The Broken Moon

1. FADE IN

2. 
   

3. Act 1

4. 
   

5. MONTAGE - THE DAILY RITUAL

6. 
   

7. A. Dining room. 08:00. Morning light cut across the table. PETER eats a triangle of toast. In the chair opposite, Kaji, the family pet, follows each bite with solemn eyes. Peter tears off a piece of crust and offers it.

8. 
   

9. B. Public pool. 09:45. The rhythmic distortion of Peter's breath. He surges forward with a powerful butterfly stroke. He surfaces, gasping.

10. 
    

11. C. Living room. 11:45. With a smartphone in hand, Peter diligently corrects the numerous mistakes he made in his German and Portuguese lessons on Duolingo.

12. 
    

13. END MONTAGE

14. 
    

15. EXT. BUS STOP - 13:30

16. 
    

17. Peter boards a bus bound for Yuen Long. He taps his JoyYou Card and pays $2.

18. 
    

19. PETER (V.O.): Car free. Carefree.

20. 
    

21. Pausing.

22. 
    

23. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): However, taking public transport is time-consuming. I can only spend two and a half hour at my NT home before returning to my urban home for dinner.

24. 
    

25. Act 2

26. 
    

27. MONTAGE OF PETER'S ACTIVITIES AT HIS NT HOME

28. 
    

29. A. G/F. He sorts through boxes of books on Philosophy, Law, Music and Leadership. He plays the Clavinova, the Fender acoustic guitar, and the Yamaha and Ltd electric guitars.

30. 
    

31. B. 1/F. He plays the Yamaha piano; and he puts some shirts into his carrier bag.

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33. C. 2/F. He wipes the dust of a 12-string Fender acoustic guitar and an Epiphone electric rhythm guitar. He folds a blanket and rearranges the cushions.

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35. D. Staircases. He fills a bucket and cleans them with a damp cloth.

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37. E. Driveway. To rinse off the coupes stored there, he uses a water hose to spray water.

38. 
    

39. END MONTAGE

40. 
    

41. PETER (V.O.): Now a storehouse. Used to be a weekend refuge in the 2000s.

42. 
    

43. Pausing.

44. 
    

45. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The task of stewarding memories and physical legacies falls on me.

46. 
    

47. Peter checks his phone clock. 18:15.

48. 
    

49. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Time to go.

50. 
    

51. Peter goes to shut all the windows and doors of the three-storey house.

52. 
    

53. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): No matter how little the progress...managing them is necessary for living fully in the present.

54. 
    

55. As Peter steps out onto the front path, he turns, pulling the garden gate closed.

56. 
    

57. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): It's like a pause between one world and the next.

58. 
    

59. He looks up and sees the moon - not full, not half, but a delicate, luminous silver. The silent light of it falls across his face.

60. 
    

61. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I'm a man suspended between now and then.

62. 
    

63. FLASHBACK

64. 
    

65. INT. HOME - NIGHT (2000)

66. 
    

67. Sitting by the window, Peter's elder DAUGHTER (4) points at the crescent moon, her eyes wide with horror.

68. 
    

69. DAUGHTER: Oh no! The moon is broken!

70. 
    

71. Peter (46) joins her, tilting his head to gaze at the sky.

72. 
    

73. PETER: Don't worry, it'll be full again in just a week or two.

74. 
    

75. RETURN TO PRESENT

76. 
    

77. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): We spend our youth believing things can be broken, and our age knowing they're only changed.

78. 
    

79. Pausing.

80. 
    

81. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): We're all less than half, sometimes. And yet we're entirely ourselves.

82. 
    

83. Pausing.

84. 
    

85. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): We don't fix a broken moon. We learn to love the delicate shape of its absence, and wait for it to remember itself.

86. 
    

87. Pausing.

88. 
    

89. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The moon mends and breaks itself in a silent cycle, a clock for those who look up and remember.

90. 
    

91. Pausing.

92. 
    

93. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): A "broken" moon is just a silver holding the dark. A father's love is like that - my children only see a fragment, but it holds the whole unseen weight of the night.

94. 
    

95. Pausing.

96. 
    

97. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): What is broken isn't the moon, but the distance between the memory and the moment.

98. 
    

99. Pausing.

100. 
     

101. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): We spend our youth believing things can be broken, and our age knowing they're only changed.

102. 
     

103. Act 3

104. 
     

105. INT. LIVING ROOM - 22:30

106. 
     

107. Peter uploads a photo of a crescent moon shining against a deep blue sky, partially obscured by a building corner to a draft on his laptop.

108. 
     

109. PETER (V.O.): The moon is always whole. We're the ones who see in pieces.

110. 
     

111.  Thinking.

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113. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Broken moon, faithful light. I see a fond memory, hanging in the present sky.

114. 
     

115. Reflecting.

116. 
     

117. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): It was never about the moon. It was about the eye of the beholder, then and now.

118. 
     

119. The END

120. 
     

121. FADE OUT