City of Ghosts (2021) s01e01 Episode Script


- [WHITE NOISE]
- Ta dum!
[UPBEAT ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYS]
Hi. I'm Zelda.
And welcome to City of Ghosts.
On our show, we, the Ghost Team,
look for ghosts around the city
to tell us their stories.
Today, we meet Jo,
a new chef in my own neighborhood.
And there might be
something weird happening,
but there also might not be,
according to Chef Jo.
I'll let her tell you about it.
Hi. I'm Chef Jo.
I'm opening up an Asian-inspired eatery
here in Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles.
[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS]
JO: I've been working all over LA,
and this is the first time
I'm gonna be able to cook my own food
in my own place.
I'm super, super, super excited.
Um, I wasn't born here,
but I grew up very much
in that kind of similar community.
Like, the ethnic makeup,
the cultural makeup.
I love it, you know?
I wouldn't want to
[SIGHING]
you know,
open up at a place like in The Grove.
[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS]
JO: So I started looking for a place on the Eastside.
[ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYS]
And I found this cool spot
that hasn't been rented in years.
I mean, it's an older building.
Um
[CLICK]
Yeah, I just hear things, and--
Is that the pipes or?
[WATER RUNS]
[MOODY ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYS]
No, I don't want to know.
I wanna open my restaurant.
And if the water turns on,
I'll just turn it back off.
And if the neko moves,
then, you know what?
I must have moved it
'cause I'm just a busy bee here.
It's fine. It's fine.
I've been telling my friend Mariko
about it,
and she has had some ridiculous idea.
[LAUGHING]
Like, this place is haunted.
Hi. I'm Mariko.
And, yeah, it's definitely a ghost.
I have worked
in several restaurants in LA,
and some of the place we closed
had issue with ghosts.
If your faucet's running at night
after you close the faucet,
and you're the only person
who is in the kitchen, that's not me,
then someone else is telling me,
"Hey, I'm here,"
and trying to let me know
something is not making him or her happy.
[EERIE MUSIC PLAYS]
[FAUCET TURNS ON]
[WATER RUNS]
[MUSIC PLAYS]
What do you think it means
when ghosts are moving stuff around?
Well, it depends on the ghost
and what it's trying to say to you.
But a lot of times,
they'll try to get your attention
by moving objects around.
Like, if you find some random thing
in your house you've never seen before,
it might be a ghost
trying to introduce themselves to you.
Like, "Hey,
here's the DVD of my favorite movie."
"Check it out."
Or, you know, some old thing
that belonged to their family.
What about
when they move other people's stuff?
Oh, yeah. If they move your stuff,
that means they got beef.
[EERIE MUSIC PLAYS]
[CREAKING]
[CLANKING]
- [BANGING]
- [DRAGGING]
[DOG BARKING]
[DOG BARKING]
Why?
That's not good.
[CRYING]
I just wanna open the restaurant!
I don't wanna worry about
[INHALING]
Um
[SIGHING]
[GENTLE MUSIC PLAYS]
It's not about believing or anything.
You just need to feel the energy
in a building
because the building
and the land has a history.
I did go to, um a medium one time.
They're like-- She's like,
"Well, the spirits are telling me
that they're here for you
and they love you
and they are protecting you."
And I was like,
"Tell them not to do that."
"It's okay.
I don't want them to visit me."
I don't think that that will ever go away.
[JO EXHALES]
I don't want this to happen anymore.
I lost my fryer.
I should introduce you to my friend Zelda.
Zelda?
Our family has lived here forever.
[UPBEAT ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYS]
There's me and you.
There's me and Ghost Club.
ZELDA'S BROTHER: So, can you show us
a little bit about the Ghost Club?
Okay.
[SPOOKY MUSIC PLAYS]
Here's my office.
GHOST STUFF
I wanted to find more ghosts.
And I found
other friends who are just like me.
I heard there might be a ghost
in this new restaurant
that I saw on the way home.
ZELDA'S BROTHER: Are you excited about this?
Yeah. I love ghosts.
- [CUTLERY AND PLATES CLANKING]
- [JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS]
[BELL RINGS]
Hello, Jo.
I wanted you to meet my friend Zelda.
So, this is my friend I told you
and your parents about, Chef Jo.
Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too, Zelda.
I'm here to help you.
Help me?
Oh, with your ghost.
Oh!
Okay, cool.
Can I look around your restaurant?
Yeah, sure. Okay.
Let me see what I can find out.
[EERIE MUSIC PLAYS]
Who are those people in that picture?
- That's a picture of Van Halen.
- [ROCK MUSIC STARTS AND STOPS]
That's my favorite band.
Hmm
[EERIE MUSIC PLAYS]
Do you make spicy food here?
Yeah. Sometimes, I like
to combine different flavors,
but I actually lost my red chili powder.
I have to buy some more.
Hmm
Who gave you that?
I'm not exactly sure.
It just kept showing up.
Oh. Suspicious.
- Do you mind if I take a picture of that?
- Hmm. Go ahead.
I'm gonna send this to Thomas.
Who's Thomas?
They're our haunted artifact specialist.
Oh. Okay.
Hmm
[CAMERA CLICK]
What does this word say?
That says, "gyoza."
It's kind of like a Japanese dumpling.
- [MYSTERIOUS MUSIC PLAYS]
- Oh! Is this a Japanese restaurant?
Oh, yeah, kind of.
My mom told me that there used to be a lot
of Japanese people that lived around here.
Oh, yes. There used to be
a lot of Japanese people
who lived in this neighborhood.
See?
I can't wait to talk
to the team about the case.
We meet at the library downtown.
It's really big, like a castle for books.
[ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYS]
Come on, Jordan.
There's a coffee place at the library,
and all our parents go there,
and that keeps 'em from bugging us
while we have our meetings.
ZELDA: Here's what we know.
Let's start here.
EVA: "Deep fryer."
Throwing it in the alley
is a classic ghost move.
Any fingerprints?
Absolutely none.
That's what I thought.
EVA: Which brings us
to the mysterious disappearance
of Chef Jo's chili flakes.
Definitely a ghosting.
Chili flakes?
Is this a spicy food restaurant?
Sometimes it is.
I don't like spicy.
Hmm.
Maybe the ghost doesn't like spicy either.
Let's get back to the evidence.
PETER: Is that a map of the restaurant?
THOMAS: Yeah. I put a sticker for each time
that Chef Jo found the cat in a new place.
And I did some research, and I found
it's very very, very big evidence.
The Maneki-neko
- is from back in the day in Japan.
- [MEOW]
There are lots of different stories,
and if you see a Maneki-neko,
you should follow it.
So that's what we should do.
[SQUEAKING]
- [MEOW]
- [SQUEAKING]
[MEOW]
[MYSTERIOUS MUSIC PLAYS]
[SQUEAKING]
Hi.
Do ghosts go to the bathroom?
Aren't you cold in there, Miss Ghost?
[FEMALE VOICE] You can call me Janet.
And, yeah, I'm pretty cold.
- Chef Jo, Chef Jo!
- Huh? What?
The ghost was really shy, but I found her.
Oh, great.
ZELDA: Do you want to meet her?
Mmm
Yes.
Part two.
Who is Janet, and why did she live here?
What's her favorite food?
Well, all of your questions
will be answered next.
- [SQUEAKING]
- We try to talk to every ghost we find
and record their stories.
And then we add them into our Ectopedia.
Okay.
Please tell us what your name is
and a little bit about you.
[REVERBERATING TONE]
My name is Janet.
I am a Japanese American,
and my home is Boyle Heights.
Why did you live here?
So,
- Little Tokyo
- [WHISTLES AND DINGS]
is where a lot of the Japanese people
were back in the day,
and there wasn't a lot of houses
in Little Tokyo itself.
It was mostly businesses.
Um, and Boyle Heights is,
like, what, ten minutes?
If you really wanted to,
you could walk there.
And so, a lot of people lived
- in Boyle Heights.
- [HORN HONKING]
Did your parents work
close to Boyle Heights?
Well, so, my mom used to own a cleaners.
Um
so I would,
after school, go to her cleaners,
and I would do my homework
at the cleaners until she finished.
[ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYS]
- [CLICKS AND CLACKS]
- JANET: Right next to my mom's cleaners,
there was a Japanese cafe
called Fuji Cafe.
- All the servers knew me
- [CLANGING]
as the daughter from next door.
