it.

♪ Fun with girls

- Ooh, Dex shrugs,

slides his hands into his pockets.

- Yeah, he was my date.

- [Dexter] Yeah, I was short.

- But I'm not seeing him now.

- I know.

I heard.

So how are you doing?

- I'm okay.

- Yeah?

- Yeah, I'd be great if he'd leave me alone,

stop calling me and harassing me.

- Right.

- So what about you?

Bring a date?

- No.

- No?

- Just the Chinese bag boys.

- Ah, so!

- Wa, Tzu.

Wa, Tzu!

♪ I want you

♪ I want you so bad

- Ugh, Czapinczyk is deranged.

- [Czapinczyk] Do not light that without me!

- Introduce me to your friends and then I'll,

I'll take you home.

- Yeah, it's just a couple of blocks.

I'm pretty sure I could walk.

- Oh.

Never look a gift horse in the mouth, Dex.

Besides, have you ever taken a bath with a mermaid?

Hi, I'm Suzanne, what's your name?

- Wa Wu Sheng.

- [Suzanne] Oh, so nice to meet you.

What's your name?

- Tzu Lin Yang.

- [Suzanne] Hi, nice to meet you.

What's your name?

- Chen Li Zung.

- [Suzanne] Hi, I'm Suzanne, it's really nice to meet you.

- Very nice to meet you.

- So you guys are the Chinese, huh?

I've heard so much about you.

It's so nice to finally meet you.

- Please, please, sit down.

- Oh no, sit, sit.

I'll sit over here.

- Okay.

[chattering in foreign language]

- Oh, hey.

You guys go ahead, go first.

- No, please, you.

- No, seriously.

Hey my name is Dexter Mitchell.

I live across the hall.

- Oh, Chen Li Zung.

- Yeah, hey.

- Tzu Lin Yang.

- [laughing] Nice to meet you.

- [Wa] Wa Wu Sheng.

- Wa.

So wait, I hear you guys are from China, huh?

Or Taiwan?

- No, China.

- [Dexter] Red China?

I mean, like the mainland?

- We are communists!

[all laughing]

- Communists!

- I've never really met a real communist before.

- Oh! [laughing]

- [Wa] We paid 24 dollar for this television.

Is it a good price?

- Yeah, you know, it looks like you got a good deal.

- It's color.

- So yeah.

I really love, I wanna travel

and I'm so excited that you guys are here.

I've always wanted to go to China.

- Oh, you should come to China.

We can show you China.

- [Suzanne] Oh I would love that.

That would be so amazing.

♪ That will always comfort me

♪ As I climb down from the tree ♪

- Virgo's September, and you were born on March

so the answer to that,

hold on, babe, the answer must be.

- False, you dolt.

- [Dexter] I was just gonna say that. Okay, so false.

So some statements are true, some are false,

so what, what you got?

- Okay what about a statement like

if Suzanne was born on September 12,

she would be a Virgo?

- [Dexter] Well, true.

- [Suzanne] Hmm, nope.

- No?

I knew it, no.

Wait, no, really?

- [Suzanne] No, it's an if statement, see?

If statements aren't true or false

but they are meaningful, so you can-

- Wait a minute, wait a minute.

How is an if statement not neither true nor false?

If you were born September 12th you would be a Virgo

so that statement to me seems like it might be true?

- Nope.

No, see an if statement has no mathematical truth value

'cause you can't point to a real world example.

See it's all projection, speculation.

You can't prove logically whether it's true or false

but it is meaningful, so...

- [Dexter] Possible worlds?

- Possible worlds.

- Okay, okay.

So like alternate universes,

like the road not taken.

- [Suzanne] You got it, see?

There is a possible world exactly identical to ours

except for in that one, I am a Virgo

instead of a Pisces.

And there's another possible world in which

Nixon is still president

and one in which your parents never met.

And one in which the sky's green instead of blue.

- [Dexter] Josephine Carter has brown eyes

and Hitler marries a Jew

and Caesar never crosses the Rubicon.

I don't know, this seems like a long way to go

just so counterfactuals and if conditionals

can or can't have mathematical truth value.

- No, Dex, don't you get it?

It's the most human trait of all

to wonder what if, how your life would be different

if you'd been born a week later

or you'd been born filthy rich instead of middle class.

- But it's a waste of time.

I mean, all these different possible worlds,

they're figments of your imagination.

They're not real.

- Yeah.

But prove that they're not.

Go ahead, prove it.

- Suzanne, this Czapinczyk guy

has rotted your brain.

Whatever happened to metaphysics?

This isn't philosophy, what about God

and free will?

And being and nothingness?

What about the great questions?

- Mmm.

In an absurd world, philosophy is liberated from the gwait,

the great [both laughing]

Okay.

♪ I go slipping in the rain

♪ I'm wondering where do we go

[laughing]

- Czapinczyk, you sick motherfucker.

- Sounds like the Elliot we're after.

What's his business?

Chemical research?

- I got it.

Elliot is really Narvo.

He made the collector kill Drake.

And Mr. Kirby's butler is working for him!

- What's his address?

No, I'll take care of it myself.

Well, looks like the kid's right again, Charlie.

- It's the easiest nut I ever cracked.

- Nut easy to crack often empty.

[gong ringing]

- Nut easy to crack is often empty. [laughing]

- Dog that eat stay alive. [laughing]

What do you think, number one son?

- Man of thousand faces not shave so good. [laughing]

What do you think, my dear old Mitchell?

- Lucky numbers 23, 45 and three.

[laughing] Okay, you don't like that one.

- No popcorn for you. - "When we two parted

in silence and tears,

half broken hearted to sever for years,

pale grew thy cheek and cold.

Colder thy kiss-"

- Stop, stop, stop!

Michael.

These words cry 250 years of lost love.

The agony of separation.

An ocean of tears.

Please.

"When we two parted,

in silence and tears,

half broken-hearted

to sever for years,

pale grew thy cheek and cold,

colder thy kiss.

Truly that hour foretold sorrow to this."

[knocking]

[students laughing]

"The dew of the morning, sunk, chill."

- Oh how about this one?

"The Autobiography of Malcolm X".

- Ah, that was borrowed to me

by my neighbor downstairs, Mr. Karl Little.

- He was down here one day

saying he wanted to read something about America.

The guy upstairs had loaned him Huck Finn

and told him it was the quintessential American book.

I told him, well, let's see.

I think I said that opinion was a little one-sided.

- He said it was bullshit.

[woman laughing]

- I mean, Jim, he's pretty much Uncle Tom'ed out, right?

I thought Chen should read something

a little more accurate.

A little more current with the times.

Plus I knew, being a communist he'd be interested

in some of Malcolm's views.

The sociological stuff,

the economic basis for racism, et cetera, et cetera.

