All language subtitles for Chimerica - 01x01 - Kodak Ergo Sum

This programme contains strong
language, scenes of violence

and images some viewers may
find distressing.

'For the first time in huge numbers,
the ordinary men and women of
Beijing adjoin the studentprotest,

lending their support to what has
now taken on all the appearances

of a peaceful popular uprising
against the oppressiveness
of Communist rule.'

SINGING IN MANDARIN

Er... thanks.

CAMERA CLICKS

THEY CHANT

THEY CHANT

Demonstrators
in the Chinese capital Beijing

say they face a military attack
in five hours' time

if they don't leave
Tiananmen Square.

'Since the government's decision
to send in the army,

the determination of the protestors
has only increased.'

SHE SPEAKS MANDARIN

She wants to know what happens after
you get the dream of democracy.

She says,
"I know what China is dreaming of.
What is America dreaming of?"

Erm...

CHAOTIC SHOUTING

DISTANT EXPLOSIONS

CHAOTIC SHOUTING

GUNFIRE AND EXPLOSIONS

SCREAMING

GUNFIRE

GUNFIRE

CAMERA CLICKS

"Why are you involved
in politics at all?"
"I enjoy it. I enjoy the system."

PHONE RINGS
"I doubt I'll ever be involved
in politics beyond what I do now,

but I do enjoy the system."
Frank Sams speaking.

Hi, Mr Sams. My name is Lee Berger.
I'm a photographer. I did
an internship with you last summer.

Lee, it's late. You want
a reference, call back tomorrow.

I know, but I'm in Beijing. What?

Yeah. I saw what was going on out
here with the protest and everything

and I had a little money saved
so I... I've been here
for, like, ten days.

In Tiananmen Square?
Yeah. It's incredible.

Yesterday with, like, the army...
Do you know what's going on out here?

You mean 300 Chinese protesters
being gunned down by their own
government? No, it's morethat that.

300? Is that what they're saying?
Where are you now? Are you safe?

Yeah, but I have a few photos and I
thought you might be interested.

How soon can you get it back here?
I don't know.

There are soldiers outside the hotel.
I can't make it to the airport.

Son, are you OK? They just
opened fire on their own people.

I had no idea it was gonna be
like that. No-one did.

Just sit tight.

Let me see
if I can call in a favour.

"BBC might have a spot
on their charter."

Oh, fuck. "Lee..."

"Lee?"

CAMERA CLICKS

CAMERA CLICKS

CAMERA CLICKS

KNOCK AT DOOR

MAN SHOUTS IN MANDARIN

MAN SHOUTS IN MANDARIN

BANGING ON DOOR

MAN SHOUTS IN MANDARIN

BANGING ON DOOR

MAN SHOUTS IN MANDARIN

HE SHOUTS IN MANDARIN

HE SHOUTS IN MANDARIN

WATER TRICKLES

HE SHOUTS IN MANDARIN

HE SIGHS

CHANTING IN ARABIC

HELICOPTER WHIRS

CAMERA CLICKS

EXPLOSION

DISTANT SHOUTING

DISTANT SHOUTING AND SCREAMING

CAMERA CLICKS

HELICOPTER WHIRS

CAMERA CLICKS

GUNFIRE

SHE SHOUTS IN ARABIC

PHONE BUZZES

I know, I know.
Give me 30 seconds, it's coming.

Come on, mother...

A lot of times when you're shooting
in those kind of places,
there's a lot of dust,

so I like to have a zoom lens.
That's an EF24-70mm USM.

It's pretty standard,
but... I like it.

OK, we're almost out of time. Does
anyone have any questions for Lee?

Yeah?
Do you know what happened to him?

No, I wish. I went back to Beijing
in 1990 to try and identify him,

but if anybody knew anything,
they wouldn't say.
It's too dangerous, I guess.

He's probably dead by now, anyway,
but...

My uncle told me it was a guy
called Wang Guanyu. He was, like,
a medical student or something.

I never heard that one.

Erm, can you sign this for me,
please?

Sure.

