Original subtitles

Guy Maddin, housepainter...

swirling around in his little dreams, his little memories.

About to return to his childhood home...

after an absence of 30 years.

Summoned by a letter from his mother, also not seen in 30 years.

"It is my dying wish...

"that you go back to our old home at Black Notch...

"and give the lighthouse two good coats of paint...

"so that I might see it spruce and proper...

at least once before I pass on. "

"I will come when I'm able, if I am able.

Signed, Mother. "

The past.

The past.

Into the past.

The deserted Black Notch Island.

The deserted lighthouse.

Site of the old mom-and-pop orphanage run by Guy's parents.

What distant, distant memories.

Slap a coat of paint on it!

Cover it up. Cover it up, Guy!

Two good coats. Two.

The past.

The past.

The past.

Painting, brooding, thinking of the past-

of home, of childhood...

of loves lost...

of scattered friends...

of happiness grown cold.

Brooding and painting.

Painting and brooding. The past!

The past.

The past.

Young Guy, 12 years old...

out at the secret meeting of orphans.

All eyes on Savage Tom...

the oldest orphan on the island...

leading a Black Mass.

Guy's older sister-

always living dangerously.

Sis, always in trouble, always in trouble.

To bend a young boy's will...

Guy's mother threatens daily to sell the island.

Guy, heir to his father's island and orphanage.

And the threats gnaw like worms in the lad's bosom.

"I, too, am an orphan.

"My mother, I am told, was very beautiful...

"but completely bald.

"Her sister had superb hair but was barren of womb.

"The two girls were so jealous of each other...

"of what the other had- hair, a baby-

"they didn't waste words.

"Their hatred spilled over into bloody violence.

"Knives were never far from hand.

"One was scalped for her beautiful hair...

the other one stabbed into the stomach to get at that baby. "

"From my mother's womb untimely ripped...

"I was carved from my mother's belly.

"Now my mother and aunt are buried in the silt of the lagoon...

"next to each other...

disgraced, forgotten. "

The sights, the sounds...

the feel of Guy's beloved island.

While the orphans toil at their chores...

young Guy is free to wander his island...

free to indulge himself, free to remember.

Free to remember.

So many secret spots to revisit.

And out gush the torrents of memory.

Everything that happens will happen again, twice.

"The first time I will just see something...

"smell it or taste it...

"but it won't stick.

"I know there will come again someday...

a second chance to really feel these things really. "

One day, Guy's solitary practices received a spectacular, disruptive jolt-

the sudden appearance upon his familiar island of a celebrity.

Is it?

Is it?

It's Wendy Hale, the sister half of sibling teen detectives...

known around the world to readers of crime stories...

as the Lightbulb Kids.

With her brother, Chance Hale, these two intrepid sleuths...

have earned far-flung fame...

for both their harp playing and their crime solving.

"I am here on Black Notch Island...

"to work on the case of The Face in the Lighthouse.

"Seems many of the children adopted out of this orphanage...

have very suspicious holes pierced into the back of their heads. "

"Oh, Wendy."

Shh. Secrets.

Secrets.

Shh.

Secrets are always told in whispers.

Guy, always on the run- running to please.

Secrets.

Secrets.

Secrets.

"Mother!"

Invented by Guy's father...

the aerophone allows two people who love each other...

to communicate over great distances...

merely by speaking into or bending an ear toward the horn.

The signal is strongest when the feelings are running high...

when the communicants are deeply in love...

but also during outbursts of extreme fury.

In other instances, the signal is either weak or nonexistent.

And so, Mother has given little aerophones to her two children...

in order to tell them she loves them and to keep them out of trouble.

Just one of the fantastic devices invented by Guy's father.

It seems Neddie once threw his little brother's toy...

into a powerful transformer...

never expecting the toddler would retrieve it.

The little one was fried to an ash...

and Neddie has been ticking and twitching ever since.

"A nd both my mother and I have identical birthmarks over our womb...

"as if a knife had cut us open too.

"Isn't that creepy?

It looks like Rumania, doesn't it?"

