電影劇本：SHANGHAI JEWS（36）

(36)

 

EXT. HARBOUR -- DAY

Petr pushes his way through the mass of travelers and onlookers, scuttles through the streets and disappears round a corner.  

INT. CABIN -- DAY

Hans, Anna, Mark and Emilia enter the cabin. Mark and Emilia seat themselves to take a rest. Hans puts his luggage aside and looks around.  

HANS

Where's Petr?

ANNA

I let him stay here. He must be right here.

EMILIA

But he is not. Where is he going?

MARK

He's running away. He's gone. Bastard.

EMILIA

Don't you say that. He's just mischievous.

MARK

He's rebellious.

EMILIA

Even a bit childish rebellious, he's still a good boy.

MARK

(stomping)

A bastard is a bastard. No more no less.

EMILIA

Nonsense.

Hans rushes out of the cabin, followed by Anna.

EXT. DECK -- DAY

Looking around for Petr, Hans and Anna jostle passengers backward and run about like mad, from the upper deck to the lower deck, from stem to stern.

HANS

Petr, Petr, where are you?

ANNA

Petr, Petr, come out, we're looking for you.

HANS

Petr, Petr, come back to us.

Finally Anna finds Petr's overcoat discarded on deck. She picks up the overcoat and cries desperately. Hans caresses her shoulders to console her.

ANNA

(sobbing)

Petr's coat, it's his coat. He's running away. He said he didn't want to go. He doesn't want to leave and, and he means it. He wants to get rid of us.

HANS

Don't worry, I'll find him. He must get off the ship. I'll go after him.

ANNA

Hans, Hans, let me go with you.

HANS

No, Anna, no. You stay here. I'll get him and bring him back. 

Hans attempts to get off the ship but a CREWMAN comes over to stop him. The HORN honks and the ANCHOR is weighed. The STEAMSHIP pulls away from the shore and sails out of Shanghai Harbour to start her journey for San Francisco. Some passengers sing the song SAN FRANCISCO in chorus. 

Leaning against the railing, Hans and Anna behold the Shanghai Harbour gradually going out of view as the waves surging forward.

EXT. STREETS -- HONGKOW -- DAY

Petr lurches along the streets, his face and shabby clothes smeared with dirt.  A coolie is struggling to pull a heavily and fully loaded cart over a bridge across the Soochow Creek. Petr joins several beggar children who jump to helping push the cart from behind. 

As soon as the cart passes the bridge, the coolie tosses a few coins to the ground. The beggar children hurry to pick up the coins and disperse. Petr picks up the coin which bounces near his feet. He tosses the coin up and catches it as it falls back to his palm.

EXT. STREETS -- GHETTO -- HONGKOW -- DAY

Petr roams about the ghetto that has been abandoned and appears depressive. He uses the coin to buy a bun from a peddler. While eating the bun, Petr kicks a small ball which rolls and becomes a bigger GLOBE.    

CAPTION

In December 1938, an active Jewish community began to be ghettoized in Hongkow, a section of Shanghai, China, during the Sino-Japanese war.

More than seventeen thousand Jewish refugees survived the Holocaust in the Shanghai ghetto that continued to exist through the end of the World War II.

Before the Chinese Communist Party took over Shanghai in 1949, the majority of these European Jews immigrated to the United States, Canada, Israel, South America and Australia, but very few of them returned to their native countries in Europe.

The last thousand Jews remained in Communist-governed Shanghai for another year before finally being permitted to embark for San Francisco by transit visas. 

The Shanghai ghetto was dissolved by the early 1950s.

                                          FADE OUT.

(END)