Actually, that's not mine.
But you took the Tank Man photo.

I know, but there were, like,
six other guys
who took a really similar shot.

This one's Jeff Widener's, I think.

Yeah, that's Jeff's.
Sorry, I can't sign that.

Hey, listen, good luck. All right?

Laura's got my e-mail
if you have any other questions.

OK. Thanks. All right, take care.

I cannot wait to watch Hilary
make him eat that fucking toupee.

HE LAUGHS

DISTANT HORNS AND SIRENS

PHONE BUZZES

"Hey, Mr Berger, my name's Alex
Sguerra, I'm a photojournalist.

I wanted to ask a couple of things
about your Syria front page.

I'd be super grateful
if you could call me back."

APPLAUSE

Man, that was so depressing.
HE LAUGHS

You ready to go get booed
in Pennsylvania? Let's do it!

"The state of Pennsylvania backs the
vote for Donald Trump!" Thank you.

So Frank says you're gonna win
a Pulitzer.

For what, my poetry?

For your Syria front page,
your douche noggin.

I don't know about that.

You wanna get a beer after this?

No. Erm...

I just...

Actually, I just went into AA, so...

I was gonna tell you,
just it was while you were away,

and I didn't wanna write
some cliched e-mail.

You don't have authorisation.
Oh, that's impossible.

Mel Kincaid, The New York Courier.
This is Lee Berger.
Sorry, ma'am, you're not allowed in.

HE LAUGHS
Do you believe that? It's not just
you, it's your whole organisation.

Oh, is it, now? Yes, ma'am. Well,
thank you for that information.

Thank you. Have a nice day.
Next, please.

We're blacklisted. The whole
newspaper! This is so fucked up!

CAMERA CLICKS
"..join me in welcoming
the next president

of the United States of America,

Donald J Trump!"

Fuck him! He's a joke.
Who wants to go to China?

Yeah, I thought you'd like that.

Trump says he's standing up to
China, but they're hand in glove,

he takes loans from Chinese banks.

Now, the Beijing business fair
runs this week. I want footage.

I want America to hear "Vote Trump"
from the enemy's mouth.

You want video? Yeah.
New editor's got the bit between
her teeth about online content.

You met Lou yet? Uh-uh. No?

Well, when you do, look busy.
She's looking to take 10% off
every department.

Plus, she made me join Twitter.

Well, it is the internet, Frank.
It's not going anywhere.

Yeah, well,
I'm still hoping it's a fad.

SHE LAUGHS

"Lee, this is Alex Sguerra again.

It's about your Syria picture.
I have some questions
you need to answer.

I think you know
what I'm talking about."

Hey, Zhang Lin, it's Lee.

I think it's, like, 4am for you,
but guess what.
I'm on a plane to Beijing.

I really hope I get to see you.
I miss you, man.

Alright, call me back.

You know that's her third
since we sat down?

So?

15 hours next to Zelda Fitzgerald
could be a bumpy ride.

A pansy with hair on his chest.
Excuse me?

That's what Zelda Fitzgerald
called Ernest Hemingway.

THEY CHUCKLE

Switch seats with me. No.

So, is this your first trip to
Beijing? Hey, I got a tip for you.

Don't eat the chicken. The average
piece of Chinese chicken,

if you were an athlete
and you ate this chicken,

the steroids
that they pump into that shit,
you would fail a doping test.

It is the Lance Armstrong
of the poultry world.

OK, it's not my first time.

Oh.

SHE SIGHS
You OK?

Take-off is the worst part. Once
we're in the air, you'll be fine.

SHE SIGHS
You know why they tell you
to adopt the brace position?

So your teeth don't smash
and they can identify your body
by your dental records.

Don't be mean. She's scared.

SHE GASPS

I'm Lee. I'm sorry.
SHE GASPS

You're gonna be fine.

SHE SIGHS

SHE SIGHS
So what are you doing out there?

I'm consulting for an American
credit card company. They are taking
a crack at the Chinesemarket.

I'm adapting their profiling system.

I know, it's very sexy. Profiling.