- I am still reading it.

It's a fascinating story.

But I read slow, so I miss a lot.

So I ask him if he would give me something shorter.

So he gave me some poem.

From Langston Hughes.

- "I too sing America.

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen when company comes.

But I laugh and eat well and grow strong."

- [Chen] "Tomorrow."

- "Tomorrow I'll be at the table-"

- "I'll be at the table when the company comes.

Nobody will dare say to me

eat in the kitchen then.

Besides, they will see how beautiful I am

and be ashamed.

I too am America.

I too am America."

- As usual, I'm hampered by piece of shit gear

and limited resources.

Plus, I don't know if any of the footage

is gonna cohere yet.

If it'll have anything intelligent to say

or if it'll just be an arrangement of random moments.

- Billy has a way of making the simplest ideas

sound unnecessarily profound.

This film is just like all your other films.

You're gonna make it or break it in the cutting room.

- Oh yeah. And if it's a question of montage

versus [speaks in foreign language]

I'll take montage every time.

- I have no idea what the hell you guys are talking about.

- It's the whole culture in a nutshell, man.

We just can't see it because we're too myopic.

We're too close to it, but they can see it,

they can show it to us.

- In your film?

- Hell yes, in my film.

What's wrong with that?

- Because you're exploiting them, Billy

and they don't even know it. - Oh, Christ.

- Billy. Baby, you ain't been straight up with them

and you know it!

See, Dex, we told them that we're making a film about TV.

And that we're gonna interview about a hundred people.

- Oh.

- And that we probably wouldn't even use their footage

in the final cut.

But the truth is, they are the film!

- They are not the film!

The film is not about them!

It's about TV.

- It's about them watching TV!

Billy Owens!

If you don't start telling the truth

you're gonna have the Chinese government suing your ass.

Sic their evil Fu Manchu attorneys on you.

- You're making fun of them, Billy.

I mean you turned them into comic figures.

They're dumb, naive, they're not like that!

What gives you the right to think you can do that?

- Do they belong to you? Jesus, stop being so possessive.

- Chill out, both of you.

- [Billy] What do you think of our new title?

- [Dexter] It's catchy.

- I hate it.

[Dexter laughing]

- So what do you say, Dex?

Can you help us raise money to finish the film?

- Switchblade comb, five dollars.

- Five dollars?

Those things are 2.50 in the store.

- Man, this ain't the store.

This is door to door service, man.

I come to see you.

Wanna buy a watch?

- No.

- [Cortez] Dog whistle?

- No thank you.

- Rubix cube.

Stink bomb.

- [Monty] Mitchell bitchell snitchell whistle-

- Hey hey, cut that shit out, Monty.

You can't even witch dog shit.

Man, you don't know witchhing from dirt.

- I scared that Chinese man.

Made him wet his pants.

- All right, let me get by, Monty.

- Cuda, Oprah, stank till skunk.

- [Dexter] Hey, let me get by!

- Black man, white man, Chinese man!

- I'll knock you upside the head.

- You try!

- Stomp you right through the floor.

- Try it!

- Baby!

You a pussy.

- Your mama!

- You don't even know who your mama is.

Hell, you don't even have a damn mama.

Look, the police finds him in the gutter

and brings him to the door.

And lights is flashing.

And they give him to dad.

Pss, born in the sewer

with the shit and the piss.

- Cortez!

I don't wanna ever hear you say that

about your brother again.

- Yeah but- - Not anytime,

not anyplace, you got that?

♪ Be my lady

♪ I'm sure that we could find a little ♪

- Planning a heist?

- Nah, just a little souvenir from Nam.

So, how's your brother like Nigeria?

When's he coming home?

- [Dexter] I don't know.

He's still got two continents to go.

- That ought to keep you around for a while.

- I figure he'll keep going till he,

till his money runs out.

- [Karl] What's that?

- He'll go until his money runs out.

♪ Still all my life they give it to me ♪

- [Karl] The grand tour, eh?

- Oh.

- [Karl] Well, that's the way to do it.

♪ Try too hard to get it

- Nigeria, huh?

- Yeah.

Nigeria.

- Mmm.

[both laughing]

[train chugging]

- There is no quintessential American experience anymore.

There's no sense of continuity.

And there might never have been

but it seems like there used to be.

This is a culture in decay, a culture in fragments.

There's no shared reality at all nowadays.

With the possible exception of television.

- In China, television is more public experience

to share as a group.

So it is a more sharing experience

and not so much a waste of time.

- One night I watched the news, local news.

Terrible story about the double murder.

Then I watch the CBS evening news with Dan Rather

to see the election race

and also to see if there's anything about China.

Then some game shows.

Chen and I laugh at them because of the people who play.

Spin this or guess this and win money or a car,

or steak knives!

- When I watch football,

I think about how everyone in America

is also watching the Monday Night Football.

Seeing the same play,

hearing the same word,

seeing the same commercial.

Men drinking a beer in a bars

with the TV on loud or in a home.

I think about this.

The whole country watching together.

A series of parts that make up a whole.

Everyone is connected.

This is very American.

This is America.

- [Czapinczyk] Hey, kid!

Come here!

So, which one is Dexter Mitchell's?

- Why the hell should I tell you?

[door shutting]

- Which one is Dexter Mitchell's?

- Right there, third floor.

- [Czapinczyk] Third floor?

- Yeah.

Hey mister.

Wanna buy a watch?

- Piss off, kid.

- Stink bomb?

[door shutting]

[car beeping]

- Wow.

- There you go.

You're driving right now.

How's that feel?

Take a left under the bridge.

- [Chen] I must make signal?

- [Dexter] Yeah, yeah make the signal.

No, no signal. [cars honking]

Shh, no, Chen!

You just ran a red light.

Billy, turn that damn thing off.

So how was your date with Kimi Hu?

- Kimi who?

[Dexter laughing]

- You know who I'm talking about.

Kimi Hu, H-U, go.

- Ah, well my next date is with Kimi What.

[Dexter laughing]

- Hey sirs, Mr. White mans,

can you give me a dollar? - [Dexter] Don't look at him.

- Dollar?

Just a dollar, I know you're good for it.

What about you, Mr. Chinese man sir?

You got a dollar?

I know you got one. - [Dexter] Hey, man, I just-

- I just wanna get something to eat,

just some corn chips or something.

You ain't gonna let a man starve?

- [Chen] It's okay.

It's just a dollar.

In China we- - We're not in China.

This guy's a pro, he's conning you.

- Why do you wanna do me like that for, huh?

Why you wanna do me like that?

- [Chen] Sorry.

- Sorry, shit!

You goddamn gook!

You fucking gook! - Drive.

- Wait, now I'm gonna find out where you live!

