“Reprinted Youth”2  

“Reprinted Youth” Film Script

Film adaptation licensing fee: USD 200,000
Please contact the copyright holder, Chen Qingyang: 54088rabbit@gmail.com
Time periods, settings, and plotlines may be modified according to the producer’s requirements.

Scene | 1 Time | Night (September 2014) Setting | R&D Department Office of a Certain Technology Company

Characters | Cai Shinan (40, Chief Designer), Programmer Xiao Chen

△ A medium-distance shot films the archway at the entrance to the Hsinchu Science Park.
△ A long shot films the roads and technology company buildings inside the park.
△ A medium-distance shot films the entrance of a certain technology company building.
△ Inside the office, the large clock on the wall points to eleven o’clock late at night. Only Chief Cai Shinan and designer Xiao Chen remain in the office, still burying themselves in front of their computers working overtime to rush their work.
△ Narration: For employees in the R&D department of technology companies, work hours use a punch-card system, while getting off work uses a responsibility system. Cai Shinan, who has a strong sense of responsibility, often voluntarily works overtime to match the progress of the work. His health was gradually eroded bit by bit by exhausting work in this way.
△ Because he had caught a cold earlier and did not rest properly, Shinan’s body finally could no longer bear the burden. He suddenly became dizzy and collapsed face-down onto the workstation.
Xiao Chen: (packing up documents on the desk) Chief, my part is finished for now. I’m leaving first.
△ Xiao Chen turns back and sees Shinan collapsed on the desk, then walks over to check on him.
Xiao Chen: (pushing his body several times) Chief! Chief! What’s wrong with you? Chief….
Xiao Chen: (finger near nostrils) The chief has fainted, he’s still breathing. 119, call 119 for an ambulance!
▲ Xiao Chen grabs the telephone on the desk and hurriedly dials.
Xiao Chen: Is this 119? This is Jingwei Technology Company. Our chief has collapsed unconscious. Please send an ambulance immediately….

Scene | 2 Time | Night Setting | Emergency Department, Driveway, Emergency Room of Hsinchu Provincial Hospital

Characters | Cai Shinan, Xiao Chen, Medical Staff, Guo Yuntian (General Manager)

△ On the driveway outside the emergency department, Cai Shinan lies on a stretcher and is lifted onto a rolling gurney by rescue personnel. Xiao Chen follows the gurney running all the way inside.
△ Cai Shinan is unconscious. Doctors and nurses in the emergency department examine him beside the hospital bed, measuring his blood pressure and pulse.
△ Xiao Chen anxiously dials his mobile phone in the emergency department lobby.
Xiao Chen: (after several rings) General Manager, the chief has had a stroke and is being treated in the emergency room at Hsinchu Provincial Hospital….
△ The voice of General Manager Guo Yuntian comes through the phone.
Guo Yuntian: I heard Chief Cai’s hometown is Xiaoliuqiu. Do you have the phone number for his hometown?
Xiao Chen: No, General Manager.
Guo Yuntian: How about this, I’ll have the secretary handle this matter. You stay at the hospital and take care of Chief Cai. I’ll head to the hospital immediately.
Xiao Chen: Okay, I’ll stay at the hospital.
△ The nurse pushes Cai Shinan into the emergency room, and Xiao Chen follows over and stands at the doorway looking in.
Doctor: When did the patient lose consciousness?
Xiao Chen: Just now, less than an hour ago.
Doctor: Preliminary analysis indicates acute cerebrovascular thrombosis. Fortunately, he was brought here in time.
Xiao Chen: Doctor, is our chief going to be okay?
Doctor: We will immediately administer treatment. Nurse, prepare an intravenous injection of thrombolytic agents for the patient.
Nurse: Okay, I’ll prepare it.
Doctor: Once the patient regains consciousness, he will be fine.
▲ Insert
△ The screen is completely black, then light and shadows gradually appear. An elderly man with white hair and a white beard, wearing a white Taoist robe with a large black-and-white yin-yang symbol on his chest, holding a horsetail whisk, gradually comes into clear focus.
Old Man: Cai Shinan, you were originally the reincarnation of a divided spirit of the Wenqu Star Lord. You should have used painting to enlighten people’s hearts, but you were blinded by fame and profit, causing you to forget your own mission. Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva intends to take you back for judgment. I pity how difficult your cultivation in the mortal world has been, and since you have not committed major evil deeds in the first half of your life, I specially pleaded with Ksitigarbha to give you a chance to be reborn. You must firmly remember your mission and never again become greedy for worldly fame and fortune….

