SUPER: Based on a true story

INT. CAFÉ WITH BLACK INTERIOR AND WARM LIGHTING - DAY

A Young Writer sits by the entrance of a cafe with tall glass walls, on an outdoor armchair with big cushion pillows. The waitress serves the Big Break plate on the table on the Writer’s right as she types this scene on the left table. It’s two tables for 4 but what awaits is a table for 2. A pause from writing and she proceeds to have her brunch while waiting for the guest contributor of the day.

EXT. CAFÉ FRONT - DAY

A man in his 20s arrives and walks into the café to greet the Writer.

INT. CAFÉ WITH BLACK INTERIOR AND WARM LIGHTING - DAY

Dressed in full black with a black body bag. They make small talk and he orders a latte. They proceed with small talk and a briefing, she enjoys her meal and he drinks his latte before starting a conversation for this piece.

20 minutes has passed. He walks out to vape for less than a minute. He walks back in and sits in front of the Writer. The café ambience of people chatting and laughing while enjoying their meal is present.

SHARON (THE WRITER)
How are you feeling today?

LATTE MAN (THE MAN WITH A STORY)
Stressed, but yet fine. I don’t know how to say but…
more about work. That’s it, normal la I would say.

SHARON
Are you nervous?

LATTE MAN
About this? Not that much, normal la.
Middle, I would say.

SHARON
Could you give our readers
a little introduction of yourself?

LATTE MAN
Hi, I’m (BLEEP). I’m in my mid-20s this year.
My hobby is playing games and doing animation
sometimes when I’m free. I stay in KL.
I studied graphic design and now I’m
focusing on graphic design and animation.
Yeah.
(smiles)

SHARON
Last week, I asked you if you have
experienced the lowest point in your life
that you didn’t treat yourself right
and you said you have a story for me.
So, what’s your story today?

LATTE MAN
(chuckles)
Yeah, let me think.

The LATTE MAN has a thinking face on. The Writer smiles and listens.

LATTE MAN (cont'd)
I’m not really sure when it started.
The symptoms, whatever.
I was happy, partying all day for 3 years straight.
After 3 years, I smoked… a lot back then.
After symptoms showed that I’m not actually happy,
I would say, and slowly…
I started feeling like jumping.

SHARON
Jumping?

LATTE MAN
Yeah, jumping. Hanging, no.
It’s just out of nowhere.
Afraid of the future,
afraid I’m not good enough.
Just lost, I guess.

SHARON
What made u feel like jumping?

LATTE MAN
Feeling worthless. Sometimes, you feel like
you’re doing good but is it real?
It doesn’t feel like reality, it feels like a dream.
Your boss tells you
you’re doing a good job but is it really?
Even now I still feel that.
They say I do a good job but
I still feel fucking stressed.

The LATTE MAN sips some of his drink while the Writer nods and listens intently.

LATTE MAN (cont'd)
I have insomnia. It started when
I was in form 4, 16 years old?
I don’t know what triggered my insomnia.

The LATTE MAN looks out to the streets and ponders.

LATTE MAN (cont'd)
I was physically abused for 16 years.
So, at 16 years old, I don’t get abused anymore
but the insomnia came.
I think it’s because of the abuse, I’m so used to it
so it keeps me awake. Mentally and physically.
The thought is a bit messed up, I would say.
No need to mention how bad it is.
(frowns)
No need.
Got stitches and shit.

SHARON
Do you think it’s because your body is like…
kinda getting ready to be abused
even though you know
you won’t be abused anymore?

LATTE MAN
Maybe. I guess so.
Sometimes you miss the pain.
Sometimes I hurt myself accidentally,
I don’t know if intentional or not,
but mindless random injuries.
You miss physical pain.

SHARON
Why?

LATTE MAN
It feels different, like a challenge.
Mentally, I don’t like it, it’s different.
Because mentally
you can never recover from it.

SHARON
Hmm…

LATTE MAN
You remember everything and…
I remember everything,
all the bad things but
not usually the good things,
that’s basically it.

SHARON
I know that feeling.
Do you mind sharing at least
1 physical abuse experience?

LATTE MAN
Standard 4, 10 years old?
There was once… I mean I’m a guy,
my father was very strict with
cleaning the house so one time
we didn’t clean the study room
and he started to get angry.
I was packing my books on the table
and he was shouting
all the bad words in Cantonese.
Out of nowhere,
he was kicking me and my eye
hit the sharp edge of the study table.
I started bleeding like shit, he didn’t care.
My mother brought me to the clinic straight away
and got the stitches. The doctor said,
“If a few millimetres deeper, he will go blind already”.
(pause)
I had 5 stitches.

