﻿1
Bismillah..
Sebastien!
Miss Linh.
Come this way.
Sit down.
I'm ofﬁcer Guy Baron. This is officer Bao.
Do we need a interpreter?
I can understand you.
What is your name and your duty at Sa-Cat estate?
My name is Linh.
I’m a housemaid at Sa-Cat plantation.
As you know,
Captain Sebastien Laurent was murdered
last night in his bedroom.
We're questioning all involved.
There’s been a string of murders committed around the area.
We know you discovered the captain's body.
And you're shaken up by that.
We need your help. Can you answer some questions?
How long have you been in Sa Cat?
Speak!
I came to Sa-Cat from a small village in the countryside.
l was searching for work.
There weren't many jobs where l was from.
Much of the countryside was destroyed by the bombings.
What do you want?
I heard that there’s a need for a housemaid at the estate.
You may call me “Mrs. Han."
Mrs. Han.
How do you know of this place?
From the people at the market.
Then you know of Sa-Cat’s history.
I’m not from around here.
Thank you.
Have you been a servant at an estate before?
No. Not yet.
I’ve done housework with my mother on the farm.
Sa-Cat is run like a French estate.
Not like a Vietnamese one.
Of course.
Where is your family?
My family...
they were all killed during an air raid.
Our farm is gone too.
You have no family members at all?
No home?
You walked all the way here from your village?
Yes.
How far is that?
About forty kilometers.
Mrs. Han,
I need a job.
I need a place to live.
This is the only job opening for miles around.
You can stay here.
I’m only hiring you on a trial basis.
If you work hard, you can stay.
But if you're a burden
and the food you eat costs more than your worth,
you will need to find another place.
Is that clear?
Yes, ma'am.
I won’t disappoint you.
You can wear these.
Get yourself acquainted with the manor.
We’ll start tomorrow.
Thank you.
You’re getting blood on the ﬂoor.
Sorry.
Here's some medicine I've made.
Medicine you've “made"?
I practice Eastern medicines and remedies.
Besides being the cook,
I’m a herbalist...
a witch.
Mrs. Han says there are only a few servants in the house.
That's right.
Just me, Mrs. Han and the groundskeeper, Mr. Chau.
Why doesn't the Captain hire more servants?
Most servants won’t work here.
Why not?
Stupid girl!
You don't know what you’ve gotten yourself into.
I don’t understand.
Sa-Cat is a place of death.
Hundreds of people have died here on the plantation.
The Vietnamese workers used to be violently abused by the French overseers,
when it was a functioning plantation.
The French recruited from all over the country.
Lied to them about the promise of a good wage and home.
When the poor workers got here...
What happened to them?
Workers were whipped to death.
Women were violated.
Children were torn from their families.
Hundreds of bodies lay buried beneath those rubber trees without gravestones.
Many claim that the plantation was fertilized
by the bodies of these workers.
There are many spirits...
roaming those woods.
Spirits?
I thought I heard something earlier.
You heard the crying, right?
Who is it?
Captain Laurent once had a wife, Madame Camille,
and a child who lived at this estate.
While he was away at war,
Madame Camille went mad with loneliness waiting for the Captain to return.
She never liked Vietnam, which made her insane."
Until one day,
as she was bathing the baby,
she drowned him in the tub.
Madame Camille kept the dead baby
until it rotted and decayed.
Realizing what she had done and consumed with grief,
she took their dead son to the lake...
and drowned herself.
You are afraid of ghosts, aren‘t you?
My mother said there is no such thing as ghosts.
Oh, they exist.
Ghosts exist.
You start with the windows.
Never look at the Captain or his guests in the eyes.
You must show your obedience and servitude.
Always get the freshest produce.
Even a day old isn’t good enough.
And most importantly...
it’s forbidden to speak of Lady Camille and Captain Laurent’s child.
Understood?
I understand.
Mr. Chau.
This is Linh.
She will be working for us as a housemaid if things work out.
How do you do?
Nice to meet you.
If you run out of wood, Mr. Chau can help you.
On the colder evenings,
Captain Laurent likes ﬁreplaces because they remind him of his childhood.
Thank you but I think I can manage it.
Mr. Chau doesn't live in the manor
but in the shacks close to the plantation trees.
ls Mrs. Han working you too hard?
Not at all.
What’s happening?
It happens occasionally.
Power should be back up in the morning.
We are in a war, after all.
Are you afraid?
No, ma'am.
Good night.
What happened?
Captain Laurent!
- What? - Captain Laurent!
Captain Laurent!
He’s been shot!
Bring him inside immediately.
Quickly!
Watch your step, Sir.
Sebastien, Fighting!
Mrs Han, Hold him steady.
I almost have the bullet.