Scene | 3 Time | Day Setting | General Ward of Hsinchu Provincial Hospital Emergency Department

Characters | Cai Shinan, Xiao Chen, Qiu Xiuduan (Cai’s Mother), Cai Shifen, Attending Physician Lin Qinghua, Nurse

△ Shinan reclines on the bed receiving an IV drip, looking at his exhausted old mother and his weary-looking younger sister beside him.
Cai Shinan: Mom, I’ve made you worry.
Qiu Xiuduan: Anan, you have to take care of your health. This family can’t manage without you.
Cai Shinan: I know, Mom. I’ll pay attention to my health from now on.
Cai Shifen: Work is important, but you also have to take care of your body, big brother.
Guo Yuntian: I’m very sorry, Mother Cai. The company has been working overtime frequently lately. In the future, I’ll try my best to let Shinan rest more.
△ Attending physician Lin Qinghua and a nurse come to make rounds.
Qiu Xiuduan: (standing up and stepping forward) Doctor, is my son alright?
Lin Qinghua: He’s alright now. Fortunately, it was discovered early and he was sent here in time.
△ Attending physician Lin Qinghua walks to the bedside.
Lin Qinghua: Mr. Cai, are you feeling a bit better today? Do you still feel discomfort anywhere?
Cai Shinan: I feel much better. Thank you, Doctor.
Lin Qinghua: Mm. If there are no other problems, you can be discharged after two more days of observation. Remember to rest more after leaving the hospital. You absolutely cannot keep working as if you don’t care about your life anymore, otherwise you may suffer another stroke. There are many engineers in the Hsinchu Science Park like you who die from overwork. They earn so much money but have no life left to spend it — “the person is in heaven while the money remains in the bank.” Isn’t that terribly unfair?
Cai Shinan: (awkward bitter smile) Heh heh, I’ll be careful. Thank you for your concern, Doctor.
Lin Qinghua: (OS) Could this Cai Shinan be my older sister’s former first-love boyfriend?
Lin Qinghua: Mr. Cai, may I ask if you graduated from the Information Engineering Department at National Tsing Hua University?
Cai Shinan: Yes! You know me?
Lin Qinghua: Lin Daihua, do you remember her? She’s my older sister.
Cai Shinan: Oh, I remember now! You’re Daihua’s younger brother. No wonder you seemed strangely familiar.
Lin Qinghua: I’ll continue my rounds first. I’ll chat with you later. Have a good rest.
△ Doctor Lin Qinghua and the nurse leave.
Qiu Xiuduan: (handing a cup of water to Shinan) You must be thirsty, right? Drink some water. Sigh… I became a widow while still young. Your father disappeared at sea so many years ago. Our whole family has depended on each other. If anything happened to you, how could your mother continue living in the future?
Cai Shinan: (raising the cup and drinking water) It won’t happen, Mom. I’ll be more careful from now on. Don’t worry.
Qiu Xiuduan: (nodding) Mm, that’s good. Don’t make me worry about you all the time.
Cai Shinan: The doctor just said I can leave the hospital in two days. I’m fine now.
Qiu Xiuduan: Alright then. I’ll get ready and leave to catch the bus later.
△ Cai’s mother bends over to pack miscellaneous items and a small suitcase.
△ Shinan raises the water cup again and drinks another sip, gazing out the brightly sunlit window.