I mean, no offence, but you're going
to a country of one billion people

to make some boxes to put them in?
I mean, come on!

OK, erm, I've had, like, four wines,

but I would say that you are
group O, group B characteristics.

Within that, I would place you
as an anti-materialist,

maybe a bit of a bright young thing
once, but I think that ship
has sailed, don't you?Oh!

You see your work as a career,
not a job.

You identify yourself
as international, not national.
You have no brand loyalty.

You think cannabis should be
legalised, sanitary towels
should be subsidised,

Donald Trump is a demagogue,
veganism is a good
but unattainable goal

and real men do cry.

You know, it's fine to say,
"I don't wanna talk."

You know, you can just say that. OK.

Shut up! The Tank Man?

That is mental!
HE LAUGHS

I used to wonder
what was in his shopping bags.

Yeah, well,
there are kids with iPhones
who can do my job better than me now.

But I don't know how to do
anything else. Kodak ergo sum.

Ooh!

I read that some place.
I didn't come up with it. Thought so.

THEY LAUGH

What?

I'm so pissed.

HE LAUGHS

THEY WHISPER AND GIGGLE

THEY GIGGLE

Helen, baby,
I just got off a 15-hour flight.

Please do not put words in my mouth.

Say hi from me. Lee says hi.

Yeah, he's fine.

He fucked Margaret Thatcher
on the plane.

I know. It's disgusting.

Hey, put Nathan on the line.

PHONE BUZZES

Trump. Yeah, I know him.
I like him very much.

His hair is... defying gravity.

Is China scared of him?
HE SPEAKS MANDARIN

He will destroy America.

Of the two candidates, who do you
think would be best for China?

Hilary is crooked. Vote Trump.

ALL: Vote Trump! Vote Trump!

OK. Thank you very much.

Zhang Lin? Hey!

HE LAUGHS

Aghh! Ohh!

Oh, man, I missed you!

So, what's the story this time?
Three guesses. Trump.

An election every four years. No
wonder you cannot get anything done.

THEY LAUGH
This is my brother, Jungwei.

THEY SPEAK MADARIN AND LAUGH

You remember Mel, right?
Hi. So good to see you.

And this is my friend, Tess.

SHE SPEAKS MANDARIN
I hope it's OK if I join you.

Of course. Please, sit. Thank you.

This is a great place. I hope
you can handle the spicy food.

I love spicy food!
Ah, people always say that!
THEY LAUGH

No, I went back to Beijing in 1990.
Zhang Lin was trying to teach me
some Mandarin,

but I didn't get very far.
THEY CHUCKLE

Have you ever been to New York?
What for?

Starbucks, cockroaches,
we have both of those here.

THEY LAUGH
Hey, I teach Crazy English now.
Did I tell you?

I take my students to the roof.
We yell English into the sky.

You shout, you learn, you conquer
English to make China stronger.
HE LAUGHS

It's got sort of a fascist aspect,
but it helps with the conjugation.

THEY LAUGH
Tomorrow, hi! This is Tomorrow,
she's one of my pupils.

Hi. You... the famous photograph?
Me? Am I famous? No.

No, I took one pretty famous photo.

You wanna see it? OK.

Erm... here it is.

I took it in Tiananmen Square
in 1989.

After the protest

Hm, I don't know. Sorry.

I think we were followed today.

Probably. You're a journalist.

You don't think it's weird?
It's never happened to me before.

You mean you never noticed before.

Excuse me.

Joy!

Hey. Hey! You caught us.
Don't be silly, I'll have one.

THEY CHUCKLE

Who was that? Who?

Oh, Joy.
That's my neighbour's daughter.

Hmm! Do you fancy her?

HE LAUGHS
No, she's... she's married.
She lives in Hong Kong.

Too smart for me.
She's a human rights lawyer.

Ah!
Yeah. Anyway, I don't think, er...
I don't think I'll marry again.

Zhang Lin's wife died.

I'm sorry, I didn't realise.
It happened a long time ago.

So how did you get together?

