All language subtitles for I Wish I Knew (Jia Zhangke, 2010) Part 1 ENG

Shanghai 2009

I was born in Shanghai in August,1953
There were four of us in the family

My father was from Guangdong,
studying in Shanghai

My mother was born in Zhejiang

So we were migrants

Many families like us

were living in Shanghai's alleys

And the happiest part of

growing up there was having fun

The thing I still remember best

is the start of the Cultural
Revolution, and just before that

we were 89 and 1516 at the time

It's a very intense memory

Neighbors used to respect other's privacy

But Cultural Revolution changed
that because of all the raids

We suddenly found out which families were spies

which ones were capitalists
which ones were revolutionaries

Eventually, the poor Reds were
paraded through the streets

There was a capitalist
family living opposite us

In Cultural Revolution, they could

only keep one floor of their building

We used to peep at their meals

They had a big mahogany table

servants, too

elegant manners, fine dishes

That way of life ended with
the Cultural Revolution

Each alley had a boy

who was top dog

Each with his own gang.
This boy was the best fighter

A natural leader, got along
well with the others

So we all had to choose who we
wanted to play with

It determined whether you'd get bullied

or you'd bully others

Meanwhile in the alleys nearby,
there were boys who targeted us

Kind of like the Warring States Period

There was one kid from Zhangjia Park
who always went for us

We lived in Da Zhong Li

It would be no different in, say

X u Dong Li

Anyhow, every lane, every Li

had a couple of so called

hooligans Lively boys

That is, always fighting each other

Then making up. Then fighting again

Those are my strongest
childhood mermories

Anybody

Anybody dare fight me

Come on

Come on, here

Hurry up

Anyone dare

I'm Kang Quan! Who dares

Come in and shoot

My father was Yang X ingfo

He co organized the Chinese
Civil Rights Alliance

to rescue communists and
democrats who had been arrested

by the Nationalists

And Chiang Kai shek was very displeased

He ordered secret agents to

assassinate my father on the
morning of June 18th, 1933

My father's office was in a

western style house with a garden

When we drove out, we had to
turn a corner into the road

So the car was driving slowly

This time I was suddenly deafened

There was an explosion

I thought the tire had blown
or something like that

But when I stuck my head out

Our car was a convertible

The chassis was metal,
and it had a canvas roof

But there was nothing between

the roof and the chassis

So, no protection against gunfire

As the car was taking the
turn, it came to a stop

Why?

I saw the driver jump out

He was trying to escape

He was shot twice once in the stomach

Then in the arm blood everywhere

I was too scared to know

what was happening.

At that moment

I grew dizzy and lost consciousness

I came to a bit later

I found myself lying

under a seat. My father was on top of me

I tried to get up

But he was on top of me

I did my best to get up I was only 14

In the 2nd year of junior high school
Anyhow, I finally managed to sit up

Then I tried to wake my father

But he didn't repond.