Scene | 4 Time | Day Setting | Taichung City Area, A Luxurious Villa

Characters | Lin Daihua, Lin Qinghua, Qinghua’s Wife, Little Boy, Father Lin, Mother Lin

△ Streets of Taichung City, bustling cityscape with heavy traffic.
△ In the suburbs, the Lin family’s luxurious villa.
△ Inside the living room are Daihua, Qinghua and his wife and child together with Father Lin and Mother Lin.
Mother Lin: The reason we called you back this trip is to arrange a blind date for you.
Lin Daihua: (puzzled) Mom, I’m almost forty already. Weren’t you always respectful of my decisions before? Why have you suddenly changed your mind and want me to go on blind dates now?
Mother Lin: We’re worried that you’ll be lonely in your old age!
Lin Daihua: (unhappy) Back when I wanted to get married, you disliked my boyfriend for lacking wealth and status. Now you want me to go on blind dates. What kind of nonsense is this?
Mother Lin: Actually, all these years, your father has regretted it too. Back then, he shouldn’t have opposed your marriage. Recently, a friend happened to make an introduction. The man has good character and a good family background, and his children are already grown up.
Lin Daihua: (bitter smile) Mom, seriously? You want me to become someone else’s stepmother?
Lin Qinghua: Sis, not long ago I happened to meet your first-love boyfriend Cai Shinan. He still seems to be single.
Lin Daihua: You met Cai Shinan?
Lin Qinghua: Yes. He suffered acute cerebrovascular thrombosis and was sent to the hospital emergency room. I was the one who treated him.
Lin Daihua: Shinan, is he alright?
Lin Qinghua: He’s temporarily fine, but I reminded him not to overwork anymore.
Mother Lin: (suspiciously) Daihua, what? Do you want to go see him?
Lin Daihua: Why not? If Shinan is still single.
△ Father Lin and Mother Lin exchange glances, and for the moment they have no better idea.

Scene | 5 Time | Day Setting | General Ward of Hsinchu Provincial Hospital

Characters | Cai Shinan, Lin Daihua

△ Lin Daihua arrives at the hospital ward carrying fruit.
Lin Daihua: Shinan, are you feeling better? It’s Daihua.
△ Cai Shinan props up the upper half of his body.
Cai Shinan: (surprised) Weren’t you always staying in Silicon Valley?
Lin Daihua: I came back for vacation. My younger brother told me you were hospitalized.
△ Lin Daihua sits down beside the bed.
Cai Shinan: Oh!
Lin Daihua: You still haven’t gotten married?
Cai Shinan: Yeah. I’ve always been busy with work and never thought about that issue.
Lin Daihua: Me too, but now I want to get married.
Cai Shinan: (bitter smile) Then… remember to send me an invitation.
Lin Daihua: What are you talking about! Shinan, if I get married, it would be to you!
Cai Shinan: Ha… I thought….
Lin Daihua: You thought I would marry someone else?
Cai Shinan: Your father? He….
Lin Daihua: What else can my father say? How old am I already?
Cai Shinan: That’s true!
Lin Daihua: Let’s get married, alright? Let me take care of you.
△ Cai Shinan nods and smiles with relief.
△ Lin Daihua takes a pear from the fruit basket and picks up the fruit knife from the table.
Lin Daihua: I’ll peel a pear for you to quench your thirst.
△ Cai Shinan gazes at Lin Daihua’s profile, feeling a flood of emotions in his heart for a moment.
△ Lin Daihua finishes peeling the pear and hands it to Shinan.
Lin Daihua: After I return to Taichung and persuade my parents, I’ll resign from my job in Silicon Valley and come back to start a business together with you.
Cai Shinan: Then I’ll sell the two houses I own in Taipei and convert them into cash.
Lin Daihua: I’ll also liquidate my company stocks and wire the cash back. We’ll choose the Central Taiwan Science Park and establish a business software design company.
Cai Shinan: Mm, I’ll return to Xiaoliuqiu and wait for you.

Scene | 6 Time | Night Setting | City streets, National Freeway No. 2 interchange, southbound lane of National Freeway No. 2

Characters | Cai Shi-Nan, Passersby (the night of September 22, 2014 jumping back to the same day in 1999)

△ Late at night, torrential rain, thick fog filling the city streets.
△ Cai Shi-Nan drives a 15-year-old vintage car (Toyota Corona) through the heavy rain across city streets, entering the National Freeway No. 2 interchange, heading southbound. Shi-Nan hums Luo Dayou’s “Lukang Town.”