- Don't look back. - Come back here!

I know where you live, man!

I know where you live!

I'm gonna get you!

I'm gonna get you!

Sorry, don't tell me sorry!

Don't tell me sorry!

- [sighing] Oh, wow.

That was great.

And I got the whole thing.

- [Dexter] Yeah, what's so great about it?

- Yeah, it was so real.

The clash of cultures is almost poetic.

- Homeless guy curses at you and spits at you

and that's poetic?

[reggae music]

♪ Stand your ground

- Stop! [tires screeching]

[truck honking]

[Chen laughing]

[everyone laughing]

- Jesus.

- Mitchell, do you believe in God?

- Can you just drop me off?

[door creaking]

- Hey, why did you ask me that before,

about whether I believe in god?

- Ah, well do you?

- Well do you?

- Now do you?

- Let's just say I consider myself a humanist.

I believe in people and free will.

- Okay.

Hmm, as a scientist, I myself cannot believe in God.

Yet Einstein is often quoted as saying

that God does not play at dice.

No.

You know the chaos theory?

Even apparent random phenomenon

can be explained mathematically.

There is a law to everything.

The pattern made by cigarette smoke.

The way a crystal or a snowflake fall.

The weather pattern.

- Like when a butterfly beats its wings in Belgium

and creates a snowstorm in Beijing?

- Exactly, Mitchell.

There isn't either free will nor random chance.

Only mathematical law.

[bashing]

In a four dimensional time space,

future events are determinably present.

They exist already.

Hang on.

[door clacking]

- You can't just leave the door open like that,

it's not safe.

Okay, okay, so in your cosmology,

you are predetermined to hand me this bottle of Zup

and I'm predetermined to drink it, right?

- Mhmm.

- So what happens if out of nowhere, all of a sudden

I put it back in the fridge?

- Oh, Mitchell.

Everything that happened to you,

everything you think you are deciding,

it is because of a logical pattern.

Some set of law, huh?

A mathematical function.

Nothing is a chance.

- No. - No.

You are only too close to see it.

But if you could step out of the system,

to see the system work,

if you could,

- Chen, what you're talking about is science.

What I'm talking about is people.

Whether it's God in charge or just a bunch of equations,

people don't wanna believe

that everything is predetermined.

We believe in choices and free will.

We believe in possibilities.

- Ah, Mitchell.

Where is bumfuck Egypt?

[Mitchell laughing]

- " What do you suppose creation is?

What do you suppose will satisfy the soul

but to walk free and own no superior?"

- [Mitchell Voiceover] "What do you suppose

I would intimate to you

in a hundred ways but that man or woman

is as good as God?

And that there is no God any more divine than yourself?"

My dear Chen, when you later told me

that they were black men,

I wanted to say to you that it was all chance

that here, here was God playing at dice.

That in our neighborhood, it could have been anybody.

That they just happen to be black.

[gentle piano music]

[Chen whistling]

[dog barking in distance]

[bashing]

[bike clattering]

[bashing] [man grunting]

- [Mugger] Move, move, move!

[bashing]

Come on, come here.

Get up!

Drag him up!

Bring him over here!

- No, no, please.

No, no, please.

- [Mugger] Search him!

Search him. - Please!

Please, no, no.

- Yeah, what he got?

Two dollars?

- Please!

- You're telling me you got two dollars?!

[bashing]

We oughta kill you dead, motherfucker!

For two goddamn dollars.

Welcome to America, gook!

[bashing]

Next time carry some more cash!

- The people of this country have no sense

of continuity, no history.

They move from moment to moment

like butterfly among flowers.

Without memory or awareness.

There's no sense of purpose, no discipline.

Only greed and self-indulgence.

Their minds are cluttered and unfocused.

This is from watching too much TV among other things.

TV has corrupted them,

ruined their minds and misdirected their priorities.

But I cannot grieve for this culture.

America is a barbaric nation.

Peopled by hedonists and sexual deviants

on its way to total self-destruction.

- What the hell was that all about?

- Chen.

Hey, look at me, look at me, look at me.

What the fuck?

Come on, okay come on.

Come on, can you walk?

Just barely.

[car revving]

- They said "I ought to kill you dead, motherfucker!"

- What?

- Look!

- Good heavens!

It's one of those killer bears!

- Are you seeing this?

- The brute would have attacked us!

That's Hercules!

He's faster than Andy and Dusty.

[thumping]

- [Dexter] Jesus.

- [Man On TV] It's another one of those bears.

I can't make out whether it's fresh and full.

- [Dexter] Hey!

Hey, is somebody gonna help this guy?

- They were black men, you know?

- What?

- Two black men.

- Who was that, the men that mugged you?

- Black men.

- [Announcer] Chen Lee Zung.

Chen Li Zung. - Come on mac, that's us.

Easy.

- It's gonna be a hell of a shiner.

Impress all your girlfriends.

James, got a couple of cracked ribs.

Wanna come tape them up?

- [James] Sure thing.

- No, no!

No you won't, mister, he wanna touch,

you will not touch me.

- Hey, hey, hey, I'm not gonna hurt you, man.

- No, he's fine.

Chen, shh.

- It's okay, James.

I'll take care of it.

- Damn, I wasn't gonna hurt him.

- Don't worry about it, go on.

I'll take care of it, wait outside.

- I'm just gonna be right outside.

- Take a deep breath, just calm down.

- It was that young doctor in the ER

who told him he should buy a gun.

That doctor in the emergency room

said they should hand out guns at registration

if they're gonna let poor foreign students

who don't know any better live in such a war zone.

- The city's overrun with dope.

Most muggers are hopped up on coke and angel dust

and they probably will kill you next time.

I myself never go anywhere unarmed.

- Thank you, Mitchell.

My good American friend.

- Take it easy, Chen.

We'll be home in just a second.

- Okay.

- Okay. [chuckling]

- Please do not tell him.

- [Dexter] Him who?

- Her.

Not tell her.

- [Dexter] Okay.

Her who?

- Kimi.

Could you tell us about your date with Chen?

- Sure.

It was no big deal.

Pizza, Star Wars.

Dinner and a movie, typical American date, I guess.

- So how'd it go?

- Oh, it's nothing special.

I don't know, no sparks or anything.

Plus like, guys from the People's Republic,

their attitude towards women is totally bogus.

They think that women aren't as smart as men,

that they're weaker than men,

that they're basically just inferior.

And you would think that from a communist country,

or socialist, whatever,

that you know, people would be treated equally, right?

The thing is, it's not political.

It's cultural and it's been that way

for thousands of years.

So I'll take American men any day of the week.

[phone beeping]

[phone ringing]

- [Suzanne] So, Dex.

- So?

I'll just turn the TV down a bit.