Do you know a band called Wham?
Yeah.

They played a concert here.
I bought tickets.

Then my girlfriend broke up with me.

I met Liuli the next day.
I took her instead.

That was our first date.
You never told me that.

I've seen that concert.
There was a documentary on YouTube.

They show the whole crowd. Maybe
you're in it! You've gotta check.

Ah, we can't access that site.
YouTube is blocked here.

You like Wham?
Do I like Wham? I love Wham.

I spent the 80s planning my wedding
to George Michael.

What is your point?
SHE LAUGHS

I'm just saying, there was a massacre
right here in Tiananmen Square

and the guy still had the courage to
stand up and say, "This is wrong."

And what did he have? Nothing.
He had a couple of plastic
grocery bags, that's it.

He was a clown!

He wasn't a clown.

I was there, too. Yes.

Up in a hotel room taking pictures,
behind your camera.

I was here in the square, OK?

Bullets the size of your thumb, yes?
Dumdums.

They turned the lights out on us.

Don't you think it's weird
that nobody would know anything?
The Tank Man? Are we still onthat?

That waitress, she worked five
minutes from the square, she didn't
even know people were killedthere.

Bad journalism. Most of them weren't
even killed in the square. OK, OK!

But she never even heard
of the Tank Man!

Ahhh! What's with you tonight, huh?
Tank Man, Tank Man.

What did he do?
He stood in the road.

My wife, she sat in that square for
two whole months! Right, you were
there, you must have heard something.

Over the years, you never heard
anything, nobody ever said anything?

I heard he went to America!

What?

Wait, wait, what are you... New York.

Many people moved there after.

By August,
most of my friends were gone.

Are you serious?

I thought... I thought that he was...
I thought he would've been dead.
This is...

Do you have his name?
He'll have changed it.
He'll be called Brian Simpson or...

No, do you know what his name is?

Please, do you have it?

Wang Pengfei.

Wang Pengfei, like P-E-N-G...

F-E-I.

He went to art school with Liuli.

He got his place there
by painting a perfect copy

of Van Gogh's Sunflowers.

Nice guy.

I can't believe that
you never told me this.

You're a foreign journalist, Lee.

You know how careful I have to be
when you come to visit, hm?

I like to live quiet.

Anyway, it was 30 years ago.
Who cares?

Don't you have other things to worry
about, like, er, democracy?

It's... What's the English word?
..fucked.

What, you don't like Trump?

I like Clinton.

Women hold up half the sky.

Drink.

THEY LAUGH

Welcome back.
THEY LAUGH

The Tank Man is dead.

You don't think this friend of yours
is, let's be civil,
feeding you a crock of shit?

I actually think we might have
something. We have this guy's name.

Wang Pengfei.
Ah, right. And this name was
given to you by how many people?

Lee's friend, Zhang Lin.

And this person, he's in the army?
The party?

He teaches Crazy English.

Excellent.
So he has access to the really
high-level intelligence, then.

Anyway, he's dead.

I pulled the clips. This is by our
Beijing correspondent at the time.

The headline is quite unequivocal.

It can't be quite unequivocal.
It is or it isn't. There's no scale.

LIFT DINGS

Maybe that headline's wrong.
I've never heard of it.

How long do we have
before Lou gets here?

That's her. That's her?

What is she doing? She's inspiring
us to sit differently. She wants
to encourage younger voices.

Does it work? Yeah.

Frank, it's that girl again. She's
called three times this morning.

Tell her I'll call her back!
She says if you don't take it,
she's gonna call Lou direct.

Alex Sguerra, photojournalist,
know her?

Me, neither.
Had to Google her. She's about 12.
Works for VICE. Wears a lot of hats.

Alex Sguerra says
if you magnify this by 200,
the manipulation is obvious.

So we could do that and turn this
into an official investigation.

Or you can just tell me
what you did.

It's two shots.
I spliced them together.

HE SIGHS

I just... I-I-I don't know
what I was thinking. I didn't even
really mean to send it. Ohh.

HE CLEARS HIS THROAT
Does Lou know?

