EXT. MOUNTAIN PLACE - EVENING
A dark silhouette of a man appears on the road above a high cliff. He stands over the precipice.
JACKSON (VO)
For 25 years in a row every day I have been thinking only about one thing. How to leave this world? How to disappear from the face of this earth? Nothing kills me. Not electricity, not pills, not car accidents. It’s nothing. If ordinary people every day are looking for ways to survive on this earth, then I’m looking for a way to die. Maybe that's why I'm not dying because I'm not a human?
I returned many times to the place of my death. I fell many times from that very cliff into the abyss. But I could not die. So today, after an unsuccessful attempt at suicide, I returned home.
In own old strange house on the outskirts of the town "Big Dipper".
But one day everything changed. I was no longer looking for a way to die. I was looking for her.
There was a click inside me, and I realized that if I was given a chance to start life anew, and then why not use it. The past is like a draft to throw in the trash. But I rewrite some points on a clean sheet of paper and give them a new life. I start all over again for her.
EXT. MOUNTAIN PLACE - EVENING
A car is rushing along the road. There are two people in it, father and daughter. They pass a man over the precipice, but they do not see him.
INT. IN CAR - EVENING
Father carefully looks at the road. Daughter looks into the phone.
DAUGHTER
Why did your parents want to meet me 24 years after my birth?
FATHER
It's all about your mom.
DAUGHTER
Because, do you decided to marry not a Korean woman, but a foreigner?
FATHER
It’s possibly.
DAUGHTER
It is very strange. Rather, your parents are very strange. Then why now they decided to meet me?
FATHER
I do not know. Maybe ask when we arrive?
DAUGHTER
You will ask. I did not learn Korean.
FATHER
There will be a good opportunity to learn Korean.
DAUGHTER
I'm not sure that he will come in handy in the future. Okay, now I'll try to say a couple of phrases.
She pulls out the phone and starts using the application to speak Korean.
DAUGHTER
Hello... Goodbye... How are you?
A thick fog appears on the road. Daughter peers through the windshield on the road.
DAUGHTER
Dad, are you sure you are going right?
FATHER
I assure you, do not worry, we will be there soon.
DAUGHTER
I hope there will be a mobile connection.
FATHER
What do you think, since we are going to a small Korean town, then this is surely some kind of dark wilderness?
DAUGHTER
Yes.
FATHER
My parents are not as old as you imagined.
EXT. HIGHWAY - EVENING
It’s thick fog. The car passes by a road sign designating the town "Big Dipper".
INT. IN CAR - EVENING
They drive through an old two-story house. Daughter looks out the car window on this house.
FATHER
Do not even think to go there.
DAUGHTER
Why so? Are there ghosts?
FATHER
It is possible. But promise that you will not come close to the house.
Daughter crosses forefinger and middle finger so that her father does not see.
DAUGHTER
Yes of course.
EXT. IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE - EVENING
It’s the final destination of the trip. MILVORD and ALICIA unload their bags from the trunk.
ALICIA
(Looking at the house)
Well, not so bad.
FATHER
And what did I tell you?
Grandmother MITSURI and grandfather JACIE come out of the house to greet her granddaughter for the first time. Both are about 80 years old.
MITSURI
Alicia, how beautiful you grew up, we still remember you quite small!
JACIE
Actually, we don't remember you at all.
MITSURI
Well, why, and when she was in the womb of her mother.
ALICIA
And so it was then that you kicked her out of the house?
MILVORD
Alicia, what are you saying?
ALICIA
My mother told me.
MITSURI
And you look like your mother ... Well, okay, go to the house.
INT. IN THE HOUSE OF THE KANG FAMILY - NIGHT
Alicia opens the door to her room on the second floor and pushes her suitcase inside. Unpacks it. She hears her father talking to her parents in the kitchen. Alicia falls on the bed.
INT. IN THE HOUSE OF THE KANG FAMILY - MORNING
In Alicia’s room, the father finishes his coffee.
