Update 03-01
Update of Day 03-01
Sunday, 30 October 2005
9:25 PMToday was rather eventful. Went to Alastair's church. We came back and watched Blair Witch Project. Found it totally overrated and not at all scary. Concept was definitely original although the actual shoot was very amateurish. Wonder where their $22,000 budget went to. Watched 6th Sense. Pretty good although it was not as scary as anticipated. Maybe I'm growing immune to it. Tomorrow I shall watch The Ring if I want to freak out. Also visiting Ali's warehouse and getting the vests. Anyhow, we finally managed to come up with a decent storyline, although it is filled with flaws of course. Please find it attached below. (Please ignore stupid character names)Please do let me know what you think. Comments, criticisms, feedback, everything is welcomed. buck_suck@hotmail.com
Long Synopsis (Incomplete)The film is essentially is psychological thriller-action film with a minute dash of horror. Emphasizing heavily the themes of appearance versus reality, the movie focuses on the horrific events which plague the life of SWAT lieutenant Chan Ka Chun. It starts out with Chan visiting psychiatrist, Dr. Wong who he is consulting after the recent loss of his daughter. Dr. Wong, a court-appointed shrink who has also recently lost his daughter, somehow feels obligated to help out Chan even though the case has already been closed. Maintaining that ‘the only distinction between good and evil is the justification of either’, Wong attempts to bring Chan back in time and undergo the horrific events of the day in order to ascertain what really happened. Flashbacks occur whereby the audience sees a thief searching through the insides of a house for valuables when suddenly Chan’s daughter appears. After a brief scuffle with Chan, he takes her hostage and the police are called. After hearing his demands for $2million dollars, Chan insists he goes in without negotiating, and in the subsequent firefight both the thief and his daughter are killed. Wong urges Chan on to ‘learn the truth’.
Shocked, saddened, and stunned by the loss of his daughter, Chan, a perfectionist by character, spirals out of control – Drinking, smoking, and not sleeping for days. He even tries suicide. Suddenly his phone rings and he is called to gear up for active duty. Learning that the criminals who orchestrated the robbery are hiding out at a nearby warehouse, Chan and his team are to support local law enforcement agents in the apprehension of the suspects; though being relatively new to the Force, Chan and his team are to provide a solely ‘supportive’ role and not an offensive one.
Once they get to the warehouse, it is strangely quiet and all the policemen are dead. Filled with the desire for vengeance, Chan orders them to enter the warehouse and a firefight with the thugs ensures. All enemy elements are eliminated with minimal losses. However, Chan hears strange noises and orders his team to split up and flush out any remaining enemy forces. Seeing strange visions and hallucinations of both the thief and his daughter, Chan grows increasingly frustrated. Despite killing several thugs lurking about, the thief somehow can never be shot or killed. Appearing mystically and accusing him of being evil, insane and losing his mind. Meanwhile, one by one, his SWAT team are slowly killed in gruesome ways by unknown forces and the little girl. Chan believes that his daughter is taking revenge on his team for killing her. (I.e. horror, frills, and other action parts galore here)
After a while, only Chan is left. By this time he has lost his mind and starts screaming ‘what the hell do you want from me?!?’ The thief makes an appearance again and they talk. Going back to reality, it is only then do we realize that Dr Wong is being manifested by the psychiatrist in Chan’s vision and that his random lines and appearances. When asked what the hell was killing his men, Wong, in his ‘thief form’ reveals that it was Chan who killed his men. (Plot twist! The audience thinks Chan is being treated for the loss of his daughter but it is actually for the death of his team) Chan, by this time in self-denial and shouting hysterically, claims that it was only for the sake of his daughter. It is at this moment in the warehouse, his daughter makes an appearance. So does she in real life. It is then where we learn that his daughter did not die at all, but was merely being used as justification of his hatred. (Flashbacks of him killing his SWAT men) Wong reveals that Chan actually has a split personality where the dominant one is good, dedicated, and orthodox, and his recessive traits are that of evil, greed, and anger; the two sides face a constant struggle for power over his body, where his evil side uses moral justifications such as vengeance in order to take control.
Chan still doesn’t believe it. In the warehouse, the thief walks closer and takes off his ski mask – He is none other than Chan himself! The criminal and SWAT characters are both Chan. (Flashbacks of ‘hostage situation’ where he turns on his own men but attempts to commit suicide in order to kill his bad side when he realizes it taking control. The shrink affirms this.)
Wong believes that Chan’s dominant personality is that of a loving father and a dedicated policeman and thus believes that by killing himself in his mind, he will be cured. Wong rationalizes with Chan by emphasizing that he too faced the same situation after his daughter died in a car crash a month ago. Gazing back and forth at his daughter, Chan is in a dilemma with both sides fighting for control. The doctor presses him on, focusing that his good side is the dominant one although he admits that if Chan confessed, he would still be put in a mental hospital. Suddenly, Chan stops deliberating with himself and asks strangely ‘Who said the thief was my recessive side?’
Wong realizes only too late the implications of that statement as Chan whips out a pistol and guns him down – Both in his mind and in real life. Taking up Wong’s picture of his daughter, he puts it in the corpse’s hand. After cleaning the prints off his gun, he puts it in Wong’s hand and fires – Making it seem like a suicide. He then leaves the room and joins his daughter where they live happily ever after. (Sort of)
Foreseeable problems: 1. The shrink will have to be played by an old character
2. Obtaining a little girl might be a problem (She may also be rather irrelevant)
3. There is no local flavor or ‘Eastern’ setting favored by Asian film festivals
a. The film comes across as somewhat unrealistic being set in Singapore and all
b. Being in English, it may seem too ‘Westernized’ for local tastes
4. The film lacks a clear movie title
5. We lack a clinic or white room for the Wong-Chan scene
6. The justification of why Chan kills is not exactly clear
7. The story seems rather long
8. We have not figured out how to choreograph the middle section (horror parts)