Okay.

- How was your Thanksgiving?

- [Dexter] It was fine, how was yours?

- It was fine.

Look, Dex, I'm calling you

'cause I wanted to see if you were okay.

Chen told me you were there yesterday

when I stopped by, so I guess you've

figured it out.

I kept meaning to call you

but I just kept putting it off.

Are you mad at me?

You sound really mad at me.

- Mad?

I don't know.

More like confused, I just,

I can't seem to figure you out.

- Yeah, me too.

I can't figure myself out either.

I'm nuts.

I mean, really.

- You're not nuts, Suzanne.

You just don't know what you want.

Like when we first met, remember?

And you told me that you didn't wanna get involved

and that I should just back off

and then practically overnight,

you fall in love with Czapinczyk.

And then you break up with him

and then you come back into my life

just long enough to get me interested.

- [Suzanne] Oh, Dex.

- And then I go away for four days. Four days!

And when I come back you're with Chen.

- [sighing] I'm sorry.

- [Dexter] Well, it's okay.

- No, it's not okay.

And I'm really sorry.

But you know I didn't do it on purpose.

- Look, Suzanne.

What have you told Chen about us?

- Why?

- Well I just wanna know what to expect.

How to act around him.

I mean maybe I should go over there

and talk about things, you know?

Clear the air with him.

- Oh I don't think that would be a good idea.

I think that would really complicate things.

He's pretty naive in a lot of ways, Dex.

- [Dexter] Well, what do I do now?

I mean, what do you want from me?

- Well it's simple. I want you to be my friend.

I want you to be happy for me.

Maybe it's temporary, maybe we're too different, but,

he's really good for me.

He needs me and,

I've never had that before.

Oh god.

Maybe I shouldn't be talking about this to you.

I feel like I'm just like hurting your feelings.

- Suzanne. - What?

- Are you in the bathtub?

- What?

- [laughing] I can hear you splashing around in there.

- Look, Dex, we were having a serious conversation.

I'm just trying to do the right thing, okay?

I don't think it's right to talk about him with you.

I don't talk to him about you.

- He doesn't even know, does he?

He has no idea we were lovers.

- No, no, I told him we were friends.

And that is all that he needs to know.

Look, Dex!

You're a really great guy.

You're really sweet and cute and nice

and I like you a lot, but I,

I think we're just better as friends.

It wasn't going anywhere.

And that has nothing to do with Chen.

Besides, I had no commitment with you.

I only slept with you twice.

- Yeah, I mean only...

- Ah god, Christ, listen to me.

I'm disgusted with myself, oh god.

Dex, can you please let go?

Just let go and wish me well

like I'll do for you.

Please.

[dial tone]

[phone clattering]

- [Monty] Wawawawawa!

Wawawawawa!

- Stop it.

- Wa!

Wawawawa!

- [Wa] Stop it!

[knocking]

- [Tzu] Yes?

- [Mitchell] It's me.

- Oh, come in Mitchell, it's open.

Look, one dollar from Cortez.

- You mind if I borrow a cup of rice for my

soulless Saturday bachelor dinner?

- Oh, of course.

Chen is out.

- With Suzanne?

[Wa shouting in foreign language]

Mitchell, you know the boy Monty,

downstairs, the black boy?

Whenever he sees me,

he will...

- Make motions.

- Yes, his eyes, terrible!

- That's voodoo.

I wouldn't worry about it.

It's just kids having fun.

- Not fun for me.

- Forget about it.

I'll talk to Monty, okay?

- Thank you, Mitchell.

I am mostly grateful.

- Most grateful.

- Yes, of course.

Most grateful.

- We were just talking about Chen and Suzanne.

- We make mistake with Chen.

He is not married, confused.

He confuses him.

- She.

She confuses him.

- Really, it's none of my business.

- Ah, voodoo.

A religion derived from African ancestor worship

practiced chiefly by negroes of Haiti

and characterized by propitiatory rites

and communication by trance with animalistic deities.

- Is this serious, this voodoo?

[Dexter laughing]

- Only if you believe in it.

- Ah, like God.

Hey, do you believe, Mitchell, in god?

- Jesus, what's with you guys and God?

Didn't Marx say that religion is the opiate of the masses?

- Actually, there are many opiates.

Could it be that the theory

of alternative possible worlds is one?

- I just wanna borrow a cup of rice.

- [Dexter Voiceover] Possible worlds.

Everyone's favorite wacko sub branch of modal logic.

A whole realm of theory developed

just so if conditionals and counter factuals

could have mathematical truth values.

Just so you can say, there is a possible world

in which Suzanne is a Libra

and thus is an air sign

and therefore, the statement,

if Suzanne is a Libra, she would be an air sign is true.

[speaks in foreign language]

[speaks in foreign language]

[speaks in foreign language]

[speaks in foreign language]

[speaks in foreign language]

[cheering in foreign language]

[knocking]

- Surprise.

- Hi. - Hi.

- Please, sit down.

- Is it okay?

- Oh, yes, yes, yes.

Of course.

- Good evening.

- Good evening.

- Would you like some food?

- Oh, yes, please.

- Good to see you.

- You too.

- Wa, a cup?

- Oh, pork.

- Yes. - Yes.

- Do you eat pork?

- Yes, yes. - Oh good.

- How about beer?

This is my beer.

- Oh, okay.

- Good to see you.

- Cheers. [laughing]

[phone ringing]

- Hello?

- [Czapinczyk] So, you're finally back in town, huh?

- I've been back.

What do you want, Czapinczyk?

- [Czapinczyk] How about a progress report?

- Oh, how about you go to hell?

[phone ringing]

Czapinczyk?

Why don't you get a life, man?

You know, don't you have anything better to do?

What's your fucking problem?

- My fucking problem, that's ironic

considering the circumstances,

because you are my fucking problem, Mitchell!

- That's actually where you're wrong.

So you can stop bothering me.

I haven't seen Suzanne in weeks.

Chen Li Zung is the new heir apparent

to your midnight phone threats

and your high school acts of vandalism, okay?

- You're a liar, man.

Hey, how'd you like my postcard?

I've got a tape of me and Suzanne in bed.

Do you wanna hear it?

[moaning]

[phone ringing]

God, you know!

I cannot believe this.

A goddamn chink!

You know, I'm seriously thinking about

calling the cops, having him deported.

Because there is a law against this sort of thing!

This is sodomy, fornication, misogynation!

You know, I bet he's a fucking spy!

He's a fucking spy, him and both his friends!

- How do you figure that?

- [Czapinczyk] Well what are these Chinese here to study?

- SSM, Systems Science.

- [Czapinczyk] Technology.

- Okay, so what?

- [Czapinczyk] Did you ever ask them

what kind of technology?