We need more morphine.
I will take the bullet out.
Sebastien!
Please...
We need to give him Eastern medicine.
He won't survive without it.
You know that his family forbids it.
Western doctors know nothing of these matters of survival.
This is not your decision to make.
I am the housekeeper.
He'll die before morning!
Stop.
l forbid you to go in there.
l forbid you from leaving the servants quarters
until he is well again.
If he dies,
you will have Madame Camille to answer to.
Are you making breakfast?
Take Captain Laurent’s breakfast up to his room.
By myself?
Stupid girl.
I’ve been banished from his living quarters.
You’ll have to do it.
Hurry!
Who are you? Why are you here?
Get out of my home!
Get out!
I'm sorry.
There’s been an emergency in my family.
I'll need to leave Sa-Cat for a few weeks.
My mother is gravely ill
and I need to travel to Saigon to visit her before she...
How long will you be gone?
I don't know.
Linh.
Yes, ma'am.
You will be in charge of taking care of Captain Laurent.
Mrs. Han,
she doesn’t have the experience to do that.
I don't know if I could do this alone.
It's an order.
Work faster!
No talking!
Do you hear me?
Remember not to put the tree bark down.
You two!
Sir! Sir!
She didn't know!
It's my ﬁrst time, sir!
Please, sir!
You two.
You know how much that sap is worth?
More than both of you combined!
Sir, please forgive her.
Sir! Please, sir!
Hold her down!
It's my frist time! I didn't know!
Put your hand out!
Back to work!
Linh, wake up!
The Captain's gotten worse.
What’s happened?
He has an infection and a high fever.
He’ll need a doctor.
Who are you going to get at this hour?
What are you doing?
Mrs. Han forbids it.
But what if he dies while on your watch?
The Western medicine hasn't worked.
I made a promise to Mrs. Han.
He could die any second now!
Do you want to be responsible for his death?
Don't stop me.
Captain, drink some of this.
What do we do now?
It’s not working.
Were you here last night?
Yes captain.
| just saw ﬂashes of what happened.
I thought I saw your face.
Mrs. Ngo is the one you should thank.
You speak well.
Not really.
How did you learn?
My aunt was a school teacher.
She taught me and my brother.
It's nice to have someone else in the house who understands me.
We need to clean your wound...
from the infection....
I need to bath you.
How long have you been here?
Just a couple of weeks, captain.
Do you like it so far?
Yes captain.
Pass me my scotch.
I'm sorry
Those damn revolutionaries. Got me in an ambush on my way home.
I'm glad you survived it.
You saw her, didn’t you?
Who?
Madame Camille.
Will you show her to me?
I can’t show you.
The Captain forbids it.
It's been many years since anyone's been in this room.
What did you see?
A woman in a black dress.
Madame Camille. She never smiled.
These are the very last photos of her.
Captain Laurent?
When he was about seventeen.
He was already in charge of the plantation’s operations.
And that’s Mrs. Han.
She started working at the estate as an interpreter
before becoming the head housekeeper.
You know,
they never found Madame Camille's body.
The police dredged through the whole lake for a week.
They couldn’t ﬁnd anything...
The captain has an emergency meeting with some high-ranking ofﬁcers.
Did you know they were coming?
If I'd had known, I would have prepared.
Don’t just stand there. Help me.
l have feeling that Giap is going to confront us should we go into Dien Vien Phu.
They will be prepared.
How do you know this?
They almost got me on my way home.
| just think we shouldn't get too conﬁdent.
Tides of war are turning against us.
What do you mean, Laurant?
I mean they've become wise to us.
We didn't think that a small group of rubber workers were going to make much of a difference in 30's.
And it resulted in a revolution that forced us plantation owners to make concessions.
Let's not under-estimate them.
I've been watching you.
| see you looking at me too, right?
No, no I don't
I know you want a big French man like me.
No, please.
Leave me alone.
You will like it.
Leave me alone.
You think you can hurt me?
You deserve it, you goddamn primitive!
Get off of her.
Sebastiane, wait...
Wait.
Get the hell out of my house!
Are you ok?
How long will you and Mr. Chau be away?
About a week.
Through the New Year.
I don’t know where Mr. Chau will go for Tet this year.
And you will see your family in Hoa Binh?
I’d invite you
but you’d be too busy being head of the household.
What do you mean?
Now that Mrs. Han left you all this responsibility,
you can't just leave, can you?
I suppose not.
Linh?
You have the whole week off.
I know.
I'm looking for my schedule.
I'll get it for you.
I'm sorry
Don't worry. Just old ﬁles.
Who are these people?
All the workers.
Every single one of them. From the very beginning of the plantation.
You're schedule.
Happy New Year.