SHARON
(shocked)
5 stitches? How long did it take to recover?

LATTE MAN
2 weeks, then 1 month.

The LATTE MAN pauses and stares into space, thinking. The Writer looks at him, waiting for more.

LATTE MAN (cont'd)
My father told me one thing,
“Still want to do or not?”
Out of the 4 of us,
I’m the only one who kena it.
He won’t hit girls but he hits boys.
For him, it’s discipline. For me to be a man.
I know what he thinks, he wants to
teach you how to be a man.
He knows what it is like…
being in situations and accidents outside.
Teach me about the harsh world,
teach me to be strong.
He won’t say it but I know it.

SHARON
How do you know it?

LATTE MAN
My mother told me, 50% of it.
He won’t say it because men and their ego.
I don’t think it’s wrong but
there could be better ways to teach,
not to the point of stitches.
He only slapped me when
I was in Form 4 and that’s the last one.
I was shocked.
I was arguing with my mother
and that was my fault, so he slapped me.
Yeah, that’s the last thing.

SHARON
What were you arguing with your mom?

LATTE MAN
It’s a very small thing but he doesn’t like it
when we all argue with our mother.
Something about packing stuff.
A very small thing.

SHARON
If your dad is still here, what would you say to him?

LATTE MAN
I won’t hate him. I was 16 so I was growing up.
What he did to me was a lesson to me,
of being a man in the real world.
Because nowadays, all men are like soft and shit,
a bit of stress only want to quit this job and leave.
He’s a very hard worker,
that’s where we get the attitude from.
He wanted me to join his field, civil engineering
but I needed add maths.
I talked properly with him when
I was in form 5 for 6 months, no abuse no fight.
He asked what I wanna study and all.
Then, he went on a company trip, Vietnam.
He came back and fell sick.
For 6 months, he was having heart problems,
wasn’t himself, going crazy, things like that.

SHARON
(nods with curiosity)
Do you mind sharing more about the 6 months?

LATTE MAN
When he came back, the first thing was
he didn’t pick up any calls from my mother.
So, we all rushed to the airport to find him.
We found him sleeping somewhere,
very weak but he’s moving.

The LATTE MAN reflects back on this moment.

LATTE MAN (cont'd)
He’s not himself.

SHARON
That’s very weird…

LATTE MAN
I don’t know if I should tell this but
I believed it was black magic… voodoo.
It’s by a woman who used to like him, 30 years ago.
She was very jealous of my mother back then.
He came home and straight sleep on the sofa.
Barely eating, talking, lack of energy.
Not really sleeping.
(pause)
I don’t know how to say.

SHARON
Like in a trance?

LATTE MAN
Something like that.

The LATTE MAN and the Writer have more of their drinks and he continues talking about this experience.

LATTE MAN (cont'd)
Sleeps a lot, rarely comes upstairs to his room.
That’s where he started to become crazy.
Can’t remember his name,
he suddenly say he wants to meet his mother,
my sister went with him to meet our grandma.
But not me because I wasn’t close to him.
He doesn’t like me and my eldest sister.
He didn’t like me because he didn’t want a son.

SHARON
How do you know that?

LATTE MAN
Because he told my mom.
My mom always tells me this
but after he passed away.

The LATTE MAN takes a breather. Lost in thought.

LATTE MAN (cont'd)
Where was I?

They went to meet grandma for 3 to 4 days.
I didn’t go cause I was very naughty back then.
You think you wanna have fun
but you’re just forgetting the pain.
Even though he doesn’t talk or what,
he’s still a provider and he treats us well with money,
he took care of us well.
He just doesn’t talk, to me especially, just to me.
He still talks to the others.

SHARON
Any reason why your dad doesn’t want a son?

LATTE MAN
For that I don’t know but I think
he doesn’t want someone like himself.
After the 4 days trip to Kedah to meet our grandma,
he wasn’t outside the gate but my dog was barking
like crazy at my dad. My dad went in,
took a newspaper and whacked him like crazy,
chased him upstairs.
I was like “What the hell is going on?”,
I was downstairs playing games or something.
I went upstairs and I saw him
starting to whack my sister
and I stopped him, asking him to chill.
I knocked him on the ground.
We stood up and he was so pissed at my sister.
He only slapped my eldest sister once or
something but this time he whacked her.
He didn’t even whack me.
After that, he just stayed in his room.
Yeah.