Not yet. Does she have to?

I've never done
anything like this before.
There's no quiet way of doing this.

We have to print a correction.

We have to weather
the shit storm that follows.

And I have to call every editor
in the country and apologise cos
you've made all of us look dirty,

right at the moment we need
more than ever to be immaculate.

HE CHUCKLES

You've played right into his
tiny hands. You know that, right?

I can't afford to give you
anything less than
a public execution right now.

Frank, please, it was a great shot.

Sure. Kind of shot that wins
a Pulitzer. If it's real.

It was real! It happened!
It's true or it isn't!

Alteration is not an option! Yeah,
well, apparently it's the only way
to get Syria on the front page.

Week after week,
I send you unthinkable atrocities,
and you bury them on page 12.

You're gonna wanna write an apology.
A good one. I can help you
with that. But this...

We're done, son.

HE PANTS

SIRENS WAIL

HORNS BLARE

Excuse me! Don't worry,
I won't be long. You can't just...
Alex? Alex Sguerra? Anybody? Alex?

Alex? Lee Berger.
I know who you are. Hi.

Look, do you wanna go somewhere?
No, I just wanna say, I hope when
you're doing your importantwork,

covering which music festival
is the best to get herpes at,
you feel fucking proud of yourself.

Dude,
do you think I like this, either?

I've looked up to you my whole
career. I had the Tank Man pasted
on my bedroom wall. No, no,no.

What I do has nothing to do
with what you do.

You don't have a career.
You have a couple of dumb trips to
Cambodia that your daddy paid for.

I work for a newspaper!

We take bets
on when the first VICE kid
is gonna get their head chopped off!

Worked. Excuse me?

You worked for a newspaper.
Past tense, right?

PHONE RINGTONE

DOOR OPENS AND CLOSES

# I was dreaming but I should've
been with you instead

# Wake me up before you go-go

# Don't leave me hanging on
like a yo-yo

# Wake me up before you go-go

# I don't wanna miss it
when you hit that high

# Wake me up before you go-go

# Cos I'm not planning on going solo

# Wake me up before you go-go #

MUSIC STOPS

CHANTING IN MANDARIN

WOMAN CHANTS AND CROWD REPEAT

THEY LAUGH

FAINT RATTLING

RATTLING

LOUD RATTLING

"These vicious claims about me

of inappropriate conduct with women

are totally and absolutely false."

'I'd like to apologise
for the mistake I made
manipulating the photograph.

I've always behaved ethically

and this was a single, catastrophic
error of judgement.

I deeply regret
that I sullied the reputation
of my newspaper and my friends.

Journalists are not liars.

They seek truth, and right now,
we need them more than ever.'

I cannot expect my colleagues
to forgive me.

I only hope that they will recognise
this happened under the pressure
of rolling half-hour deadlines

and the demands
of a readership which has become
desensitised to anything

but the most arresting images.

Cut the last sentence.

But it's true.

I know.

But cut it.

PHONE BUZZES

Yeah.
So it's been kind of a bad day.

I mean, that really is shitty. Yeah.
HE LAUGHS

So, when did you fly in?

Four hours ago. Can't you tell?
SHE LAUGHS

You like working over there? It's
the only country I've ever been to

where I feel like they genuinely
don't give a shit about us,

like, at all. Erm...

SHE SPEAKS MANDARIN

Wow!
SHE LAUGHS

You're a fast learner, huh?
I've been studying at night,
taking a lot of caffeine pills.

My piss is orange. I have to admit
something really terrible.

Worse than your piss being orange?

I Googled you.

I Googled you, too.
SHE GASPS

What's netball?
And why do they make you wear
such short skirts when you play it?

Sorry. Just...

You know this is a work thing,
right?

SHE LAUGHS

This is really awkward now,
isn't it? No. Not at all.
Don't worry about it.

I literally just got divorced.
I'm not really looking for...
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's fine.

Excuse me, can I get another one
of those? Thanks. Sure thing.

So, what do you wanna talk about?

OK.

