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Writer's picturePeter K F Cheung SBS

The Piano

Updated: Oct 6, 2022

  1. FADE IN


  2. Act 1


  3. INT. PETER'S 2/F STUDIO, NT - 17:00


  4. PETER is playing a digital keyboard.


  5. PETER (V.O.): I bought it over 20 years ago, believing it could help me learn to play the piano.


  6. We hear four bars of slash chords in C, F. C, F,


  7. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Few weeks ago, I thought of learning how to play the piano via online lessons.


  8. We hear chords repeating four times.


  9. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I learned how to play the verses of John Lennon's song "Imagine".


  10. We hear two bars of the bridge in F, G.


  11. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): And then, I figured out how to play the song's chorus myself.


  12. Peter is refining his practice.


  13. Act 2


  14. FLASHBACK


  15. INT. DINING ROOM - 08:30


  16. Peter is having breakfast with KAJI, the family pet.


  17. PETER (V.O.): I feel I've got addicted to visiting beaches in Hong Kong's outlying islands.


  18. Pausing.


  19. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): But October 5 is a special date to me. I've an urge to return to my NT home.


  20. EXT. LIDO BEACH, TING KAO - 12:00


  21. On one of the floating platforms in the swimming area, Peter lets the occasional sunshine tan his body.


  22. PETER (V.O.): The water here is clear but the undercurrent is strong. This is the first time I come this year.

  23. Peter stares at Ting Kao Bridge several hundred meters away.


  24. PETER (V.O.): An engineering friend of mine was involved in designing and building it.


  25. Pausing.


  26. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): One interesting story he told me was how to prevent containers bumping into it. Anything bad can happen.


  27. EXT. CASTLE PEAK ROAD - 13:45


  28. In a red Nissan 200SX coupe, Peter drives past Sham Tseng.


  29. PETER (V.O.): If parking isn't a problem, I'd have roast goose here.


  30. Peter drives past Tsing Lung Tau and Tai Lam.


  31. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The roads here are beyond recognition. I love the young trees on the roadside.


  32. Pausing.


  33. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Castle Peak Road runs from New Kowloon to Yuen Long and Sheung Shui.


  34. Pausing.


  35. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): In the 1970s, Sharon was teaching piano in her home in Sheung Shui.


  36. Pausing.


  37. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): In 1979, I bought a Yamaha piano from Tom Lee Music Store so that she could teach piano in my family home in Tin Sum.


  38. Pausing.


  39. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Her dedicated student came only once. My family home was hard to find and the dogs were unwelcoming.


  40. Making a turn, Peter takes the Tuen Mun Highway driving towards Yuen Long.


  41. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): We longed to have a better place to live. In 1983, we bought our first home.


  42. Peter takes a look of the car's mileage on the dashboard.


  43. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): In 1989, I bought this red coupe to reward myself to have become a Senior Crown Counsel earlier.


  44. Pausing.


  45. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): In early Jan 1990, I drove Sharon and our new-born son home with this coupe.


  46. Peter's coupe enters the estate gate.


  47. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Decades have passed; but this estate hasn't changed much.


  48. Pausing.

  49. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): To learn to play the piano remains on my wish list.


  50. RETURN TO PRESENT


  51. Act 3


  52. INT. PETER'S 1/F STUDIO, NT - 18:00


  53. Focusing on keys of an old Yamaha piano, Peter plays four bars of chords in F, G,C, E7 three times.


  54. PETER (V.O.): If the white keys are happy moments and black keys are sad ones, life is like a piano.


  55. Peter plays the last four bars of chords in F, G, C, C.


  56. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): What one gets out of it doesn't depend on how one plays it, as a piano can be out of tune.


  57. We hear music sounding like the chorus of the John Lennon song "Imagine".


  58. PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I've come to realize that playing the piano right or not is insignificant. What is significant is to play with passion and imagination.


  59. THE END

  60. .

  61. FADE OUT





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