MILVORD
I will leave for some time in Los Angeles. Alicia, I'm sorry for leaving you. I hope you get along with my parents.
ALICIA
I can handle it somehow.
EXT. IN THE COURTYARD IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE - MORNING
Grandma and Grandpa work. Alicia looks at them from the window of her room. She goes down to them and helps.
ALICIA
So why did you decide to meet me after almost 25 years? What happened then so terrible that no one wants to talk to me?
Grandpa and Grandma look at each other.
MITSURI
I don't think we can tell you anything. It was a very long ago time and would not want to disturb the past. We would ask you not to ask more such questions.
Alicia throws her tools and goes into the house. Grandma and Grandpa look at each other again.
EXT. THE OUTSIDE - EVENING
Alicia with the camera goes to the old strange house on the outskirts of the city. On the way she talks to herself.
ALICIA
Well, if no one wants to tell me about the secret of our family, then I'm investigating someone else's secret ... Probably nobody lives in that house. What is he old?
EXT. BEFORE OLD STRANGE HOUSE - EVENING
Alicia stands at the gate of the house. The gate it’s closed, she is trying to climb through a wobbly fence. She fails, and she stays near the fence. She observes through the camera lens on the house.
ALICIA
Here you can make a film about ghosts.
In one of the windows of the house, Alicia sees a rapid movement, she increases the zoom on the camera and for a second sees a human figure that instantly disappears.
ALICIA
Does anyone else live here? This house is based on an honest word.
Two seconds later, the screen darkens. THE OLD MAN walks over to her. Alicia screams, falls on the road.
THE OLD MAN
What are you doing here? Get out of here while you are alive!
Alicia rises quickly, sees the old man. She looks at the window on the second floor.
ALICIA
(in a whisper)
It cannot be.
THE OLD MAN
Are you still here? Well, get out before I beat you to death with a cane!
Alicia runs toward her home.
INT. ALICIA'S ROOM - EVENING
Alicia, frightened, walks from corner to corner, and mutters something under her breath.
Turns on a stopwatch on the phone and goes down the stairs, further to the front door, and to his wicket.
ALICIA
39 seconds. 39. But not two seconds. Was it a jet old man? Or are there two of them? Maybe they are twins? It is impossible to ignore.
INT. ALICIA'S ROOM - NIGHT
Alicia wakes up in a cold sweat because she once again had to go through it all, but in a dream.
Looking at the photos on camera, she doesn’t find anything strange, except the one where her grandfather picks her nose during lunch.
INT. ALICIA'S ROOM - MORNING
Alicia is sleeping. She wakes up. Knock on the front door. Alicia hears her grandmother talking to a guest.
She gets out of bed and slowly walks to the window. The sound of closing the door is heard.
ALICIA
Who can visit so early?
Alicia watches the guest from her window. The guest walks up to the gate, turns around and looks out the window of Alicia. This is the old man from the old strange house. She hides abruptly behind the curtain.
Grandmother enters the room.
MITSURI
Alicia, we agreed that you would not do anything like that. Our family spent a lot of time to stop this whole horrible story.
ALICIA
Finally tell me, where I am trying to invade. Why are you all silent? As is well known forbidden fruit is sweet, and I cannot stop. What's so unusual about that house? Is he somehow related to the story of our family that nobody wants to tell me?
MITSURI
It's nothing unusual. An old man lives in that house, and he does not let anyone in. And he does not want anyone to approach his territory.
ALICIA
Grandmother, I hear it all the time. Understand. I am not a teenager who wants to know everything for the sake of curiosity... Then why no one wants to tell me about what happened to my father and mother 25 years ago. I have the right to know what event has made so many people miserable. Could this all be avoided? Maybe there is a chance to get it back?
MITSURI
(angry)
Back? Do you consider yourself God? Can you bring back lives? Stop playing savior if you are not really a teenager, but an adult, and I hope, a smart girl.