After the assassination,
Madame Soong made a speech

telling us to keep going

But the fact was, there was
no longer a general secretary

Madame Soong told Lin Yutang,
he was a member of the Alliance

to stand in as the general secretary

You know Lin said
He said that was asking to be killed

So the organization was
disbanded Because nobody wanted

I recall when Tse ven Soong

came out of the railway station

with his assistant Tang Yulu

They were in similar suits. It was hot

They were in white suits, panama hats

The train pulled in, many people got off

Before they reached the barrier

There was a gunshot

Tse ven Soong reacted quickly
He flung himself to the ground

Lost his hat

so they missed their target
Soong' s assistant took one step

and was shot dead

All it took was one shot

One shot was enough to kill him

Anyhow

The assistant had dependents

He was newly married

And his wife was pregnant

As a widow, she'd have many difficulties

Tang, Soong and my father had
been classmates in America

They liked strolling along
Huaihai Road for coffee shops

My father used to bring me along

There weren't many
coffee shops on Huaihai Road

Only D.D.S. Not many

Yachts are the big thing these days

But my father had one ages ago

It had a kitchen

A big dining space

And a bedroom too

Like a houseboat in the west

Just like that

And in addition to the houseboat,

he had a couple of speedboats

Very fast

Towed behind the yacht

Not like the speedboats
used in competitions today

More like cars, with three seats

in the front and three behind

They had steering wheels,

towed along behind

We rode them all over

went right past the Garden Bridge

We had towelling clothes

Because the big waves would splash us

He was one of the first to
have an air conditioner

They first appeared in the 1930s

Take his Peking Opera performances

Professionals staged
Peking Opera for money,

but he was an amateur

Even in rehearsals, he had
famous actors in supporting roles

They got paid for doing very little

Everyone came to watch was given
a tin of monosodium glutamate

or a box of mosquito repellent coils

So everyone came to see the shows

not because he was a great actor

but they could get free MSG

or mosquito repellent coils
That was how things went

He liked best singing Peking Opera

only used imported brands

But his costumes were Chinese

He knew how to enjoy life

During the Cultural Revolution

he said he was ready
to meet the King of Hell

Because he'd had a good life

Even his clothes could go!

The only thing the Red Guards left him

was a Meiyi brand bed

Those beds were all very costly

But he sold it

He said a bamboo bed is fine

I don't care, I've enjoyed my life

I wish I knew. Someone
like you could love me

I wish I knew

you place no one above me

Did I mistake this for a real romance?

My grandfather's name was Zhang Yiyun

He ran a pickle company

Which was rare at that time

Then he went into chemicals

And eventually, he founded the

he founded the Tianchu MSG Company

Back then, there was a
boycott of Japanese goods

Tianchu was a big success

It took the Chinese market away

from the Japanese Aji no Moto

But Tianchu's raw materials
had come from Japan

So he founded Tianyuan Chemical Company

to provide the raw materials
That's why the name is similar

And the chemical by products were used by

another company he founded, Tianli Nitrogen

In the 1930s, his three companies

earned him the nickname Father oflndustry.

And that's why

when the anti Japanese war got going

he could spend a small fortune

to buy a special fighter plane from
the German company Siemens

He donated it to the country
in the company' s name

I wish I knew

someone like you could love me

I wish I knew

You place no one above me

Did I mistake this for a real romance

I wish I knew

But only you can answer

If you don't care

Why let me hope

Could love me

I wish I knew

Suzhou River 1999

Suzhou River 2009

The Sino British Treaty of Nanjing,
signed on August 29th,1842,

made Shanghai port open to foreign trade

Balfour, British Consul in Shanghai,
took up his post on November 17,1843.

Shanghai was officially
opened to foreign trade

Foreign concessions were established.
So were the gangs

Shiliupu (Wharf 16)

My father was Du Yuesheng

He never talked to us about his gang

Except for one thing

He said

At table, you should say

Enjoy the food. Thank you

He also said Always pass chopsticks
to others with the end out

That is the way of the gang

One day he took me out by car

Near the gate of Lafayette Fang,
Fuxing Road

One of his bodyguards

opened the car door, jumped out

and lined up beside the car

until it reached the gate.

The gatekeeper made a call

Then my father went in

Not until the door was closed
behind him, did the bodyguards

turn the car around and leave

He was afraid of being killed

At 14, his father died

His mother just after she gavee
birth to a girl, she died too

Since he couldn't afford a coffin,
he rolled up Grandpa's body in a mat

He left it in the mud

by the bank of a lake near Gaoqiao

Later a tree grew there

And its roots

wrapped around Grandpa's body

A geomancer said It was a very good omen

He was a naughty boy

He was brought up by Wan Molin's father

He was mischievous

So nobody liked him

Kids clustered around him

He'd say Even I am a tramp,

I will be the leader of tramp

My grandma was called Little
Lanying A stage name

They toured around, putting on shows

My mother sang. My aunt did too

Auntie's stage name was Yuying
For my mother was Yulan

When they performed in Shanghai

my father saw them

It was in Tianchan Theater,
Shanghai Tianchan Theater

Later on, when my father
wanted to marry my mother

who should be the matchmaker?

One of gang boss Huang Jinrong's

daughters in law named Li Zhiqing

Huang's son actually died
before they could marry

So when Li Zhiqing got married,
her husband was already dead

So she had to marry

a portrait of her late fianc�

She married into the Huang family
But she had no husband

So she was in charge of almost
everything of the family

She was my father's matchmaker

And my mother had a godmother

She served as mother's matchmaker

My grandmother had one demand

Her daughter must be the official wife

Not a concubine

My father made that promise

Dad's first wife loved him very much

So when he married my mother

the first wife gavee him all she owned

Even her marriage license

But dad's second and third wives

both bullied her

Anyhow, father's first wife
gavee the marriage her blessing

I'll give her our marriage
license as a gift

My mother was the official wife

But she played mahjong with
the other wives like one big family

At that time most of us had no choice

but to flee Shanghai to Hong Kong

We decided to leave

On May 27th, 1949,

my father left on the ship Haiyan

When it pulled out from
Shanghai's Wusong Port

they passed a Shenxin Cotton Mill
and he said aloud

Even I have to leave!

