武侠 电影
Wuxia Flick
Produced by Corona Studios, Unlimited, 2020.
Trailer:
A decade before, the world in 2009
Was divided into diseases of pigs and birds—
Split into desires with stunted names
Like SARS, AIDS, FLU that flew
From tongue to lavender tongue, that entered through moist boba pearls
Of saliva, blood & unprotected sex, that hinted at strangers and animal
Mutations of the human dance gone askance.
Set-up:
In 2020, the world is no longer divided by animals or borders
But circled entirely by Corona, by droplets that move and mutter
A virus that flaps and flutters, jumps species, travels countries
Within crowded airport escalators or movie theatre lobbies
In Wuhan, Milan, New York.
Actors: (Stars and Extras)
Corona wings its way across continents of heat and cold
Sticks to fingers and throats, where premiers and popes
Pontificate from golden balconies.
(While ordinary people—the working poor, single mothers,
Queers, delivery men, are always fingered by sooty rain
Falling through corrugated tin roofs.)
Romance:
The world hisses its warning of foreign wings and displaced genes
Do not kiss me then.
I will not touch you now.
I will throw off my clothes & shoes
Altogether at the door.
Chinese Food:
Whenever we eat
We will not share our meat or rice with anyone.
Hotpots and dim sum are banned from the table.
Good and Evil:
Oh, I will not make blind love to you.
With bruised bluish eyes we see that
We are only the latest pawns in the playbook
Of pandemics and politicians—
As heroes of the people struggle
To obtain masks, ventilators, gloves
And beds from government warehouses full of loot and gold—
(As everyone knows, in wuxia flicks, the fight is always
about revenge, righteousness, and heroes)
The End:
The hero always gets their speech right in the end:
She, or He, has the last word, the last breath, the last
Look, through an N95 mask, at their beloved.
The Director:
Then the pudgy director cries out:
“Cut. Redo. Almost, perfect.
But can you smile a bit through your tears?
Today, we need hope!”
– Russell C. Leong 梁志英