Erm, so...

the credit card company I work for
are looking for some artwork
for the card, and I found...

..this. It's yours.

Well, I would like to license it.

For a credit card?
No. I don't think so.

And, anyway, that river
that those kids are fishing in

is one of the most polluted rivers
in the world. The child mortality
rate is, like, through theroof.

It's a great image.
Yeah, there's a ceiling on how much
I wanna make off a bunch of kids

dying in a developing country.
I'm sorry you lost your job,
but don't take it out on me.

Don't do that. That's not what I'm
talking about. Why are you angry?

Because I slept with you
and I don't wanna do it again?

Cos it's the worst day of my life
and I'm dining with Ayn Rand.

And actually,
bullshit you didn't wanna...

"Hey, Lee, can I buy you dinner?
I promise not to have sex with you.
Call me."

I'm not sure how I could have been
more explicit.
HE LAUGHS

Oh, my God!
This is, like, the least subtle
email I've ever gotten in my life.

Look, I know you're having
a tough time, but honestly...

..we Photoshop everything,
all the time. So what?

So what if the Tank Man
was Photoshopped?

It's still an amazing image, right?

It'd still be saying something.
It'd still be true.

Are you out of your fucking mind?

"Journalists are not liars.

They seek truth.

And right now,
we need them more than ever."

You know there are a ton of people
right now shitting on you
from a great height,

and I just want you to know,
those people have exactly
zero fucking right to do that

cos those people were never in
a combat zone in their whole life.

OK. Thank you. But I was.

I have been in 12 combat zones.

So when I shit on you, it counts.
OK?

I don't care how hot or dusty
it was, or how much sleep
you weren't getting,

there is no excuse
for what you did! I'm sorry.

I hope you like eating
leftover shrimp in a catering tin

cos you're gonna be
a wedding photographer for the rest
of your fucking life, Lee!

I know. Do you know
you have broken my heart?

He's not dead.

Are you serious right now?
No, just listen to me. Listen to me.

We knew that after Tiananmen,
there have been public executions
on TV every day,

people who'd embarrassed the party
a lot less than that guy. Yeah. So?

So it doesn't make any sense.

If the party had got him,
they definitely would've made sure
that every TV viewer in China

had seen that bullet go through his
head. The image would've gone round
the world, and there'snothing.

I get a photo of the Tank Man...

alive and well
and sitting in Central Park,

you don't think
every newspaper in the world
is gonna open its doors to me?

Even if you got that photo,
you know what happens.

Everyone thinks it's a fake.

In news, you don't have anything
except your credibility.

And you don't have that any more.
I know, but you do.

No. No!

So what do you think?
I think he's fired
and you have an election to cover.

You know,
this isn't just about the Tank Man.

This is about a government
crushing one of the biggest protests
in history.

Zhang Lin, he lost his wife.

She was shot in the street
and nobody remembers.
But if the Tank Man is alive...

There's no evidence
the Public Security Bureau took him.

You had a name, right? Wang Pengfei.

Nothing else? He painted a perfect
copy of Van Gogh's Sunflowers.

Well... it's not nothing.

This is extracurricular, OK?
You still put the newspaper first.
And you, be careful.

If Lou hears you're anywhere near
this, it's my head on a plate.

She only hates you
cos you're a Republican.
HE LAUGHS

Like I haven't been punished enough.

HE SNIFFS

Wake me up before you go-go.

Take me... dancing... tonight.

I want to hit that high.

BOTH: Wake me up before you go-go.

Don't leave me hanging on
like a yo-yo.

CAMERA CLICKS

CAMERA CLICKS

CAMERA CLICKS

When we find him, what's the first
question you're gonna ask?

OK. One, what did he say
to the soldier in the tank? Mm-hm.

Two, what were in his shopping bags?

"Your New York City forecast here
on this Tuesday morning..." Hey.

TV PLAYS IN BACKGROUND

HE SPEAKS MANDARIN

BABY GURGLES

BABY GURGLES
Hey. Hey.

Hey!
SHE LAUGHS

Subtitles by Red Bee Media