Grandma leaves. Alicia is talking to herself.
ALICIA
What kind of life? What is she talking about? Is someone dead? Well, if she was so alarmed by this old strange house, then I should start for him. Thanks for the tip, granny. I'll start with an apology to the host.
EXT. HIGHWAY - DAY
Alicia goes to the old strange house. Door lock does not work. She enters the house. The door to the house from the kitchen is open. Alicia enters the house with care.
INT. IN THE OLD STRANGE HOUSE - DAY
Inside the house is an old interior. Many black and white photographs hang on the walls.
Alicia rises to the second floor. In one of the rooms she notices movement. She looks into the open room. A guy appears behind her, she does not notice him. He peeps into the room with her. This is JACKSON.
JACKSON
(in a whisper)
Is anyone there?
In surprise, Alicia backs away, clings to something on the floor. Flies over the railing and falls down. But after a moment, she feels that someone is holding her in her arms. He opens his eyes and sees Jackson.
JACKSON
Who are you?
Alicia mentally calculates the fall.
ALICIA (VO)
Either he knows how to run very fast, or he is not a human.
Alicia jumps out of his arms, and runs to the exit of the house.
INT. ALICIA'S ROOM - DAY
Alicia closes the door of her room behind her, crouches and breathes heavily. After a few seconds, he runs to the closet. Throws a suitcase on the bed, quickly collects his things, in a hurry, and dials his father’s phone number.
ALICIA
Dad, I decided to leave! I don't like it here! Take me away soon!
MILVORD (VO)
What happened?
ALICIA
No, just take me out soon?
MILVORD (VO)
Grandpa and Grandma offend you?
ALICIA
(screaming)
No, just take me away!
Old men run to Alicia’s screams. Grandma gives her super soothing tea. Alicia falls asleep instantly.
ALICIA
Grandma, what is the potion you made?
INT. ALICIA'S ROOM - NIGHT
Alicia is sleeping. In a dream, she sees her parents Milword and ELIZABETH talking to Jackson. Parents look very young. Elizabeth turns to Alicia.
ELIZABETH (VO)
Be careful.
Alicia wakes up. She is breathing heavily.
ALICIA (VO)
A sleeping is just a sleeping, nothing more. But what did mom want to say with this?
INT. IN THE HOUSE OF THE KANG FAMILY - MORNING
Alicia, Jacie and Mitsuri have breakfast.
ALICIA
So you say that the old man lives on the outskirts completely alone?
JACIE
Yes, the old man has long lived alone.
MITSURI
In addition, he does not allow anyone to his home.
ALICIA
Absolutely does not let anyone?
MITSURI
Why this question?
ALICIA
It's just curious.
JACIE
One day the robbers entered his house. But he beat them so badly that they could not leave the hospital for a month. Since then, no one has come close to his home.
ALICIA
I do not believe that the old grandfather with his walking stick to death beat adult men.
MITSURI
And we didn’t believe it, but the robbers claimed when the police interrogated them that the old man had done it. Since the house was no one else.
JACIE
They say that those robbers then disappeared from the hospital and no one ever saw them again.
ALICIA
Maybe they fled away from this strange town?
MITSURI
Here you are just a joke.
ALICIA
So does he really live alone?
MITSURI
(grandmotherly)
Alicia, don't even dare approach that house and that old man.
JACIE
And you end up like those robbers.
MITSURI
Well, what are you saying?
JACIE
Have you thought the same thing?
INT. ALICIA'S ROOM - MORNING
Alicia closes herself in her room and looks at the pictures she took in the strange house. In one black and white photo, she sees the guy who scared her.
ALICIA (VO)
You are a very strange type. Photos were taken about thirty years ago. If this is you on the photo, then you should be 50 years old now. Or is it your twin brother? Your house is clearly not all right. Now I understand why everyone forbids me to approach your home.
Alicia is searching the Internet for articles about this old strange house. But she finds nothing.