- Yeah, sure.

Like hydroelectric.

Radar, like in airplanes.

- Right, radar!

Right, right!

And you know what else?

Feedback loops, cybernetics!

Guidance systems for missiles,

they're milking our technology!

- Come on.

- Just think about it.

It's the perfect setup.

Instead of sending spies,

they just send students.

Instead of being under the radar,

they're above ground.

Instead of cracking the code,

they just learn the language

and they sit in the classrooms and they study.

- Okay.

- So you think this is funny, huh?

You like him fucking her, Mitchell?

- [Dexter] Look, Zap.

- [Czapinczyk] That's Czapinczyk to you, buddy.

- Look, Zap.

I'm hanging up now.

- Well, yeah I'm glad we got to have

this little chat together.

And I guess I won't be needing to call you anymore.

You wouldn't happen to have his number, would you?

[train chugging]

- Hey yo, wanna buy a stink bomb?

- [Wa] No.

- [Cortez] Drugs?

- Go away.

- A gun?

[solemn music]

[door knocking]

- [Chen] Ah, Mitchell, good morning.

Do you have, how do you call,

the thing to fix when the water is broken?

Ah.

- Is that all?

- Yes.

- Is something wrong?

- No.

Did you watch the news this morning?

- No, actually, I slept through it.

- Today is the 39th anniversary for Pearl Harbor.

Sneak attack.

- Yeah, so?

- So Wa thinks that perhaps

we should not go outside.

Because the American cannot tell the difference

between the Japanese and the Chinese.

And perhaps there will be trouble.

- That's paranoia.

You tell Wa that he's paranoid.

Nobody even remembers Pearl Harbor

and anybody that's still mad about Pearl Harbor

is so old and feeble that they couldn't

cause you any trouble, okay?

- Thank you, Mitchell.

- Yeah, so don't worry about it.

- Thank you.

- So.

How's Suzanne doing?

Suzanne?

- Oh.

Suzanne!

- Yeah, Suzanne. You went shopping with her the other day.

- Yes, he is good.

- Ah yeah?

When was the last time you saw him?

- He's coming here this afternoon.

- Tell him I said hi.

- Yeah, did you ask him about it?

- Mitchell, sorry.

Do you know how to play the intramural football?

There is a game,

and the department would like us to play.

- We thought maybe you could teach us how to play.

Now.

Not now, this afternoon.

- What about Suzanne, don't you have plans?

- Later.

- What, you guys got running shoes?

- Adidas!

- [Dexter] Wa, come on, let's go!

[Tzu speaks in foreign language]

[Dexter speaks in foreign language]

[Chen speaks in foreign language]

[Dexter speaks in foreign language]

- [Chen] [speaks in foreign language] That's good, Dexter.

[speaks in foreign language]

- There we go.

Yes, right here, right here.

Right here, throw it right here.

- Hey, hey!

That ain't yours.

- What ain't?

- That ball, that's mine.

- [Dexter] Oh yeah?

- Yeah, let me see that ball.

- [Dexter] It isn't yours.

- I'ma tell my dad you stole my ball.

- [Dexter] Go ahead.

- Ooh, y'all in trouble now.

- Maybe we should give back the ball.

- Don't worry about it.

- I told you not to play.

- Come on, it's fine.

- All three of you Chinese fellas out here

and you left your TV on going full blast.

Don't you know there's an energy crisis in this country?

[laughing] How about a game, sport?

My boys'll stand all y'all.

Two hand touch, below the belt,

no razzle dazzle.

One run per series, three completes a first.

One man rush, and the rusher counts four Mississippis.

We'll play till three touchdowns

or till it gets dark.

- And no field goals.

- You guys wanna play?

- Yes.

- Sure.

- It's your funeral.

But how about two hand touch anywhere

and two completes for a first down?

'Cause these guys never played before.

- [Karl] Oh, you're breaking my heart, Mitchell.

- Look at these guys.

They've never even touched a football.

- What about this guy?

- All right, okay, come here, come here. Okay, ready?

So you are covering Cortez

and you're covering Monty.

He's the little guy with the crazy hair, okay?

- Yeah, uh huh.

- All right, so I'm gonna cover the big guy

because you can't handle him.

I'm gonna count Mississippis.

You stay on him, the guy with the beanie,

you do not let him catch the ball,

understand? - Okay, okay.

- And you with the little guy, same thing, ready?

Okay, on three, break, ready?

One, two-

- Break!

- Break!

- Little on three.

- [All] One, two, three, Little!

[energetic music]

- T-92!

T-92!

747!

- Dad! - Hut!

- Hut hut!

Cortez!

[shouting]

- Two hand touch,

two hand touch! - No, no, no.

No, no, no. - Two hand touch.

Two hand touch.

- You have to catch it.

You didn't catch it.

Okay, okay.

Give him back the ball.

You gotta catch it.

Okay good, there we go, ready? Here you go, here we go.

Same thing, same play.

- Same play?

- Same play, break, break, break. Hut!

One Mississippi, two Mississippi,

three Mississippi, four Mississippi!

- Yeah!

Touchdown!

- [Monty] Yeah boy!

- Who had him?

Who had him?

Who had him?

[shouting in foreign language]

- No, no.

Okay now, it's our ball, let's go!

Okay kick it off!

Okay we're back there, we're back there.

- Ah, sparky.

Now it's your turn.

Let's check you off one.

I'm gonna give you a chip.

- Stop filming me!

- Okay so- - Let's do the flea flicker.

- No, it's not our play.

- Now listen up, listen up.

First of all, Tzu, you're center.

I want you to go five steps up

and then turn around, okay?

Chen, I want you to do a zig zag formation like this

and head straight towards the garage.

Okay, ready?

[clanging]

Chen, catch the goddamn ball!

Catch the goddamn ball!

- I hurt.

- [Monty] Take it like a man, Chen!

Come on, Chen.

Let's go!

- Third down.

- [Dexter] Okay here we go, here we go.

- Third down.

- [Dexter] Ready?

One Mississippi, two Mississippi go!

- One Mississippi, two Mississippi.

[Chen screaming]

- [Dexter] All right, hold it up, Chen.

Got one.

- I got one.

[laughing]

- Nice catch, Chen.

- Thank you. - There you go.

That's enough, come on, let's go.

Come on boys, let's go inside.

We gonna eat, come on.

Come on, come on.

Come on.

[siren blaring in distance]

- Hey, this is Mick Czapinczyk

from the Halloween party.

- [Tzu] Yes?

- I'd like you to stop fucking my girlfriend.

- What do you mean?

- You know what I mean.

If you don't stop fucking my girlfriend

we're gonna have a little get-together, man to man.

You know what I mean?

- You have the wrong number.

In China, we have our own ideas about Americans

and American way of life.

