នំបញ្ចុកជារឿងរ៉ាវយ៉ាងខ្លីមួយដែលកាលនោះខ្ញុំចង់និយាយរៀបរ៉ាប់

ពីចំនងទាក់ទងដែលត្រូវកាត់ផ្តាច់ដោយសារតែលុយនិងការស្រមើលស្រមៃ

បុរសម្នាក់ដែលត្រូវលេបថ្មលេបគ្រួសព្រោះតែសង្សាខ្លួនត្រូវរៀបការ

ជាមួយអនិកជនមកពីអាមេរិក

វាការសាកល្បងមួយតែជោកជ័យ ក្នុងការរៀបរ៉ាប់ពីដួងចិត្តអ្នកក្រ

មានអ្នកខ្លះបានអានរួចហើយ  ដោយសារខ្ញុំប្រមូលផ្តុំមកដាក់មួយទំព័រ

ទើបខ្ញុំដាក់វាជាថ្មីទៀតនៅកន្លែងនេះ (សំរាប់អ្នកមិនទាន់បានអាន)

ដោយក្តីរាប់អាន 

We are on a helicopter, below there's the Chaktomouk, the place where the four rivers: Mekong Le, Tonle Sarp, Tonle Toch and Mekong Krom gather together for a second. Like they say the water in the river is never the same but the river got always the same name. Phnom Penh is always a beautiful city, a city of Khmer people. I think the sound of flute can absorb us deeply into the river. There's a sweet poem says:

- Look at the river rushes slowly to the shore, Look at the soil who's never ends, Look at the sky, it's very high like I am far from you.

You can see the Royal Palace and the little stores, the restaurants and we are now in front of a flat near the Royal Palace, A young man standing at the porch, he looks at Chaktomouk, he want to push Mekong flow back to Tibet. Now we are behind his back, the phone rings but he's standing like a status, throws his eyes fix at the river. Come with me, come with me look at his face, he's completely pathetic. I make you listen a Khmer song ' Stop loving me ' (Choup Srolagn oun tey). If you want to keep someone in your heart, stay away from him. The more you know him the more he becomes someone else. The same for love, love grows up to the place where he cannot grow up anymore. The weakness of a man is when his girl walks out of his door. The more she's beautiful, the more she hurts you. Believe me that she can lies to you with her sharp smile and kill you without dropping a blood. But you feel like a thousand nails drilling into your body as the Christ on the cross. What does she need? You gave her everything but you still see her searching something everyday. Her longing is never ended like you eat rice each day drink wine each night. Sometimes I think it's amusing to fall in love but it's sad when it's finished.

Wong Kar-Wai dreams about love that will never depress. It's just a dream. Love is only just a dream. He is smoking and I am afraid there's no cigarette in the package. You know what am I afraid of? That’s when I open the package, there's no cigarette. The phone is still ringing but he pretends not to hear it.

Who phone him? Come with me we enter into the phone line to see who's on the other end of this line. An old man hangs up the phone and asks to his secretary:

-         Where's he?

The secretary answers:

-         I don't know sir

He looks at his watch and says:

-         What's he doing?

Who are they? Let me make you a big plan: Phnom Penh Daily. The editorial department is waiting for his article to publish in the new edition. I think he cannot finish it. All the words have gone from his head at the same time when his girlfriend left him.

So what about him now? Here we go, we are now on the bus to Khampong Cham. He looks at the landscape by the window. Now it's the rain season, all is green. The farmers begin to work on the land. You can see they are plowing the land with their cows on the paddy field. I wonder if they talk about love sometimes? Does he tell his wife who wakes up at the cockcrow to prepare the meal for him that he loves her? Before he leaves his wife to the land, does he say:

-         I will miss you darling?

And does she reply back to him:

-         I've got you under my skin honey?

They never talk about love maybe they talk about the rain or about the crabs in the paddy field. They talk about the palm trees, about the bullocks, cows and buffaloes. They are completely different from us the modern people who always lose in the sea of words. But they really care for each other and they never separate from each other no matter what happen. Their love is pure and simple like the rain falling down from the sky. They have the deal sentiment than the speech they don't need the words. The smile is in the heart and the word is in the eyes. They use the gestures, the gestures of love who come from their inside. They live in the nature. During the day they listen singing the cicadas and during the night they have the crickets send them to sleep. During the rain season they hear signing the frogs.