Sometimes my mom would go
We would go after she was done with work
'cause she'd be too tired to cook at home.
Sometimes I'll order a rice ball,
and they'll make it,
even though it's not on the menu.
JANET: My mom always, I guess,
wanted to do a restaurant.
She still wanted
to kind of live out that dream.
And because she knew the previous owner,
they sold the restaurant to my mom.
What food did your mom used to make
that you miss the most?
Hmm
I mean, I haven't found a place that, uh
I was like,
"Oh, this tempura's better than my mom's."
I'm biased 'cause it's my mom,
and I love her cooking.
Now I kind of understand
why she threw out the deep fryer.
It was her mom's specialty.
I totally get it.
What did you like to make?
Mm
I used to love making gyoza.
Oh. Chef Jo said
that was kind of like a Japanese dumpling.
Did you ever make it different,
in a fun way?
I would sometimes make cheese gyoza
with my son.
I love cheese.
That gives me some ideas.
[CHIMES RING]
The best way to get to know someone
is by cooking with them.
- So let's make some gyoza together.
- [MELODIC MUSIC PLAYS]
I've made three fillings to try.
- JO: Traditional, with beef and pork.
- JANET: Yum.
- JO: A vegetarian one I made up.
- Oh, that's good for Eva.
She loves veggies.
And the last one
is a cheese blend, á la Chef Janet.
JO: Scoop filling into the center of the gyoza wrapper.
Aw, I made mine too big.
JO: Trace with water along the edge to seal.
Then fold and pinch
to make these beautiful pleats.
Um, how did you do that?
Mine don't look like that.
They look great.
Let's put them in the fridge now.
Once chilled,
sear them to a golden brown on one side,
and then add some water,
and steam to finish.
ZELDA: Ooh! I can't wait to eat it.
JO: Serve with dipping sauce
made with soy, vinegar, and chili oil.
- [ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYS]
- Itadakimasu!
- Wait! It might be pretty hot.
- Oh! Hot!
- [UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS]
- [PATRONS MURMUR]
JO: Oh, my gosh! It's so great!
We have finally opened,
and everyone's really happy.
I'm happy.
Janet's happy.
The restaurant looks amazing.
Um, it's really come together.
If feels like a real home,
where you can get some great food,
and everybody
everybody loves coming here.
What makes the tempura here so special?
What's the secret?
Uh, the tempura is not pre-battered.
Uh, once there's an order,
we will put the flour and the batter,
and then, um
We make it in the traditional way,
where, um, it's not in one of those,
like, mechanical fryers or whatever.
We put it in a pot.
So it
That's like the old-school Japanese way.
Um And our kitchen's small,
so our pot's pretty small,
so we can only make
so many at one time, which is two.
Two orders.
But we do our best.
Tell them what it sounds like.
Uh
Like, when you bite into it,
you have that crunch.
Uh
That really high-pitched crunch,
I guess you could say,
versus the "crunch."
[LAUGHING]
Frying it in the old commercial deep fryer
we were using
wouldn't achieve that same crunch.
[UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYS]
JANET: When you go in there, I think
you feel the friendliness and the comfort
that we like to give to our patrons.
And so, we have people come every day.
Um, and so, that's really nice to have.
And it becomes more like
they're not just your patrons,
but they're kinda like your friends
and listen to their everyday life
and their problems.
I'm there every day too.
If I had to pay every day,
I would be in trouble,
but I don't, so I'm lucky.
- [LAUGHING]
- [UPBEAT ELECTRONIC MUSIC PLAYS]
JO: So this special is called
the "ZJ All-Day Special"
for Zelda and Janet.
And it is the cheese gyoza
with the fried tempura topping
sprinkled over the top.
Ooh! I wanna try.
It's too hot. Wait.
Sorry. It smells so good.
I wanna eat it now.
MARIKO: Hey, guys.
I brought some onigiri from home.
I know it's not on the menu,
but I heard it's Janet's favorite.
[UPBEAT ROCK MUSIC PLAYS]
Want to be me! ♪
This time, I want to be free ♪
Free to be me! ♪
This world is not for me ♪
Wanna be me! ♪
This time, I want to be free ♪
Free to be me! ♪
This world is not for me ♪
I wanna trip and jam with you ♪