About, for example, capitalism and racial injustice

and so on.

Sex and violence.

As outsiders, our main difficulty

is to interpret, to understand.

So when you ask me what do I think about America,

I must say simply I do not know.

- [Interviewer] Still, TV must have given you some kind

of overall impression.

- Yes.

Americans are obsessed with sex!

And violence.

Did you know, Mr. Chen was beaten and robbed?

Why?

Americans have too many guns.

Too easy to get one.

So everybody has a gun

so everybody needs a gun for protection.

Much of this violence I believe

is a result of injustice and class struggle.

Where in China, many people believe that violence

and excessive sex are the result

of bad economies.

Capitalism.

[light guitar music]

- [Announcer] Wes from the end zone.

And the 50!

A 50 in two quarters

who is this dropped in the endzone by Tommy Favor.

Tommy Favor got pushed in the endzone for a tough quarter.

Here's the play action.

Pass right here as Rose goes to throw the ball.

He's looking downfield, he goes to throw right here.

- [Reporter] Yes, we have to say it.

Remember, this is just a football game.

No matter who wins or loses,

an unspeakable tragedy

confirmed to us by ABC news in New York City.

John Lennon, outside of his apartment building

on the west side of New York City,

the most famous perhaps of all of the Beatles

shot twice in the back,

rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival.

Hard to go to back to the game

after that newsflash.

Which in due evening,

now we have to say frankly.

- Kill everybody!

Move to New York City!

Live like a whore!

First they split them up

then she killed him!

Oh, sure, you're Chinese.

Oh, I suppose.

Oh yeah, yeah, not Japanese, no.

Everybody's Chinese today.

Well, that's no excuse!

Somebody has to answer for this!

Like they said on the radio

it's the end of a goddamn era.

[somber guitar music]

- The New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins

for the playoffs.

So, don't you think it is ironic, Mitchell?

Because John Lennon had an album called Revolver.

And he was also shot with a revolver.

- Oh, for god's sake.

- What?

- You just don't know what the hell

you're talking about, Chen, so just drop it.

- Well this Mark David-

- What, you think that if John had a gun

he'd be alive today?

- Yes, Suzanne.

I believe he would.

- [Tzu] Ugh, how is it, Mitchell?

- It's corroded.

There's rust from hell in here.

Can you pass me the pliers please?

- All bastards on TV. - You could

try the other direction.

- Of all the pompous pricks, why, why

why did it have to be Howard Cosell?

Tragic news today, sports fans.

The famous ex Beatle John Lennon was shot to death

on the street.

Oh, what a loss of potential, what a tragic act of violence!

What a jerk!

What does Howard Cosell care about the Beatles?

What the fuck does he care?

- Oy, are you all right?

- It's all right.

- America is sick country.

Too much guns.

And John Lennon, he's from England.

John Lennon comes to America, America kills him.

- And that's why you bought a gun?

- How about the sink?

- Call the landlord.

[phone ringing]

[rock music]

♪ A lot of them you take game

♪ I heard you say most noble brother ♪

♪ Will you play

♪ Will you play

♪ Fast forward sister

♪ So you're growing up now

♪ Flash straight through everything ♪

♪ Lessons learned but you're not there to change ♪

- You think I'm nuts, Dex.

To be so distraught.

I mean it's not like I'm some aging flower child

or the Beatles were my whole life.

I was too young, I was 15 when they broke up.

I was 12 when the White Album came out.

I was just a kid, you know.

Never dropped acid to Sgt. Pepper

or sing "Give Peace A Chance" at a war protest.

But that music.

It was always there, always.

I grew up with it.

It's like the soundtrack to our life.

You know, so real, so full of hope and possibility and,

I loved John.

I mean we all loved John.

He was the one.

And they have no idea.

- Chen knows the Beatles.

- You think I'm drunk, don't you?

I am not drunk.

I had something to drink

but I am perfectly in control.

I know exactly what I am saying.

♪ Fast forward, sister

- Look, Suzanne.

♪ So you're growing up now

♪ Flash straight through everything ♪

♪ Lessons learned but you're not there to change ♪

♪ Though we waited for each other ♪

♪ Love is best when you take aim ♪

♪ I heard you say most noble brother ♪

♪ Will you play

♪ Will you play

[Suzanne moaning]

- I love you.

And your heart.

[door clacking]

[man shouting in distance]

- I'm cold, can we get a sheet?

- I'll hold you, keep you warm.

I'll keep you warm.

- [Suzanne] Could you?

Could you go get a blanket please?

I should go.

I have work tomorrow.

- When are you gonna tell him?

- I don't know.

I don't wanna hurt him.

I don't think he would understand it, Dex.

- Well, if you don't tell him,

if you don't tell him, I will.

I will.

- No, you won't.

[light music]

♪ Well it's been a long time long time now ♪

♪ Since I seen your smile [knocking]

♪ And I'll gamble

♪ away my pride [phone ringing]

♪ And I'll gamble away my time

♪ And in a year or year or so

♪ Is a serpent or a sea

♪ But it's been a long time long time now ♪

♪ Since I've seen your smile

- Will you go with me to the Lennon

Memorial Service on Sunday?

- [Suzanne] It's seven a.m., Dex.

- I was just wondering if you would go with me, that's all.

- Please don't do this.

I can't, Dex.

I need space.

I can't see anybody right now.

- "Love is a dog from hell.

Feet of cheese, coffee pot soul,

hands that hate pool sticks, eyes like paper clips,

I prefer red wine.

I am bored on air liners.

I am docile during earthquakes.

I am sleepy at funerals.

I puke at parades

and am sacrificial at chess

and cunt and caring.

I smell urine in churches.

I can no longer read, I can no longer sleep.

Eyes like paper clips, my green eyes

I prefer white wine.

My box of rubbers is getting stale.

I take them out.

Trojans, lubricated.

For greater sensitivity, I take them out

and I put three of them on

till the walls of my bedroom are blue.

[door knocking]

- What's this?

- I am going today to an important appointment.

Mitchell?

You look horrible.

- Thank you.

You look great.

- So I came here to ask you for your help with,

how to...

- I can't do it backwards.

Let's go to the mirror.

- I'm going this morning to the police.

- What for?

- I perhaps should not say.

Mitchell, I am sorry to mention it.

I can tell you are upset.

But I think perhaps that Suzanne has been here and

though you may think it is none of my business

I will say that she has brought only trouble on us all.

- She's not a bad person, Tzu, she's not.

- It is because of Suzanne that I am going to the police.

She has told this Mick Czapinczyk,

her former boyfriend, that she is dating Chen,

sleeping with him.

And now he calls our house all the time at any hour

and threatens Chen.

Things too horrible to mention.

