電影劇本：SHANGHAI JEWS（29）

（29）

 

INT. HALL -- SYNAGOGUE -- GHETTO -- HONGKOW -- DAY

At breakfast, the rabbinical students have milk, boiled eggs and toasts creamed with butter. They look healthier and more cheerful than when they first arrived in Shanghai.

RABBI

Nowadays, many Jewish refugees are starving and malnourished.  However, since the American Jewish charitable organizations have donated us money, we yeshiva students can have sufficient food. Thank God.

STUDENTS

Thank God. Thank God.

INT. RESTAURANT -- GHETTO -- HONGKOW -- NIGHT

Jacob, Catalina, Rose and Petr have dinner together. Not far from their table, a Chinese family is holding a wedding party.

PETR

Uncle Jacob, I want ice cream.

JACOB

You want ice cream, Petr?

PETR

Yeah.

JACOB

(childishly)

Wow, I want ice cream too. Hey, Waiter, four ice cream, please.

WAITER

Yes, Sir, four ice cream.

CATALINA

Auntie Rose, when are you gonna get married?

ROSE

I don't know yet. There should be a proposal first.

CATALINA

(speaking to Jacob)

Papa, why don't you propose to Auntie Rose? I'd like her to be my Mother.

Jacob and Rose gaze at each other, smiling. Petr leaves the table to watch the Chinese bride and groom, followed by Catalina.

JACOB

Rose, I really love you. Will you marry me?

ROSE

Yes, Jacob, yes, I will.

The waiter serves the ice cream. Petr and Catalina return to their seats to enjoy the ice cream with their parents. 

EXT. STREET -- GHETTO -- HONGKOW -- FALL OF 1944 -- DAY

The wind blows keenly, whistling through the streets and patting the pedestrians on their faces. A crowd of Jewish people, including Hans, Anna, Mark, Emilia, Dr. Behr, Rose, Jacob and four musicians, gather in the ghetto.

EMILIA

I'm so frightened that one day, Japs will persecute us just as the Nazis have done.

DR. BEHR

Japan is on the side of the Third Reich, as an ally in the Berlin-Rome Axis. The Germans and Japanese don't trust each other, but they have the common goal of dominating the world.

FLUTIST

Some of the Japanese military officers were trained in prewar Germany.

TRUMPETER

And they were indoctrinated by anti-Semitic propaganda.

MARK

Why do the Japs drive Jews into the ghetto?

DRUMMER

By ghettoizing Jews, the Japs want to impress their German and Italian allies.

HANS

There are almost seventeen thousand Jewish refugees living here now. The Japs probably can't find a concentration camp with such enormous capacity to hold us all.

JACOB

They could also solve the provision problem.

VIOLINIST

Let the Jews survive or die in the ghetto on their own. Leave them to destiny.

ROSE

It's vital that food and daily supplies are so scarce.

ANNA

And prices go up so rapidly.

MARK

However, we'd persevere, under such awfully needy circumstances. 

Rose and Anna walk arm in arm, heading to a corner grocery.

ROSE

Anna, you know, Jacob, he proposed to me.

ANNA

Oh, really? Jacob, a very nice man. What did you say?

ROSE

I said yes.

ANNA

Ha, you accepted? Wow, what a great news.

Anna and Rose embrace emotionally, their overcoats flapping in the wind.

ANNA (CONT'D)

I'm so happy for you. Hans will be very happy for you too. Congratulations.

ROSE

Thank you.

INT. BAR -- GHETTO -- HONGKOW -- NIGHT

Hans, Mark, Jacob, Dr. Behr and other Jewish MEN drink beer and track a MAP hanging on the wall.

HANS

(pointing at the map)

From here, the German troops reduced their defensive perimeter.

MARK

It hints Hitler retreated.

JACOB

Apparently, defeated and pushed back.

DR. BEHR

Yeah, Nazis have been pushed back from the countries they had invaded, and now fight inside Germany.

VIOLINIST

It seems the Axis is doomed to fail.  

FLUTIST

The Americans' entry into the war after the Japs' attack at Pearl Harbor does impact on it.

TRUMPETER

But the Japs are so tenacious. They still confine us here. If we're not released, what's our way out?

DRUMMER

If the Allied forces win, we may be liberated.

(CONTINUING)