Hungry Ghosts (2020) s01e04 Episode Script

Lien, you have to choose. Him or me.
I reckon you're seeing
Thao for a reason.
Con khi.
Con khi?
It means 'monkey'.
My mother was burning to death
and you just took photos.
Quang?
- Ba Ngoai?
- Phuong was my wife.
You're my grandfather?
This bowl, it's Quang's second soul.
I'm so proud of you, May.
You bastard!
Ku ta ka! Ka vai rin!
Ba Ngoai, why didn't you tell me
any of this while you were alive?
Where is the third soul?
Thank you!
So kind. Thank you.
Argh!
Let me go, Grandpa.
Daniel?
Yes, it's Daniel.
- Sorry.
- That's okay.
- You all right?
- It's okay, it's okay.
Sorry, Daniel.
I'm sorry.
I never did any of these things.
But
Your drawings are all lies.
But, you know, Grandpa,
your your stories.
I was afraid.
Always afraid.
At Bien Hoa
I froze.
My friend, Khoa, he was the hero.
All these stories
are his stories.
I just hid in the foxhole.
The truth is
I'm a coward.
You know what happened last night
hasn't changed anything.
We've put too much work into this.
And who are we? A couple of whiteys,
think they can fix the
South-East Asian problem, eh?
Sound familiar?
Well, that's not what we're doing.
They've been in survival
mode for generations.
I know you've been in the trenches,
but there is something fundamentally
different in your points of view,
in the things that are important.
What are you talking about?
Look, I get it.
You're a Nguyen.
You want to be a part of it.
But we don't know what it's like to
lose our homes,
to have them ripped away.
This has nothing to do with my family.
You want to celebrate their history.
You think that'll
bring you all together.
But they just want to forget it.
That's not true.
This exhibition is going ahead tonight.
I couldn't stop it even if I wanted to.
Well, don't expect me to be there.
They're coming to see you
Neil Stockton, the
great photojournalist.
The great war pimp.
That bloke who punched me in the
face, he was right, you know?
I made a career out of
exploiting misery like his,
and I fuckin' loved it.
I couldn't wait
to get to the next conflict.
A minute away from a war zone
was a minute of my life
that was just wasted!
I won't be there.
Sophie's gone, and I don't know where
She's staying with Tracy.
Oh.
You took our daughter to an exorcism.
I had to.
She's possessed.
Hoc is the spirit of a
man that I wronged.
In the boat, on the way here,
I did something terrible
and he wants his revenge
It's this damn festival.
Hey, hey, hey, hey! Oi!
Go annoy someone else!
Come on, move on!
Paul, how's your father?
He's getting much better, Mrs Tien,
all thanks to your remedies.
You tell Anh
it's not the same without him.
I like you,
but you're a bit of tight-arse.
Mrs Tien, wait.
For Vu Lan.
Thank you. But you're still
a tight-arse, though.
I wouldn't stack them like that.
Dad!
What are you doing here?
You should be at home resting.
I need to work.
You can take your apron off.
Go back to your office.
Are you sure you're up to it?
Yeah.
Go.
There's a big delivery due in an hour.
I'll deal with it.
I always deal with it.
The shop is sold anyway, so
The deal hasn't finalised yet.
We're still open today.
We?
No, I'm looking for Stella Le.
I think you might have
hired her to sing at your venue.
She did?
When?
Did she say where she was going?
She did a lunchtime gig at Ballarat RSL.
But the manager said
she cancelled her evening show.
Any luck?
The shells have never been
very good with missing persons.
May?!
Hey.
Tell me we're not doing another seance.
Thanks for coming.
You sounded pretty
stressed on the phone.
Have you found Stella yet?
It's all my fault.
No. It's not.
Yeah. I I let myself be fooled.
I'm such an idiot.
I've been so alone for so long
Hey.
The festival ends tonight.
So all the ghosts go
back to where they came from, right?
That's how it works.
It's Stella!
- Mum?
- Hello, darling.
- Are you okay? Where are you?
- I'm home, at Ma's house.
And the most wonderful thing
has happened to me!
I met a man.
- Stella, listen to me
- He's promised me the world.
No, no, no, you You can't trust him.
- He says we're related.
- Stella, please
I don't really believe that.
I think he's Arabic.
But he wants to make me famous!
Isn't that wonderful?
No, no, no, no. He's lying to you.
May, why are you being so negative?
Are you with him now?
Yes. I told you
we're at Ma's house.
I have to go.
We have so much to talk about.
I wanted to let you know
I'm home, that's all.
No, wait! No, no, Ma Ma!
Shit!