To this day, I don't know
why he went to France

Hong Kong would have been fine,
wouldn't it?

He asked for

One hundred and forty passports

But in Taiwan, it was impossible

They wanted to charge him $150,000

He knew he had only $100,000

There was never enough money

So one day he said

I must die

Otherwise all of you will die

Day by day, his health
was deteriorating

It could only end one way

Pudong, Shanghai

The Bund

Nanjing Road set, Chedun Film Studio

My father, Wang X iaohe

he joined the Communist
Party on May 4th, 1942

The Party ordered him to go to
Yangshupu Electric Power Plant

In 1948, everything went wrong
for the KMT (Nationalists)

There was a surge in protests
by students and workers

My father was caught up in all that

The enemy was watching him closely

Eventually they charged him

with destroying a power generator

They arrested him on April 21 st

He was given a death sentence
scheduled for September 27th

On that day, my mother

I had an elder sister

She born 17 months before me

I was born on October 24th,1948

On September 27th,

my mother was pregnant with me

Despite being so pregnant

she picked up my sister

And went to the prison
gate with our Grandma

Many people came along in support

So the traffic around Tilanqiao Prison

was clogged up all day

Some policemen

whipped my mother with a belt

Trying to drive her away

She didn't leave, of course

After all that

the Tilanqiao Prison put up a notice

It said they hadn't got the execution order
So it wouldn't be carried out today

My father was being held in Yangshupu

They brought him to Tilanqiao Prison

That prison had a special court

To sentence people in secret

Just for the convenience of the KMT

They convicted and sentenced my father
He was executed in Tilanqiao Prison

on the morning of September 30th

Put to death

My father died

around 10 o'clock on September 30th

in Tilanqiao Prison

On that day, a journalist from
Ta Kung Pao in Hong Kong

made an interview

He took many pictures

Actually lots of people took photos

when my father was brought
outside the prison

and after the closed court session

I know my father from those pictures

He died three weeks before I was born

So I never met him

I knew him only from those pictures

I miss him so much, though

I never knew my father's love

After the execution,
Mother thought of killing herself

A neighbor said it might help
if she gavee away her two children

Mother really was suicidal
but she was paralyzed in bed

She could hardly move,
let alone kill herself

One of the underground communists

He is the one in that picture I showed

He often came to see her

Once he told Mother

Bring up the two children

Because they are carrying X iaohe's blood!

Do bring them up. Don't leave them

On hearing this, Mother said

I absolutely will bring them up!

And so she didn't leave us

Life was really hard in those 8 months

On Liberation Day, May 25th, 1949

the communist army marched along

Nanjing Road

At that moment, she went crazy

She went to Nanjing Road to look for Dad

The communists are here!
X iaohe is back at last!

So she was there. We lived at
the corner with Hankou Road

Very close to Nanjing Road

She saw the communist army going by

with a prisoner

So she followed the soldiers

All the way to the Bund

Still looking for Dad

To Liberate Shanghai / Wang Bing /1959

Shanghai is liberated!

Long live Chairman Mao!

Welcome to Shanghai!

The liberation of Shanghai

marks the thorough destruction
of imperialist forces in China!

As well as the complete independence
and liberation of the Chinese people!

Let those warmongers

tremble in front of the
powerful Chinese people!

Shanghai was liberated on May 27th, 1949

The situation in North China is bad

A dozen columns of the Communist
Army have poured in

Several platoons of our
army were surrounded

Do you think we can survive?

Red Persimmon / Wang Toon /1996

I was in my first year
of elementary school

It was around 1949

In 1946

No, it was 1948

The war was so violent that

our classes were suspended

We were moved to Shanghai

At the time, I didn't understand why

Of course, now I understand

Why did my whole family

move to Shanghai?