Happy new year too.
What's wrong?
Holidays are difﬁcult for me sometimes.
Me too.
Hello!
Help me, I'm lost!
Hello!
Mister!
Let me go!
It's me. Just me.
Good morning.
How did I get here?
I put you there.
I slept on my couch.
But captain...
You don't need to call me captain.
Call me "Sebastien".
I'm going out for a drive.
Would you care to join me?
Get in.
I'm sorry.
Keep going.
I'm breaking your car.
It's ok. Ong Chau will fix it.
Let me.
How are your family, aunt Ngo?
How are your family?
They are doing well, Captain.
Did you see your children?
I don't have children anymore. My son died years ago.
Oh, I didn’t know that. After all these years.
Is there anything else you'd like, Captain?"
Yes. There is.
Linh.
Sit and eat with me.
Sit.
| invite you to eat with me.
Please eat.
What are you doing here?
I went to get firewood.
Let me see.
I'm okay.
Where are we?
Years ago...
the overseers,
they used this place
to imprison runaway workers.
They'd shackle them here,
and leave them here for days.
Finally...
many of them would starve to death.
How do you know so much about this?
I was an overseer.
You?
But they were people like you and me.
Wrong!
To me,
they were unappreciative ingrates.
Stay away from me.
Have her take them up to the bedroom.
Why didn't you write to me to let me know you're coming?
I wanted to surprise you.
But what if I weren’t here? You would have traveled all this way for nothing.
I wouldn't say “for nothing.”
I would have just stayed here until you returned.
Besides, I do miss it here.
Madeleine, | distinctly remember you calling Vietnam “wretched".
You ran back to France as quickly as possible after your family sold their plantation.
Well, it’s not a secret that l was homesick.
I missed Paris just as much as I miss you, my darling.
Didn’t you miss me?
Of course.
You could have given me some notice.
I can't come and see my fiance whenever I please?
So, you're Sebastien's maid?
Yes, mademoiselle.
Has he been faithful?
Sorry?
Has Sebastien been faithful to me?
I wouldn’t know, Mademoiselle.
Yes, you would. You are here all of the time.
I don't know.
I wouldn’t think he would cheat on me.
I can’t imagine how he could fall for a crude local.
I guess you will do.
Pardon me?
You will do as my chambermaid when | live here.
I don’t understand.
Well, Sebastien is obviously not coming back to Paris and with my family’s fortune dwindling,
I’ll have to live in this horrible place.
But I thought that the Laurent family was the one...
You were eavesdropping.
It's okay. You were in the room.
Besides, we'll have to get to know each other if you are to be my servant.
A woman needs to do things for the security of her future sometimes.
Take my advice. You'll need to learn that to survive.
Thank you.
Do you have marmalade?
She couldn’t ﬁnd any at the market.
And she didn’t have time to make it, Mademoiselle.
Well, I supposed service here isn’t as good as in Paris.
Thank you, Mrs. Ngo.
Perhaps this afternoon, you could show me the new rose garden.
Sure.
What are you doing in here?
l was just cleaning.
Why are you crying?
I'm not crying.
Mademoiselle.
I’m missing my bracelet. What have you done with it?
I haven't seen your bracelet.
It was here on the night stand and now it’s disappeared.
I'm sorry but...
| distinctly remember seeing it there before we went down to breakfast.
I’m sorry but I do not know where your bracelet is.
Sebastien, you're not listening to me.
But it doesn’t mean that she stole it.
I’ve seen this before.
My maid was stealing from us for years
And by the time we found out, it was too late. She sold everything!
You are jumping to conclusions.
She is the only one who could have been in my room. I know it was her.
Mademoiselle.
Please...
What are you doing?
I know she has it.
Madeleine, stop!
Now, you believe me?
But I didn't take it.
These servants steal from us all the time.
You need to punish her. Making an example of her.
Whip her!
I can't whip her.
Then she needs to leave this house.
I'm not staying our future home with a thief.
But Madeleine...
We have proof.
She needs to leave.
You won't regret doing that, Sebastien.
l have to do it with our servants all the time.
It’s not nice thing to do but it’s a necessary burden.
And this is my favorite bracelet. Look.
You said that you put your bracelet on the night stand before you went to breakfast.
That's right.
Then how were you wearing it this morning?
What do you mean?
I remember you wearing the bracelet at breakfast. I speciﬁcally took note of it.
How was it supposedly taken from your night stand when you already had it?
What are you saying, Sebastien...
"You planted that bracelet in Linh’s room, didn’t you?"
Of course I didn't.
Why would you do such a thing?
Because I know.
What do you know?
Don't try to deny it.
How could you? And with a lowly housemaid?
I’m not ashamed.
You’re not ashamed?