The LATTE MAN takes a deep breath, eyes deep in thought. The Writer, still sitting in front of this man, digests every detail of his story.

SHARON
So, what happened next?

LATTE MAN
He just stayed in the room and
keeps to himself all the time.
We decided to bring him downstairs
to hang out like a usual family.
Every time we watched something, it wasn’t him…
He was barely watching.
He wasn’t watching but thinking.
We tried to make him like normal but it was hard.

The LATTE MAN sips more of his latte.

LATTE MAN (cont'd)
One day, I was upstairs in my room,
I heard someone knocking on the door.
I came down and he was holding
a screwdriver and hammer,
knocking at the door knob.
My mom scolded him and he tried to hit my mother.
Here’s where I came down and stopped him.
Same thing with my sister, I knocked him down.
I hate that shit, the worst thing ever.
(pause)
We don’t let him go out but
he doesn’t even know how to open the door.
We sat in front of the prayer altar on the floor,
we gave him the joss sticks and he held them.
After he took it, he straight away broke it.
That’s when we asked what’s his name, all of us,
except one sibling. He doesn’t know his name,
just shaking his head and body
with the broken joss sticks.
My mom asked all of us to shout his name to
make him remember back his name but it didn’t work.
After that, we just bring him upstairs
and put him on the bed.
We also set up a camera in his room.
We watched the footage,
every few minutes, he sat up and
moved his body around.

The Writer looks at the LATTE MAN, stunned by this part of the story.

SHARON
Hmm... this is pretty intense and I didn’t expect it.

LATTE MAN
Yeah... It was quite intense but chill la,
so long ago, 8 years already.
Then slowly slowly, we noticed that
he got skinnier every day.
From a big tummy to extremely skinny,
especially his legs.
We know it’s his sickness also, one of them.
We did bring him to the hospital.
He had a heart problem, he was a smoker.

The LATTE MAN drinks his latte.

LATTE MAN (cont'd)
So for that one whole year, me and my sister
just went out drinking, smoking, and partying.
(laughs)
I made it sound like we’re bad.

SHARON
(chuckles)
But it’s a common thing that people do.

LATTE MAN
Yeah, to forget about things.
(pause)
4 months plus, whole family and grandma,
we all go for a drive, once a week maybe.
My sister wasn’t there, she was hurting the most,
she was the anak emas. We just drive around
like normal. Suddenly, one day,
he was arguing with my grandmother.
He kept telling us and in front of our uncle,
“your grandma last time tai ka che”, blablabla,
he kept shouting and I felt weird because
after all these years only he talked about this.
He’s the second son of my grandma
who passed away.
I don’t know what she did, but
she probably did something really bad in the past.
But she treats me very good.
(smiling brightly)
I didn’t talk much from that, I just calmed down and
talked to my family, just chill. Slowly as days went by,
every day he was in the room, until 6 months,
he passed away in his sleep. It was a peaceful going.
He passed away in the morning, 6 A.M.,
(he specifies the date).
All of us couldn’t sleep but we kinda felt
something was wrong, that’s before
we knew he passed away.
Then my mom started shouting,
“Father isn’t breathing!”,
called for grandma, called for a paramedic.
I didn’t see what was going on at all
except my elder sisters,
only me and my other sister didn’t.
We heard everything.
They tried to revive him at 6 o’clock,
and that’s when he was gone.
I can see my mother running down the stairs.
My door wasn’t fully closed, there was a gap.
(deep in thought)
I remember exactly man, fucked up.

The LATTE MAN proceeds to drink his latte to the bottom of the cup, the Writer finishes her drink as well.

SHARON
Do you regret not getting out of your room?

LATTE MAN
Ya la, of course. Definitely.

SHARON
Why?

LATTE MAN
Because that was the last time I could… see… him.
We did get kinda close when I was in Form 5.
That’s the first time we actually talked like normal.
(contemplates)
Do you think this is trauma?

SHARON
I think so.

LATTE MAN
I’m just asking because
my family asked me to see a therapist.
I’m pretty sure my brain is like my father.

SHARON
You and your brain are like your father?

LATTE MAN
Because we’re an overthinker.
For example, if a boss says I’m doing a good job,
I would think it’s a lie.
You’d always feel like you could always do better,
there’s always something.
You’ll always find more reasons to every reason.

SHARON
(nods)
Yeah.