Cai Shi-Nan: Taipei is not my home, my hometown has no neon lights…

△ Around midnight, after passing the first long tunnel, a red two-door sports car follows behind. Shi-Nan notices changes in his car; the odometer is rapidly counting backward, and the leather seats and interior seem newly replaced, as if just delivered from the factory, emitting a fresh leather smell.

Cai Shi-Nan: (to himself) What the hell! What is going on?

△ After exiting the tunnel, the red sports car is still following. However, there is no rain or thick fog here; the road is dry. Shi-Nan turns on the cabin light and confirms that the car has truly become new, his mind full of confusion.

Cai Shi-Nan: (to himself) Strange! There’s no rain on this side of the tunnel.

△ As Shi-Nan’s car reaches Xiangshan, the road shows concrete barriers indicating lane reduction, and a large sign reads: “1 KM to end of construction.”

Cai Shi-Nan: (to himself) Am I cursed? How is it that National Freeway No. 2 has long been completed? I’ve driven this route dozens of times…

△ After exiting the interchange, Shi-Nan switches to a provincial road. He checks the odometer again; the car has only traveled a little over one hundred kilometers. In the rearview mirror, he seems younger, and his belly has disappeared.

Cai Shi-Nan: (shocked) What is happening? Am I sleep-deprived and hallucinating? Am I dreaming?

△ Shi-Nan pinches his cheek.

Cai Shi-Nan: I’m clearly not dreaming, so why is this happening? Forget it, I’ll find a motel and rest. I’ll figure it out tomorrow…

▲ Narration
At the same time, in the red sports car, Lin Dai-Hua also notices changes in her body. The two cars, one behind the other, pass through a space-time wormhole and return to the night after the September 21, 1999 earthquake. Neither of them knows the other has also crossed through the wormhole.

Scene | 7 Time | Night to dawn Setting | Motel room

Characters | Cai Shi-Nan

△ Early morning of the 23rd, Cai Shi-Nan drives into a motel room. After parking, he goes to the rear seat, opens two large suitcases, confirms that the fifty million in cash is intact, and sighs in relief.

△ Inside the room, Shi-Nan turns on the TV. The screen shows scenes of collapsed buildings, with a large headline: “Century earthquake shocks Taiwan; casualties continue to rise.” The date displayed is September 22, 1999.

Cai Shi-Nan: (eyes wide, stunned) Oh my god! Have I gone back fifteen years—to September 21, 1999? How is that possible?

△ Shi-Nan paces in the room, muttering.

Cai Shi-Nan: I must be dreaming… I must be dreaming… or I’ve been cursed!

Cai Shi-Nan: (OS) Did I really get cursed in that tunnel just now? Sigh… I’ll sleep first. Maybe when I wake up, everything will return to normal.

△ Shi-Nan takes off his coat and shoes, goes to bed, and pulls up the blanket.

△ At dawn, Shi-Nan wakes up and turns on the TV with the remote. The news channel is still reporting earthquake disaster updates.

△ Shi-Nan slaps his forehead in a fainting gesture. Helpless, he goes to wash up in the bathroom. Looking at himself in the mirror, he unconsciously smiles at his reflection.

Cai Shi-Nan: Hey! Cai Shi-Nan, you really became younger!

△ He first smiles foolishly at the mirror, then laughs happily, then starts brushing his teeth while laughing.

Cai Shi-Nan: (OS) Maybe the heavens heard my wish and gave me a chance to relive my first half of life. This time I must cherish my life properly and never be like before, only working and making money… but, will Dai-Hua still be in the future fifteen years ahead?

△ Shi-Nan returns to the bed, picks up his smartphone, and dials Dai-Hua’s number.

“The number you have dialed is not in service, please check and try again.”

Cai Shi-Nan: (to himself) How could this be? I can’t remember her home number either… this is troubling…

Scene | 8 Time | Day Setting | Provincial road side

Characters | Lin Dai-Hua, taxi driver, firefighters, paramedics

△ Beside the provincial road, a red car has crashed into a utility pole. The hood is raised, smoke is coming out, and the front body is heavily dented.