- Here's something I'm sure you'll enjoy.

It's a tape of me and Suzanne in bed together!

Listen!

[moaning]

I'm gonna have you drink a gallon of flat beer

and then I'm gonna have my black soldiers

hang you upside down by your feet

and tie your dick to your head

with a very short rope.

So that every time you piss,

you're gonna piss in your face.

- Sometimes he talks so fast we cannot understand

what he is saying.

We're all afraid to answer the phone.

- You think Genghis Khan laid waste to China?

You ain't seen nothing yet.

You better buy a gun, gook.

You're gonna need it.

- [Tzu] I was against it,

but Chen has lost his mind from fear.

And Wa also wanted the gun to protect us.

I could not convince them.

They voted.

- And now you have a gun?

Democracy in action.

- [Tzu] And it is all from Suzanne.

- Listen, Tzu.

Let me take care of this.

It's a big misunderstanding.

I'm gonna call Zap this afternoon

and I'm gonna talk some sense into him

and I'll get him to leave Chen alone.

And then you guys can give Mr. Little back his gun.

- [Tzu] If you can do this,

then we can avoid the police.

- Look, forget the police.

You don't need the police, okay?

I'm gonna take care of it.

And Tzu,

Suzanne?

She's not what you think.

You know, she's just,

don't hate her, she's got a good heart.

She's just confused.

I mean, look.

She's not in love with Chen.

She's not, that's over with.

So you don't have to worry about it, okay?

- Oh, Mitchell, my friend.

She is with him still, since 7:30 last night.

[Monty screaming]

- What's this, Monty?

The hell is the matter with you, man?

- Sorry dude, I thought you were that four eyed chink.

- Hey, listen to me.

That four eyes chink, as you call him

is just about fed up with you.

You pissed him off one too many times.

He's about half an inch away

from kicking your little ass, you dig?

- I wasn't doing nothing but witching him.

- Well why don't you try witching somebody else?

Why don't you try witching Chen for a change?

- Which one's Chen?

- The one with the girlfriend.

- [Dexter Voiceover] An offhand comment

made on impulse.

No ulterior motive.

Something just off the top of the head.

Something you're not even sure you meant.

The minute flutter of a butterfly's wings in Belgium

that ends up as a snowstorm in Beijing.

- It was horrible.

There was this awful thud, this sickening thud

and I pulled over and I ran out of the car.

[tires screeching] [thudding]

Oh, god oh!

It's this, this little bundle of blood and fur

flopping and kicking.

Oh god, I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry.

He didn't do anything-

- It's not your fault.

- Don't.

I don't remember if he said anything else.

But what I do remember

is this ominous feeling

there was something between us.

A sense of things slipping out of alignment.

[ignition cranking]

God, dammit!

God, dammit!

I'm walking.

[door slamming]

[car honking]

[knocking]

[door slamming]

[somber piano music]

What is wrong with you?

Why are you acting so weird?

- I'm not weird.

- No, I don't wanna go.

I don't wanna go to the memorial anymore.

- I will walk with you.

- No, I don't want to! I wanna go home.

Okay?

I know what you're thinking.

In another possible world,

Suzanne brings Dex instead of Chen to the Lennon Memorial.

- [Reporter] Situated there among our reporters,

here's Mark Rogers.

- [Mark] We are here in Central Park

not too far from the band shell,

which is decorated for Christmas

with a wreath in the middle.

Underneath that there, with two bouquets

of flowers on each side

is a picture of John Lennon

wearing the New York City t-shirt.

And New York City has turned out for him today.

There are hundreds of thousands of people gathered here

[car honking]

- You jerk, leave me the fuck alone!

What the hell are you doing?

- I am ready for him now.

I will protect myself.

- Get out of the car.

I am not driving another inch

with a gun in the car.

Give me that thing.

You are out of your mind!

You unload it and then I'll drive, okay?

Here, give me.

Look, Chen, I am,

I'm over my head here.

I can't do this anymore.

I don't think we should see each other anymore.

It's not your fault.

Let's just call it quits

and walk away friends, okay?

- This is because of Mitchell?

I know it.

Tzu told me.

- It was a nightmare.

I thought I was gonna pass out.

I hate guns!

[siren blaring in distance]

[light guitar music]

♪ Angels we have heard on high

♪ Sweetly singing on the plains ♪

♪ And the mountains in reply

[tapping]

♪ Echoing their joyous strains

♪ Glo

♪ ria

♪ In excelsis deo

♪ Glo

♪ Ria

♪ In excelsis deo

[train chugging]

- I'll call you.

- I don't really think that's such a good idea.

I mean, this is like fun and everything, but,

I'm kind of seeing somebody

and he'll be like, back tomorrow.

So...

- [Tzu] [speaks in foreign language] Chen!

[knocking]

[speaks in foreign language]

[speaks in foreign language]

[speaks in foreign language]

[speaks in foreign language]

[Wa speaks in foreign language]

[speaks in foreign language]

[Wa speaks in foreign language]

- Shh!

[speaks in foreign language]

[speaks in foreign language]

[speaks in foreign language]

[speaks in foreign language]

[speaks in foreign language]

- [Chen] I want to talk to you.

I'm sorry, Mitchell.

Please forgive me.

I never knew she was your girlfriend.

- She wasn't.

She's not.

I don't have anything to say to you.

- Please, Mitchell.

My friend.

Please forgive me.

You are my friend.

We are friends.

You helped me in the hospital,

in the emergency room.

You teach me to drive,

you have always been so kind to me.

So why would you not tell me this

if she was your lover?

- Oh, Chen, you know I don't know how it is in China,

but in America, people have sex

for lots of different reasons.

You don't have to be in love, you know,

sometimes it's just a warm body thing,

or maybe you're drunk or you're lonely.

Sometimes it's making love

and sometimes it's just fucking.

- What was it with Suzanne?

- Chen, that's something you're gonna have to ask her.

- In the bathtub.

Okay, on his couch.

Yeah, two days ago on the couch.

Is that the kind of thing that you wanna hear?

Look, Chen, I am not trying to hurt you

but can you please leave me alone now?

[Chen sobbing]

[speaks in foreign language]

[speaks in foreign language]

[people chattering in distance]

[lightly tense music]

- You cannot pass!

You cannot pass, Chinese man!

I'm the great Montezumi Little.

My name is Little, but I'm big!

Big as a mountain!

I suck your mama's titty.

And I'll put a spell on you that'll make you puke,

pee and spit out blood!

- Okay.

Now get out of my way.

If you do not move, I will tell your father.

- He ain't my father and he ain't speaking to you.

- If you do not move,

I will kill you.

- That ain't yours, that's my dad's.

Now give it.

- You just said he was not your father.

- I said he ain't my father.