LATTE MAN
(shakes head)
My mother did say he could have bipolar
but to me I don’t think it was,
it was just a lot of stress for him.

They look out of the café at the cars passing by, processing what the LATTE MAN has shared in one fine afternoon. The Writer turns back to him.

SHARON
How did you or have you shown yourself
kindness after that experience?
The abuse and the whole 6 months
of your father’s unusual behaviour.

LATTE MAN
Never did.
(shakes head)
…never did.
I did nothing for me.
My friends tried to do for me,
belanja drink, makan, celebrate shit.
But nah, that doesn’t mean anything.
Slowly, I think life has no meaning.

SHARON
Do you still think life doesn’t have a meaning now?

LATTE MAN
Yeah. I still do.

SHARON
Why?

LATTE MAN
It’s like uhh I don’t wanna marry ma.
I don’t want my family’s name anymore.
I don’t wanna have kids, I don’t want a girlfriend.
I know I can do it alone but I know it’s hard.
Nobody to talk to you, cares about you, help you.
But sometimes family cannot help,
can just talk to them and lead to arguments.
Even if I succeed alone and I got money,
I feel like what’s next? You get rich then you die,
and the money goes to who?
You know what I mean right?
Like that la, that’s why I think
there’s no meaning to life.
I’m not suicidal in thought anymore,
but yeah.
(pause)
Last few years, I got goals and shit.
I was very disciplined, I planned everything out
but now I don’t give a shit already.
I just go with the flow.
I worked damn hard, that’s it.

SHARON
You said,
you don’t see a meaning to life
but you do have sort of an ambition
to create something in animation right?

LATTE MAN
Yeah, I would say I’m ambitious.
I’m only disciplined in certain things
like work and pushups every day,
does that count?

SHARON
Yeah, of course.

LATTE MAN
I don’t treat my family badly but
I don’t treat them good either. It’s neutral.
We’re all quite independent also,
we do everything ourselves.
Eat alone, watch movies alone, and talk to ourselves.
(laughs)
Go to café alone, that’s normal because
we want to work in peace right?
But even when I go office,
my colleagues wanna go eat together.
In my mind, I always want to eat alone,
I don't know why.

SHARON
Do you still go eat with them?

LATTE MAN
Yeah… I still have to get along
with my colleagues but I don’t talk much.
I’m too used to being alone
and not used to being social
(pause)
I don’t know if I’m depressed or not…
This whole week I think a lot and I couldn’t sleep.
But my family said I’m doing a good job.
The good thing is I’ll always be better
because I always want to improve but
my health is bad or affected. I couldn’t sleep.

SHARON
I might know why you couldn’t sleep but
we’ll talk more after this little chatty sesh we have
cause it involves personal matters that
I don't want to share with my readers.
Funny huh?

LATTE MAN
(nods)
Yeah, it is.
(pause)
The reason why I was sad when he passed away
even though we weren't close… before he was sick,
he talked to me like normal, father to son.
About career advice and everything.
So that’s the only moment of
a normal son and father,
cause I never had that.

The LATTE MAN’s voice breaks a little. He pauses to catch himself back.

LATTE MAN (cont'd)
Yeah.

SHARON
Last thing, do you have any advice for our readers?

LATTE MAN
About life?

SHARON
Anything.

LATTE MAN
For me ah? Be single
(laughs)
This is my mind. Be single only
you know what you want in life.
Don't rush into a relationship.
Just work hard and smart, if possible.
Save money, don't be like me a big spender.
I don't save my money, but
everything I spend on is
worth my time.
Yeah. don’t think so much, that’s it.
Just go with the flow.

The LATTE MAN gives a big smile and laughs. The Writer laughs along.

SHARON
That’s a pretty sound advice.
Thank you for opening up so much today.
I believe our readers can
learn a lot from this piece.

The LATTE MAN stretches his arm to the back and heads to the washroom. The Young Writer types the last words and closes her laptop. She drinks some water and the LATTE MAN sits back on the chair in front of her and they share more about insomnia, life, and thoughts over many glasses of water from 2 big glass bottles of water. Laughters, chatters, insightful conversation.

As time went by, the LATTE MAN goes to the washroom again. The Writer pays the bill at the cashier and the LATTE MAN pays her back. She goes to the washroom, then they walked out of the café.

EXT. OUTSIDE CAFÉ, ON THE STREETS - EVENING

The LATTE MAN walks her to her car and they have a little chat. They say their goodbyes and part ways.

SUPER: THE END