△ A taxi driver stops and pulls Lin Dai-Hua from the driver’s seat, helping her to the roadside. Dai-Hua is bleeding from the head and unconscious.

△ The red car then catches fire and burns fiercely.

△ The driver calls 119.

△ Fire trucks and ambulances arrive quickly. Firefighters extinguish the fire; the vehicle is reduced to a burned skeleton. Paramedics load the injured into the ambulance, which leaves with sirens sounding.

Scene | 9 Time | Day Setting | Hospital ward

Characters | Lin Dai-Hua, police officer, doctor, nurse

△ In the hospital ward, Lin Dai-Hua has awakened, and a police officer is taking notes.

Police Officer: We need to take a statement and notify your family. May I ask your name?

Lin Dai-Hua: (blank expression) I don’t remember…

Police Officer: Miss, please tell me your name, address, and phone number.

Lin Dai-Hua: (holding her head) I really don’t remember…

△ The officer looks to the doctor for help.

Doctor: It may be traumatic amnesia. Let’s observe her for a while.

Police Officer: Doctor, were there any documents when she was brought in?

Doctor: No. If there were, the hospital would have already contacted her family.

Police Officer: I see. Miss, please contact us when you remember.

Scene | 10 Time | Day Setting | Baisha Harbor (Xiaoliuqiu), shopping street, intersection

Characters | Cai Shi-Nan, Cai Mother, Zhang Ya-Hui, matchmaker, Zhang father (Zhang Tian-Ding), Zhang Ya-Qing, tourists, shopkeepers, elementary students

△ Baisha Harbor, Xiaoliuqiu. Cai Shi-Nan drives ashore.

△ The car passes through a shopping street intersection and encounters a line of elementary school students just dismissed. A female teacher is directing traffic. Shi-Nan finds her face familiar.

Cai Shi-Nan: Huh? She looks so familiar… why can’t I remember who she is?

△ The teacher focuses on traffic control and does not notice Shi-Nan.

Cai Shi-Nan: (to himself) Ah! It’s Zhang Ya-Hui! I went on a blind date with her fifteen years ago…

△ Shi-Nan falls into memory.

Insert 1
△ Shi-Nan and Cai Mother, accompanied by a matchmaker, attend a restaurant blind date gathering.
△ Zhang Ya-Hui sits politely with her father Zhang Tian-Ding and younger sister Ya-Qing, appearing satisfied with Shi-Nan and smiling faintly.

Matchmaker: Tian-Ding, the man Cai Shi-Nan graduated from Tsinghua, works at the Hsinchu Science Park, he’s a designer, stable income.
A-Duan, the woman Zhang Ya-Hui lives on our Donggang Street, graduated from NTNU Fine Arts Department, good family background, gentle personality, no spoiled rich-girl temper. She teaches at the local elementary school. You two are a perfect match…

Insert 2
△ Matchmaker visits Cai Mother.

Matchmaker: A-Duan, the girl really likes your son Shi-Nan, she wants you to formally propose.

Cai Mother (Cai Shi-Duan): Sigh… how do I say this? I’m embarrassed… Shi-Nan says he doesn’t want to be a son-in-law by marriage…

Matchmaker: I see. Their family is wealthy but has no sons, so they made that condition.

Cai Mother: My boy just doesn’t want to marry into their family.

Matchmaker: Then there’s nothing I can do. I’ll explain to Mr. Zhang…

△ Shi-Nan listens quietly from the room.

▲ Back

Cai Shi-Nan: (OS) Teacher Ya-Hui should still remember me…

△ Shi-Nan rolls down the window and waves. Zhang Ya-Hui is slightly startled, then smiles and walks toward the car.

Zhang Ya-Hui: Shi-Nan, back on vacation?

Cai Shi-Nan: Yes. There was a major earthquake; I was worried about home, so I came back to check.

Zhang Ya-Hui: We didn’t have major damage here, but the school computer lab wiring is broken and everything can’t boot up.

Cai Shi-Nan: Oh? I’ll come by tomorrow and fix it.

Zhang Ya-Hui: I almost forgot you’re an IT expert. Then I’ll trouble you.