EXT. MONESTARY DOOR
– SAME DAY
At the massive steel-banded
door of the great stone edifice, Ling Fong is received by an officious looking young monk who shows him to a room where is
to await the Master's arrival.
FU FANG SHIH, a distinguished
looking man about fifty, enters almost immediately and greets the young man warmly.
LING FONG
I have often thought
of applying for a period of study with you when I reached the higher degrees, but never dreamed that I would meet you this
early in my life.
FU FANG SHIH
If you are willing,
I have a long and heroic quest to set you upon. If you survive it, you will want to continue your studies of course, but will
require little further initiation.
LING FONG
Please, tell me more.
FU FANG SHIH
The quest will require
you to have absolute faith in the good intentions of myself and the warriors who sent you here. You will have very little
choice of action. In this adventure I would liken you to a pawn upon the chess board of China, but a mighty and immovable
pawn of tempered steel forged in the fires of cultural necessity.
(pause)
There will be times
ahead when you will find evil where you least expect it, when you will not trust anything that lives, when you will curse
your parents for giving you birth. Your success and heroism will depend solely upon your will to continue living.
LING FONG
All this sounds very
bad. What is the good?
FU FANG SHIH
The good is that
you will save your countrymen from a permanent evil reign of oppression and misery. Your quest will be a strange mixture of
the mystical, perversely erotic, and political. In the process you will grow immeasurably in courage and wisdom... if you survive at all!
(pause)
Back now to the bad. You will undergo torture. You will cry for the quick mercy of death. If however,
you survive and emerge triumphant, your name will be called out in joyfulness by all and sundry, young and old, forever in
the halls of greatness.
NARRATOR (V.O.)
The heroic nature
of Ling Fong will permit him no answer except one.
LING FONG