"Rumania! Rumania! Rumania!"

Charms just asking to be enjoyed.

Wendy decides that she can pursue her interests on Black Notch Island...

much better as a boy...

so she quickly disguises herself as her own brother-

Chance Hale, teen detective.

Chance explains that Wendy was called back home on a secret business...

and that he, Chance, would be taking over the Black Notch investigations.

"Oh, Wendy."

The detective gets down to work.

Chance is gathering all the evidence.

Guy, smitten again.

This time, Chance is the dazzling one.

"Oh, Chance. Chance."

Hero and role model.

"Chance-all to myself."

Chance thinks differently than the other boys.

Mother used suicide threats as her primary teaching aid.

She kept orphans and offspring alike in line with colorful bluffs.

Chance has this theory, and his theories are always right.

Mother and Father are criminals.

Chance says so.

"If only I could remember...

"the exact order of the places I've touched...

"Just before I found Wendy.

Wendy. Wendy. "

Everything happens twice. Twice.

Now!

Fearing that Sis will touch him...

and discover his secret identity as a girl...

Chance devises a strategy of the kissing gloves.

"Only the wearer of these nifty little items...

is allowed to do any touching, " claims Chance.

Ah! Sweet gloves.

"Stop! Look at your hair!"

"I really love goats."

"Guy's mom says they're devils because their pupils are square. "

"I think they are lonely."

Chance wants Sis, and Sis wants Chance.

Can it last?

Both Guy and Sis are crazy about Chance.

Guy pines for Wendy...

but loves every second spent with his new hero, Chance.

The secret touches between Chance and Sis...

and the secret touches yet to come.

The kissing gloves now the undressing gloves.

Mother is determined to age backwards.

To become a little girl again. Even a baby-

a complete innocent.

She's even set aside a cradle in her room...

for when the day of infancy finally returns.

"Your father is so overworked.

I will always be there for him. "

Secrets are hard things to keep secret.

Now!

Ah. Sweet gloves.

Always embarrassed by being out with Mother.

Holding hands.

What happens behind the door...

is secret.

Secret.

Secret.

I wish there was a little keyhole that I could look through.

"F-Day.

"A II questions about Father will be answered tonight.

"A II mysteries solved anon!

"I'll force the issue.

Mother will have me in Father's lab faster than" -

Rage!

Frequent rage!

Rage ages one!

Rage ages all!

"Oh! Oh!"

It takes the weight of many orphans...

to keep Father's casket in the earth.

#Mother's gone #

# We're orphans #

# Orphan angels now #

# Her heavenly charge #

# Pennies paid #

# For water's passage #

# Burdens we no more ##

What's a suicide attempt without a wedding?

So much for suicide!

Plan "B"!

Rumania! Rumania! Rumania! Rumania!

"Oh."

Relief.

Cursed relief.

Fevers.

Chills.

Sleepwalking.

Down in the dorms...

a voodoo restlessness prevails after the resurrection of Father.

"Go! Go! Go! Out! Out! Run! Quickly! Quickly! Quickly!

Quickly! Quickly! Quickly!"

"Everyone's playing hooky! Everyone's running, running!"

Three's a crowd on honeymoons.

Guy banished.

#Whither, wander#

# Whither, wander#

# Everything, everything twice #

# Whither, wander#

# Whither, wander#

# Everything, everything twice #

# Everything twice #

# Whither, wander#

# Whither, wander#

# Everything twice Everything twice again #

# Whither, wander Whither, wander#

# Everything, everything twice #

# Everything twice #

# Whither and wander, wondering #

# Wandering, wonder or withering #

# Whither, whither#

# Thither, thither#

# Wander, whither#

# Whither, wander##

"Cover it up, Guy. Cover it up."

#When that I was #

# But a little tiny boy #

# With a hey, ho #

# The wind and the rain #

# A foolish thing was but a toy #

# For the rain, he raineth every day ##

Cry, baby, cry.

Put your finger in your eye...

and tell your mother it wasn't I.

Subtitles by LeapinLar