They don't have the TV but they have the stars and the moonlight. They don't read the newspaper. They read the magnificent landscape from the mountain. The parrot flies around the village to transfer all the messages for the lovers. It's another world what you see during the voyage on the bus. They don't need to catch the train each morning, they got the time and they're home free. They don't need the alarm clock. They have the cockcrow. But they live depend on the rain. Who make the rain? They dance to ask the rain from god. Sometimes the rain floods all the paddy fields, all the orchards, the banana trees, the sugar canes and the entire village. The rain cuts the road for the lovers who're always go to see each other everyday. She stays on the hut waiting for her love but she sees only the water around and the rain is still falling down. The parrots go and come a thousand times, transport the heavy missing messages.

The future is haphazard the past is a legend. What can I tell you more? In Cambodia the farmers are poor and miserable. The children pass his half-day with the cows, with the buffaloes, with the bullocks. They sleep under the trees and sing with the birds. When the rain falls, they wear only their skins and stands on the back of their lovely animals for come back home. While you stay with them, you never see they're sad. They got always the smile the smile like the Buddha. I got a song ' The rain falls, the farmers hurry to the lands '.

Now look at my hero, he's in the bus but he flies, he can't see what I've just showed you. He returns back to the pass, 2 hours before his girlfriend talks to him:

-         I gotta go but I can’t, I can't leave you without say goodbye

They're on the flat that we've just left about two hours ago. They sit in the chairs on the porch, they don't look at each other, and their faces are on the direction to the river. She continues:

-         Don't hurt yourself, promise me that you won't hurt yourself, please promise me

She waits to hear from him. He doesn't make any movement, his eyes fix at the river. She continues:

-         If I could but I don't know when exactly, I would send you a camera, a movie camera that you dream about everyday. Send me the image of this river, film for me the street that we used to walk down, I don't wanna leave this town, I don't wanna leave you …

In this movie if you cannot cry, you won't become my heroine. She is perfectly crying, it's time to say goodbye.

-         Make a picture for those poor farmers, for those empty cyclos, it's your reason to live your life without me until you find someone else.

She approaches her hand to catch his hand but he pushes it away. He stands up and says:

-         Go, go.

He doesn't look at her, since she arrives he doesn't take a look at her. She stands up and leaves him with her last word:

-         Take care.

I got a song for you: Goodbye love, hello loneliness. Goodbye happiness, hello emptiness. When a perfect love goes wrong, the world turns conversely, water flow back to the source, the rain goes back up to the sky.

He comes into the flat, stands toward the wall and begins to hit the wall with his right hand. Fool sentiment we're like the fishes. Falling in love is like you're caught in the net or bite a fishhook. The more you move, the more you're hurt. He lands on the floor and cries like a child.

Oh I'm not going to make a drama, cut! Cut! Now we come back to the bus. Everybody shout:

-         Look!

The driver slows down and stops the bus. On the road there's a pack animal crowd and an idiot calf is crewing a heifer. They're the torment animals and sad creatures. Born to serve the labor on the land and when they're old, they will be sold to the butcher. Are they happy while they're staying in this earth? The driver sirens:

-         Tit Tit

They move to the lake along the road. Goodbye sad creatures! We continue our melancholic voyage. Each house got a private swimming poor for the ducks and the magic lotus for decorate the spirit house at the coin. The young girls are winnowing the rice and ask yourself you're on the right or on the left of the horse-trailer? For me this stage is like a sweet memory while I was young in my little hometown.

Now we arrive at Khampong Cham, a biggest province in Cambodia. We say if you want to find the most beautiful girl, go to Khampong Cham, especially at Sotin isle (Khos Sotin). My hero, he doesn't know where to go. He feels hungry. He sits down at the little store down the street near the station. It's really what I want to show you in his movie. The Khmer Nom Banh Jok, all the vegetables mixed in this food, the Khmer spirit, a lot of stories based on this food. Now we eat in Cambodian way.

-         A Nom Banh Jok please

He orders to the seller.

-         With curry soup, Namya soup or Khmer soup?

The seller asks him back.

-         Khmer soup

He answers. For me I prefer Chicken Curry. When she gives him the plate of Nom Banh Jok, he asks her:

-         Why you put so many vegetables in my Nom Banh Jok?

She says:

-         Why don't you tell me first? You can choose only the vegetables that you like. I will make another plate for you.

He tells her back:

-         No that's OK. I want to taste all the vegetables that you put in my plate.