That bastard's got her.
Do you want me to sing for you?
No.
Fully armed.
Stella?
May.
Stay here.
Stella?
Ma, we should get out of here.
Ma?
Where's the third soul?
Ben?
Roxy?!
What were you thinking?
Do you have any idea
what this could cost me?
Dad. Dad!
I'm trying everything I can
to save my job.
- I'm sorry.
- Oh, you're sorry?
- On top of what Mum did?
- Please, I need to explain
- Mum, there's nothing to explain, okay?
- It's Sophie. She's
Yeah, I heard all about
the exorcism. She's possessed.
You and Dad have finally lost it!
- Well, where is she?
- Who?
- Your sister.
- God.
She just took Ethan to the wharf
'cause he wanted to feed the seagulls.
She She's going to hurt him!
Oh, Mum!
Mum!
Changed my flight. I leave tonight.
You weren't there last night.
You didn't see what happened to me.
To you?
- Where's Thao?
- Haven't seen him all day.
Maybe all he ever wanted to see
was you getting punched in the face.
Why the hostility?
'Cause you love hostility.
It's like a drug, right?
The ultimate fix.
Of course, it's pretty hard
to compete with genocide.
Have you ever looked at
a photo of mine, Neil?
Any of the travel
assignments I've ever done?
- Course I have.
- Really? Which ones?
What magazines? Where?
I know your CV off by heart.
Every date, every assignment,
pretty much every photo you ever took.
Yeah, well, maybe you
had more time than me
to memorise all those things.
Fuck you, Neil.
I wish you wouldn't call me that.
Look around.
It's all your best work.
Not a single photo of me or Mum.
Look
I know I wasn't around all
the time, and I'm sorry for that,
but I had a bloody job I had to do.
Oh, I know, it was very important.
I know you couldn't be here
most of the time.
I knew you couldn't be here
part of the time. I understood that.
So why give me grief?
Because you weren't here
when it mattered!
I was alone
with the doctors and the tubes
and the fucking incessant machines,
waiting for you to show up
towards the end!
And you never did.
I was stuck in Iraq.
Fuck, that's ironic.
You loved death so much
you chased it all over the world.
But you couldn't face it
when it followed you home.
Liz.
Liz!
Liz!
Ben?
Hey!
Hey.
Hey, hey, it's okay.
It's okay.
Where the hell are we?
I don't know.
Vietnam?
The only way we're going to get out
of this is if we get the third soul.
- Yeah, tell me something I don't know.
- So you've got to think.
You found the first two.
You've gotta know what the third is.
I don't.
Try.
I can't help you if you don't try.
This affects me too.
I know it affects you.
Trust me.
I do trust you.
Then tell me.
Where is the third soul?
No.
You're not Ben.
Where is it, May? You can trust me.
You're not Roxy.
You think you're so special?
You wash feet in a nail salon.
- No-one loves you, May.
- Your mother abandoned you.
- Phuong died on you!
- I'm not listening.
You've failed in everything
you've ever done.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!
- You want to die alone and unloved?
- Just stay away from me!
I don't know where the third soul is.
Ba Ngoai.
Ba Ngoai, please help me.
Where is the third soul?
I told you, I don't know.
You know.
I don't know.
I don't know!
Tell me!
Tell me!
It's in the soup.
What soup?
What soup?
The third soul. It's in a recipe.
It's soup.
It's Ba Ngoai's recipe.
Only she can make it.
But you killed her,
so there won't be any soup!
Ku ta ka! Ka vai rin!
Ku ta ka! Ka vai rin!
Ku ta ka! Ka vai rin!
That won't work here.
No!
You will make the soup.
I can't.
There's an ingredient
missing from the recipe.
Make it.
Or she dies.
Look at the fish down there.
See it? See?
See it? You see it?
Hoc!
Let him go, please!
A reckoning, Chi.
Ba Ngoai, I'm scared!
Come here!
He's mine!
No, no!
No, no, no, no, no!
Soph!
Sophie! Ohh!
- Ah!
- Oh!
Monkey.
Con khi.
Con khi.
You must do something for me, Neil.
It is very important.
Name it. Anything.
Capture the beauty.
In your photos.
Not just the horror.
No-one pays for pretty pictures, Thao.
There's more to my country than war.
Promise me.
Some of your photos
must be about my people's joy.
Sure.
I understand now, Thao.
Clare, it's Neil. I need you
to meet me at the gallery.
How can you do this to her?
To your own daughter?
She's your mother.
Maybe you don't want to save her.
Maybe you think she deserves to die.
People like my mother came here
with nothing and made a life.