You’re cheating on your fiancee...
...with a primitive, common whore and you’re not ashamed?!
She’s not a whore!
You love her, don't you?
Sebastien, you're sick.
You’re becoming one of them.
I won’t stand for this...
This is more proof why you need to leave here.
I'm not leaving.
You are.
I mean it.
Leave.
Now!
You just wait until I tell your family about this!
That you’ve risked their good family name on a common harlot!
Go tell them. Go tell all of Paris!
See if I care.
Linh.
Linh, listen...
How could you believe her?
I told her to leave.
She's gone.
I'm sorry.
Hit me.
Hit me again.
Harder.
I want you to hurt me.
What was that?
Oh god.
Hello?
Hello? Oh god
I could see you there. What are you doing?
Hello?
Why has the kitchen been rearranged?
The pantry is completely out of order.
It was me.
I made those changes.
What?
Linh has brought it upon herself to make changes to the household.
Who gave you the authority?
Sebastien has.
You don't need to be upset, Mrs.Han.
Linh has only been here for a few months. She doesn't know.
Nobody knows Sa-Cat like you do.
But I think it’d be best to have a new vision for the house.
No, thank you, Captain.
Please, take it.
Mrs. Han, Linh has displayed the hard work and dedication I want for the future of the Sa-Cat.
Do you have a problem with taking her instruction?
I do, Captain Laurent.
Then perhaps it might be best to return to your home to take care of your mother.
She needs you more than Sa-Cat does right now.
Can I take you to the train station?
No, thanks.
I can go by myself.
Mrs. Han.
I’m sorry that it had to come to this.
I’m sure this was your plan all along.
What do you mean?
I know many girls,
who would spread their legs to get ahead.
You’re no different.
I'm the lady of the house now.
Don’t bother ever coming back.
Understood?
You can pretend to be the lady of the house,
but we all know who you really are.
You.
A lowly peasant.
Madame Camille.
Please!
I've been a good servant to you all these years.
Please!
I'm still an informant for the French.
I swear.
I didn't betray you.
I swear I didn't betray you.
The war has escalated and the French army is worried about losing the Gulf of Tonkin.
l have to return to battle.
Now?
Tomorrow.
I’ve recovered from my injuries. I must now return to my post.
You mustn’t go back.
You’ll be killed.
They’re ordering me back.
I have to fulﬁll my duty.
I’m leaving in the morning.
Make the Captain a special dinner tonight.
He’s heading out in the morning.
As you wish, ma'am.
Don’t call me that.
What shall I call you then?
A storm’s brewing.
An omen of things to come.
Where are you burried them?
They’re in the woods!
Betrayer!
Don't kill me!
Venison.
He’ll need a knife for the meat.
Don’t worry about the Captain.
In the end, it might be all for the best.
I promise you that I’ll return.
This has happened before.
You leaving someone here at Sa-Cat...
...while you were away at war.
It's like. ..
...history is repeating itself.
I’ll come back to you.
Sebastien.
You are mine!
No!
Stop haunting me!
You are mine!
Stop haunting me!
You are mine!
Stop haunting me!
Sebastien!
His blood was everywhere.
It was horrible.
And you didn’t hear anything in the night?
No.
No one.
Just the ghost.
I saw her with my own eyes.
But why would the ghost of his dead wife want to kill him?
If she couldn't have the Captain...
then nobody else could have him.
We don’t have enough to keep you here. So we’re letting you go.
But we’ll need to interview you again,
once everyone involved has been questioned.
Thank you.
Don't go too far.
We’re still not done with you.
How did I do?
Did the detective believe me?
Hurry! Hurry!
There they are!
Go get them!
Faster!
I know it was difﬁcult for you going back...
but they would have recognized me.
"Workers of Sa Cat plantation... who planned to escape with their family."
Drag him here!
Hurry up!
Let us go!
They were trying to escape!
You know what we do to plantation workers who try to escape?
You turned us in?
You need to be more careful about who you talk to.
How could you?
We trusted you!
Where are the two children?
Where are they?
Bastard!
Let's start.
Get up!
Go ahead!
Ready?
One.
Two.
Three!
We did this...
for the workers.
She was still an informant for the French.
I’m still an informant for the French army!
I didn't betray.
He ordered the deaths of our parents.
He has to die.
We have to do this.
I can't.
Are you sure you know where our parents are?
Mom and dad would have been proud of you.
I didn't recognize you at ﬁrst,
You haven't changed much since you were little.
You and your brother were lucky enough to have escaped.
Your parents weren’t so lucky.
I'm sorry about the Captain.
I'm sure it wasn't easy for you.
Why did you kill Madeleine?
She was already leaving.
I didn’t kill her.
Then who did?