Quizais
- Peter K F Cheung SBS
- 18 hours ago
- 3 min read
FADE IN
Act 1
INT. LIVING ROOM - 16:15 (Yesterday)
Dark clouds hover outside. PETER opens his phone to check My Obsdervatory app.
PETER (V.O.): The thunder warning won't expire until 5pm. I can't swim outdoors before then.
He scrolls through his FB feed.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The algorithm is obsessed with Spain. Football. Flags. Fans...
A short clip plays on screen. Someone is singing in Spanish: Siempre que le pregunto que cuando, Como y donde, Tu Siempre me respondes. Quizais, quizais, quizais.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Perhaps, I should learn to play and sing this song.
Peter surfs the web and opens an online tutorial. We see a pianist's hands hovering on the keys from the side, speaking in rapid Spanish.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Music is an international language...he's playing in the key of D minor.
Peter nods with confidence.
Act 2
INT. LIVING ROOM - 10:45
Sitting on a sofa, Peter stares at his phone screen: 808-day streak completed.
PETER (V.O.): 808 days of Duolingo in Spanish teach me some Spanish. Let me mine online materials on the song Quizais.
Peter surfs the web.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The late songwriter was Osvaldo Farres, a Cuban. He wrote it in 1946.
His eyes widen.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): He was unable to read and write music?
Peter smiles.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I'm still learning, at a snail's pace.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): But he wrote a masterpiece.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Perhaps, the goal isn't to read and write the music perfectly. The goal is to own it.
He continues his search and sees many cover versons of Quizais in English. He listens to one for a moment and then skips it.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The English covers turn the song into romance. The Spanish original is about uncertainty. That's what gets lost in translation - not the words, but the weight behind them.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Certainty is boring. Quizais is where art lives.
He continues his search, scrolls way down and stops at one. He tabs the link. We hear:...the original key is in E minor, but for me, it's just too high for the vocal. I bring it down to D minor.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): It suits me too. Yes!
He punches the air silently. He watches. Just a Yamaha keyboard. No glowing notes. Just hands.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): His fingers are fluid, almost lazy.
Focusing on his phone screen, Peter goes to sit at the piano.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): He's talking about musicality too.
On screen, we see and hear the instructor playing and singing in Spanish the first verse.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I learn the notes and the chords first.
Peter hits the wrong notes. He rewinds the video 10 seconds. He watches and hits again.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Music isn't about getting it right. It's about showing up and trying, again and again, until the trying becomes its own reward.
Peter scrambles for a piece of scrap paper. He grabs a pen and starts scribbling.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): This is how people learn music for centuries. Listening. Feeling. Writing it down in one's own code.
Watching the clip intensely.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I want to understand the shape of the song first.
He plays the verse in D minor7, Gm7, A7, Dm7...
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Real understanding comes from engagement, not passive consumption.
He plays the chorus in A7, A7, D6, D6...
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I like to believe that a person who has never learned composing can create something new as he doesn't know what he is supposed to do.
The melody comes out tentatively. He hums: ...Quizais, quizais, quizais.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Mastery isn't about perfection - its about making something mine, with curiosity and patience, and a willingness to be delightfully imperfect.
He tries to sing, but stumbles on the lyrics. He laughs at himself.
Act 3
INT. BEDROOM - 22:00
Peter uploads an image to a draft on his laptop. It shows a blurred, warm-lit moment of performers in bright feather costumes that feels like Quizais - close enough to sense romance, but still uncertain, half-seen, and unresolved.
PETER (V.O.): I want to sing the song in Spanish not because I am fluent. Because some truths only sound true in the language they're born in. The song Quizais teaches me how to feel in Spanish.
Thinking.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): In the end, the song isn't about love. It isn't about Spain. It's about a man who finally understands that the question is always more beautiful than the answer. Quizas. Maybe.
Reflecting.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I don't need to visit Spain yet. I'm already there - in the music, in the language, in the "maybe" of it all.
The END
FADE OUT
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