I later understood we were
getting ready to move to Taiwan

So we were waiting for a boat

As I recall, while we were waiting,
we lived in a park in Shanghai

The park itself was out of bounds

Because all the KMT's senior
officials were staying there

We all had to stay in the park
We lived in tents and

waited for the boat

I retain those memories

and I put them all in my film
Red Persimmon, shot in 1996

A ship called the Zhongxing turned up

It was very big. There
was a safety inspection

When we were getting on board

many others were clamouring to board

It was very hard to get on board

There were ten kids in our family

My father wasn't with us,
he was still fighting

Mother, Grandma and
father's attendants were there

There was an aide de camp
who controlled the boarding

Grandma was worried we'd separated
There were so many kids jostling

for access to the boat Losing
sight of their parents

So she tied us all together at the waist

With a rope

From the eldest to the youngest
as if we were rice puddings

She held one end of the rope

And Father's attendants

were keeping a close eye on us

Mother went to negotiate
with the aide de camp

about getting us on board

So we were all tied together by rope

To avoid getting lost

One by one! Hold the rope tight

Later on

Whose phone is that?

Taiwan 2009

I had worked in the U.S. For 8 years

I returned to Taiwan in 1975

I returned to Tsinghua University

During the anti Japanese war,
my father was on the home front

My mother stayed in Shanghai
to take care of us kids

I think most Shanghainese
preferred to stay

Of course, I was among them

After the war, my father

became a civil servant

Based in X uzhou

He took over properties which
had been seized by Japanese

I think he quit the job fairly soon after

Because so much corruption involved

My father wouldn't have
anything to do with bribery

So he couldn't stay in that job

We returned to Shanghai

I remember very clearly

We once received a big biscuit tin

We kids were all delighted

But when Mother opened it

it turned to be filled with gold bars

At that time, our next door neighbor

He was the boss of the Sincere Co.

And his neighbor

was General Tang Enbo

Until the Siege of Shanghai in 1949

General Tang always had a soldier
stationed outside his house

Standing on guard

One day, while I was in primary school

Father came to pick me up

The teacher asked him:"Why are you here?"

He answered, because we noticed

the soldier outside General
Tang's door disappeared.

Then he added

I think I'd better take my child home

Then the teacher immediately

sent all the students home

But

people saw

General Tang's house was abandoned

We saw from the windows of our house

loads of people broke into that house

and carried off all his furniture

My grandmother was

the youngest daughter of
General Zeng Guofan

My father was the No.1

Secretary of warlord Wu Peifu

My father was killed.
There was an 'incident'.

He was shot

The 'incident' was widely reported

Sometimes it wrote that he was alive

Sometimes that he was dead

This went on for months

Two or three months.
My family knew nothing about it

The Civil War had cut the communication
between north and south

Back then, one of my uncles.
The fifth uncle from the Yu family

He had a dream about my father
and my father was covered in blood

Kneeling down in front of him

Asking him to take care of us

And so this uncle was
very kind to my sister and me

When I went on to university for
four years, I had no boyfriends

My mother always wanted me to
marry as soon as possible

She even started bringing in matchmakers

Every time I'd quarrel with her

The man I married was a friend
of a cousin of mine

They and two other young men

were all in the USA

My cousin was already married
He lived with his wife

The other three were bachelors.
The five of them got a car

They took a trip right across the USA

My cousin was romancing his fianc�e

he took a boat all the way to Beijing

He would say

You are my moonlight

The brightest star in the sky

He waxed so lyrical

But once they were married
and had two children

he was a different man. Began
treating his wife badly

Once we were dining with an uncle

The wife asked him to pass a plate

He answered reach it yourself
That's how he spoke to her

So, during their trip,
their relationship was quite bad

Seeing the man's behavior

my husband to be felt sorry for her

He looked out for her himself

She was very grateful, and told him

When you go back to China,

I promise to introduce
you a nice girl

That's how we were invited to a dinner.
My younger sister and me

The three bachelors were there

And a young woman named Wu

That's how we first met

Once we'd been introduced,
he wanted to invite me out

I couldn't go out with him alone

So I asked my cousin to join us
We went out together a few times

Quite a bit later

It was at Christmas

Or New Year's eve. Anyway, that night

My cousin hosted a party in his house

And that same day

my cousin's younger brother
met my husband to be in a cinema

He said, "You were in Shanghai!"

Come to our place tonight!
We're having a party