I didn't say he ain't my dad.

Gimme!

- Can I talk to Chen?

[keys clinking]

- Give me the gun and you can go.

Or if you don't,

I'll put a hurting spell on you.

- Here.

Shoot me.

Monty, shoot me.

Shoot me!

Shoot me!

Shoot me, god man!

Shoot me!

Shoot me! - Get away!

Get away.

Get away!

Get away!

[screaming]

[gun firing]

[siren blaring]

[radio chatter] [somber piano music]

[phone ringing]

- It was Czapinczyk.

- It was Mick Czapinczyk who suggested he buy the gun.

- Not me.

It's not true.

- Of course I didn't sell him the gun.

- That doctor in the emergency room

said they should hand out guns at registration

if they're gonna let poor foreign students

who don't know any better live in such a war zone.

- He said if I didn't move, he would kill me.

- That's all I know.

- You know, my brother Montezuma,

he's on trial for murder with a deadly weapon.

Hey Dexter, you want some coffee?

- Thanks, Cortez.

[speaks in foreign language]

- [Dexter] What?

[speaks in foreign language]

- Don't give me that shit, Wa!

[speaks in foreign language] - I didn't get the gun, huh?

[speaks in foreign language]

- I didn't get the gun!

[shouts in foreign language] - You hear me?

I didn't get the gun!

[Wa shouts in foreign language]

- Bunch of bullshit!

[shouts in foreign language]

- How'd the vote go, Wa?

How'd the vote go?!

[shouting in foreign language]

[train chugging]

- We have thus procedures for airline shipments.

A plywood crate with foam padding around a sealed coffin.

The lid has to be securely sealed

because of pressure changes in the cargo hold.

- The bullet entered between the sixth

and seventh ribs, it ruptured the lung,

it punctured the aorta and then it glanced off

the right scapula on the way out.

- When you're dealing with international students,

you come to expect just about anything.

Nobody could have expected this.

- I've made the wrong movie.

I mean the shots are all wrong.

- What did you expect, Billy?

Even if we documented every single fact,

interviewed everybody involved,

we'd still be filming around it.

- Maybe I could do something like a director's preface.

I could say something like,

Chen's American life is a story of love,

death, and corrupted innocence,

and I could explain how there's not gonna be

a traditional narrative.

- No.

Billy, no.

Admitting that there's no story

does not make it a story.

- So what will I do now?

- Go back to the original concept.

- Just have the Chinese comment on American TV?

- It's my fault.

I feel like I'm responsible.

Like I killed him.

- No.

I did.

- Dex.

You're kind, you're just trying to cheer me up.

- You sure you don't want a ride to the airport?

- I hate farewells.

You should go now.

- You can sit in the back.

You don't have to talk to me.

I'll even charge you.

- No thanks, Dex, I need that subway right now.

Go on.

You're to leave first.

[light piano music]

- [Dexter Voiceover] Chen would have appreciated

the irony of his death being ruled accidental.

He believed that there are no accidents,

no fortuitous events,

that God, whatever that means,

does not play at dice.

Everything is connected, he'd said.

Each event is a matrix of force and energy

and the architecture of sequential moments

in space time is immutable.

The sparrow falls, the plane is missed,

the car runs out of gas on the railroad tracks.

I keep thinking, if Czapinczyk had caught

two more red lights,

he'd have missed Chen entirely.

If Suzanne had hung up a few minutes earlier

Chen would have been off the phone and out the door

before Czapinczyk got there.

If Monty's dad had called him to supper sooner.

The permutations are endless.

In another possible world, Chen never comes to America.

He flunks English and becomes a Chinese acrobat.

In another possible world, he lives

in a dorm room on campus.

He never meets Suzanne,

and she and I live happily ever after.

There is even in this infinite realm of possible worlds

where no Chinese exist at all.

No Chen, no Wa, No Tzu,

no Mao Tze Tung, no Confucius,

no Kublai Khan, no Charlie Chan.

But these fantasies contrived so we can understand

the most human of all ideas.

The yearning for things to be other than they are.

In the end they mean nothing.

We're able to acknowledge these infinities

to consider them,

but in the last analysis, we're doomed.

I understand now.

To live and act and interpret here, in this.

The best of all possible worlds.

[light music]

[light bluegrass music]

♪ Oh late one night in Spain

♪ I was lying on a beach

♪ Buzzing five or six rings deep ♪

♪ Captivate by the starlight

♪ When something approaching from the water got me scared ♪

♪ But it was just a gorgeous girl ♪

♪ She introduced herself as Claire ♪

♪ We spent the next few days lying in that spot ♪

♪ And that Spanish summer's hot ♪

♪ But I tell you she was hotter and ♪

♪ She wrote my name out with her finger in the sand ♪

♪ But she was quick to reprimand me ♪

♪ When I wiped it with my hand

♪ Oh Claire, oh Claire

♪ You came from somewhere special ♪

♪ And I'd love to find out where ♪

♪ Oh Claire, oh Claire

♪ You came from somewhere special ♪

♪ And I'd love to join you there ♪

♪ There 14 cages are kept inside her mind ♪

♪ And in each one you will find ♪

♪ A different type of creature

♪ When she opens up a cage to set one free ♪

♪ Her personality becomes reflective of the creature ♪

♪ And next to the bear above the lemur lies a lynx ♪

♪ And it looks just like a sphinx ♪

♪ From my childhood schoolbooks ♪

♪ And she doesn't leash him and she keeps him really fit ♪

♪ But she lets him out in bed

♪ And needless to say he's my favorite ♪

♪ And oh Claire, oh Claire

♪ You're living in your own world ♪

♪ And I'd love to find out where ♪

♪ Oh Claire, Oh Claire

♪ You're living in your own world ♪

♪ And I'd love to join you there ♪

♪ Everything she touched turned to a masterpiece of art ♪

♪ She was ever listless smart

♪ She could be intimidating

♪ I took the real world off to spend more time with her ♪

♪ But when it came time to return ♪

♪ I asked her to come with me

♪ She smiled brightly and said you know I'd love to ♪

♪ And I came here just for you

♪ And I too must be returning

♪ The next morning I woke up and turned to my sweet Claire ♪

♪ But she vanished into air

♪ And I'd kill to find out where ♪

♪ Oh where

♪ Oh Claire, oh Claire

♪ You came from somewhere special ♪

♪ And I'd love to find out where ♪

♪ Oh Claire, oh Claire

♪ You came from somewhere special ♪

♪ And I'd love to join you there ♪

♪ Oh Claire, oh Claire

♪ You're living in your own world ♪

♪ And I'd love to find out where ♪

♪ Oh Claire, oh Claire

♪ You're living in your own world ♪

♪ And I'd love to join you there ♪