I didn't.
I was killed trying to save my people.
Just cook the soup.
It's not boiling.
I told you something was missing.
Nuoc mam. It needs fish sauce.
It's all in order?
Well, you have set a record price,
Mr Nguyen. Congratulations.
Your dad must be very happy.
I'll get you another.
Here we go.
No.
Thank you.
Mr Nguyen?
Mr Nguyen!
Very fresh, and on special.
Have you got any dragon fruit?
I will be with you soon.
I've been waiting here forever.
I'm sorry. Uh Just one minute.
It's all right, I've got it.
They're perfectly ripe too.
Just arrived this morning.
She's barely breathing.
- Cook the soup.
- I can't.
Cook the soup!
I can't!
I don't know what's missing.
I've wracked my brains
and I still don't know.
Then your mother will die.
Please, Ong Noi.
Don't do this.
I can't go back to Hell, Chau Ngoai.
I won't go back.
So you'd kill your own
child so you can live?
Ma?
I'm so sorry.
I tried my best and I
and I failed.
Again.
Please, don't die.
I love you, Ma.
May Le.
Is it?
Give it to me.
And don't even think about
tipping it into the fire.
You win, Ong Ngoai.
Mm.
Mmm. Mmm.
Ugh!
What happened?!
Who's that?!
May.
She doesn't have a pulse.
Hello, Con Gai.
Ma, where are we?
In heaven, I guess.
Heaven is a vegetable patch?
It's whatever you choose it to be.
You chose a vegetable patch?
It's peaceful here.
You have to work in heaven?
Only if you want to.
Look who is here.
Ma!
Oh!
Ba Ngoai.
The third soul.
It was in the soup.
Quang has it.
He's gone now.
He found his humanity.
It wasn't your recipe.
It was his mother's, right?
That's why you hid the soul in there.
That's my clever girl!
I hope
in the end
he would have remembered love.
The kind of love
a mother has for a child.
I tried to protect you in life.
But I should have done better.
Ma?
Ma, you have to come with me.
Please.
Come back.
Come back with me, Ma.
Please?
I need you.
Please come back with me.
Come back.
Come back, Ma.
Come back.
Come on, Stella!
Come on!
Come on! Come on.
Come on.
Come on!
Ah!
Ha!
Ha.
Chau Ba Ngoai, are you
going to Mum's exhibition?
Free booze.
Uh I'm driving Holly
and her Ghost King.
No.
Um
I think Dad and Ong Noi
are going straight from the shop.
I
I just wanted to leave a drawing
on Ong Noi's pillow, if that's okay?
- Sure.
- Okay.
You sure?
- Yeah, I'm sure.
- Okay.
Goodnight.
Anh
I love your belly and your wrinkly face.
Lien, please stay.
Please stay.
So thank you all for coming tonight.
I cannot wait to see
your reaction to this exhibition,
celebrating the work
of a remarkable man
Neil Stockton.
Thank you, Clare, ladies and gentlemen.
If you were here yesterday,
you would have seen a fella
punch me in the face.
He said I was a war profiteer.
I am.
I made a career out of
photographing people at
their most vulnerable
scared out of their minds and dying.
I went looking for chaos and trauma,
but I never stopped to think about
the people involved
in that chaos and trauma.
If you're looking for answers
to the things that some of you
experienced firsthand,
you're not going to
find them in my photos.
No answers in my photos
just questions.
Questions I hope
might start a conversation.
A conversation we all need to have.
Thank you very much.
- Good turnout.
- Yeah, very good.
Inspired idea, including
your daughter's photographs.
Yeah.
Harry.
Ah! Neil, this is my husband, Paul.
- Mr Stockton.
- Ah, the engineer.
- Fruiterer, actually.
- What?
Decided not to sell.
- I'll leave you to it.
- Okay.
You're kidding. Why?
Why not?
Seriously, it pays for itself,
keeps Dad out of trouble.
And it's a good job for Daniel
while he goes to that
ridiculous art school.
You were right. About everything.
What have you done with my husband?
I'm sure he's around here somewhere.
- Let's get a drink and look for him.
- Okay.
They're wonderful, Liz.
When I got the call
about your accident, I froze.
After your mother,
I couldn't take it again.
I know that's weak
cowardly.
By the time I got to you,
you were gone.
I'm sorry I let you die alone.
I think it's time you let me go.
I don't know that I can.
Well, that's okay.
It's not forever.
We'll see one another again.
Soon?
Sooner, if you keep
drinking like you do.
It's all right.
You'll be okay from now on, I promise.
I love you, Liz.
I love you too, Dad.