The Keeper of Things

1. FADE IN

2. 
   

3. Act 1

4. 
   

5. EXT. GARAGE, PETER'S NT HOME - 14:15

6. 
   

7. We see a tiny, pod-like numeric blue Smart city coupe. It looks like a cheerful, futuristic beetle. Then we see a low-slung aggressive red Nissan S13. Its pop-up headlights are down, giving it a dormant, sleeping look.

8. 
   

9. PETER appears. He opens the driver's side door of the Smart. He slides in and inserts the key.

10. 
    

11. PETER (V.O.): The last time I ran it was before my Sept-Oct travels.

12. 
    

13. He takes a breath. He turns the key. The tiny engine sputters for a second, then catches with a high-pitched, rattling purr.

14. 
    

15. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Great!

16. 
    

17. Peter exhales, a smile touching his lips.

18. 
    

19. He gets out, leaves the Smart running and moves to the Nissan. He opens its door, slides into the low-slung seat. He turns the key. The S13 coughs a deep sound and then roars to life.

20. 
    

21. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Superb! My stored cars are still alive. No need to jump-start them.

22. 
    

23. He sits in his S13 for a moment.

24. 
    

25. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I feel a deep sense of relaxation. My anxiety of finding them dead has passed.

26. 
    

27. Act 2

28. 
    

29. EXT. PETER'S CHILDHOOD HOME, TIN SUM - 16:30

30. 
    

31. Peter walks through an open gate into an overgrown-garden. BROTHERS#1-2 are collecting the yard waste.

32. 
    

33. PETER: Hi there!

34. 
    

35. BROTHERS#1-2: Hi, big brother!

36. 
    

37. Peter picks up a pair of shears and starts cutting the overgrown. Then his eyes drift to the centerpiece of the garden: a lychee tree.

38. 
    

39. BROTHER#1: The branches at its upper canopy are all dead.

40. 
    

41. BROTHER#2: But at its base, thick and vibrant green shoots are pushing out

42. 
    

43. PETER: I hope we can harvest lychees again next year...

44. 
    

45. BROTHER#1: The young won't care.

46. 
    

47. PETER: Grandma planted it in 1966. Life was hard then.

48. 
    

49. BROTHER#1: Indeed.

50. 
    

51. PETER: It was our family's investment. A small tree, a small hope.

52. 
    

53. FLASHBACK

54. 
    

55. EXT, THE SAME SPOT - DAY (1966)

56. 
    

57. An energetic GRANDMA (65), her face weathered but smiling, pats the soil around a tiny sapling. Peter's DAD (33), Peter (12) and brother#1 (9) watch.

58. 
    

59. GRANDMA: It'll grow. Like all of you. And one day, it'll give us fruit.

60. 
    

61. END FLASHBACK

62. 
    

63. Peter stands by the tree, lost in thought.

64. 
    

65. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Our loving Grandma died in 1974. The tree was only eight. Not a single lychee. She never tasted them.

66. 
    

67. Recalling.

68. 
    

69. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): My Dad and Mum did taste them. And they generously shared the lychees with our neighbours.

70. 
    

71. EXT. MTR TRAIN - 20:00

72. 
    

73. Peter sits on a train carriage, heading back to the city. He pulls out his smart phone.

74. 
    

75. PETER (V.O.): Last week, my wife and I were on board Disney's Adventure, a global class cruise ship, sailing in the high seas near Singapore.

76. 
    

77. He types into the search bar: Disney Adventure cruise ship history.

78. 
    

79. He reads, his expression one of fascination and a touch of melancholy.

80. 
    

81. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Fascinating...Genting Hong Kong ordered the ship in 2016. In 2022, construction was halted at roughly 75% completion. Then Genting and the shipyard filed liquidations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

82. 
    

83. He scrolls further.

84. 
    

85. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): In Nov 2022, Disney purchased the unfinished hull for approximately 40 million euros - significantly lower than its original multi-billion dollar valuation.

86. 
    

87. Pausing.

88. 
    

89. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Now named Disney Adventure. Based in Singapore.

90. 
    

91. Peter looks out the window at the urban landscape blurring past.

92. 
    

93. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): If not for COVID...its home port could have been Hong Kong. We'd have looked at it in the harbour.

94. 
    

95. He puts the phone away.

96. 
    

97. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): A grand plan, a sudden disaster, a new beginning under a different flag, in a different port.

98. 
    

99. Pausing.

100. 
     

101. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): It feels a larger version of my own life, of the tree, of everything.

102. 
     

103. Act 3

104. 
     

105. INT. BEDROOM -22:00

106. 
     

107. Peter uploads an image to a draft on his laptop. It shows a leafless lychee tree with dark, tangled branches silhouetted against a cloudy gray sky.

108. 
     

109. PETER (V.O.): The keeper of things is not a prisoner of the past; I'm a gardener of it - trimming what's dead, watering what still wants to live.

110. 
     

111. Thinking.

112. 
     

113. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): To be the keeper of things is to accept some investment paid in memory, not fruit - and that memory, tended well, is its own harvest.

114. 
     

115. Reflecting.

117. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The keeper of things knows that a life is not measured by what one keeps, but by what one keeps alive.

118. 
     

119. The END

120. 
     

121. FADE OUT