The seller wonders but she's busy to serve another client. Life is like a plate of Nom Banh Jok composed by many elements necessary of life. Open your arm for love and live your life for hope. If you don't want to be hurt, stay being always the sperm. The seller observes her strange client.

-         Is it delicious?

She asks him.

-         Yeah, it's good. Tell me if we don't put the vegetable, is it still the Nom Banh Jok ?

She think for a while:

-         It's still the Nom Banh Jok but, it's not a delicious Nom Banh Jok, why you ask me that?

He answers to the seller:

-         Nothing, forget it.

-         You want to know the secret of the Nom Banh Jok ? I tell you one, I prepare all kinds of vegetable and I got three soups different because the client has his own taste. They are not boring to eat my Nom Banh Jok because they have choice. Today they order some vegetables with the curry and tomorrow they change the vegetables or maybe with Namya or Khmer soup, so it's a cool business you know, you want to make the business with the Nom Banh Jok?

-         No, I'm a journalist. I want to write a story about the Nom Banh Jok.

She's surprised:

-         A story about the Nom Banh Jok? It’s a new one, I never think about that. You really can write a story about the Nom Banh Jok?

-         Why not ? I will write a story about you, about a Nom Banh Jok seller near the station in Khompong Cham.

-         I will make another plate free for you

She's completely content. Cut, cut, it's too long the conversation. It's good enough. He takes a taxi for come back to Phnom Penh. He understands right now that life is like a plate of Nom Banh Jok. Life without pain is just only a boring life, life composed by many things: the happiness, the sorrow, the pain and the hope. The poor farmers live their life depends on the rain and young girls pass their time to winnow the rice. The calf wanna make love with the heifer on the road, they're on their own.

-         Can you arrive at airport before 6 O'clock?

He asks the driver.

-         Sure

The driver answers and speeds up.

-         You're in hurry? You go abroad?

-         No it's not me. My sweetheart

-         She gonna leave you?

-         Yeah, forever.

The driver takes a look at this poor guy.

-         You don't look like a stupid guy, why she leaves you?

He asks him. I tell you what? In Cambodia when you meet the people they want to know all from you, the personal life: your job, how much you earn, where you live, all they gonna ask you everything. It's the politeness. Like this guy, a taxi driver, he drives, he talks, sometimes he tells you the legend of his village or his life in the past with the girls or sometimes I heard sad story from the taxi driver. But it's a big deal to take a taxi. Usually he puts 7 clients in the car and 8 including him. We're in Cambodia, not other place. But this time my hero, he wants to be alone. He takes a taxi alone.

-         You don't want to talk? OK what about the music?

The driver make him listen an old song like…. the young boy with a broken heart, drunk with wine just for one day but drunk with the girl, drunk for whole life.

-         You do what?

The driver asks him again.

-         A journalist.

-         Oh a good job, I like reading the newspaper, you work for which newspaper?

-         Phnom Penh Daily

-         Oh a good one, you write about what?

-         About everything.

Answers the poor man.

-         Write a story about the taxi driver, I got a story. Now in the bus they got a TV, a beautiful girl for serve the water, people don't like to take the taxi.

The journalist replies to him:

-         Because you drive badly and its' dangerous when you put too many people in the car .

-         I know, but no accident, just to earn more money

-         Everybody is fool of money.

The driver laugh:

-         Ha ha without the money, you can touch the girl? She needs money. When you got money, she drives you to paradise. If you don't have money, the hell my poor journalist. Like my wife, she needs money for the children when they go to school, buy something to eat, we need money. And you ? you don't need money?

-         For live, I need to buy some music, the cigarette and the coffee.

 

The rain is falling I want to make some romantic plan. There's a poor girl makes stop the taxi on the road with a banana leaf cover her head. That's a sweet memory: rolling camera in front of a girl under the rain with a banana leaf. The taxi driver doesn't stop the car. The journalist asks to him:

-         There's some one makes stop.

-         But you don't want to see the people?

-         We cannot leave her like that she's under the rain.

They turn back to pick up the girl.

-         There are only two people? How much? Expensive?

She asks before enters to the car.

-         You don't need to pay. I pay already.

The journalist tells her. She dries her hairs with a kerchief.

-         You live in Phnom Penh?

The driver asks her. She answers:

-         Yeah.

-         You do what?

-         Work in the clothe industry

The journalist asks her:

-         What about the salary?

-         Work hard and bad salary. Because I don't have high education, I gotta work hard to make the money.

The journalist continues to ask her:

-         You like it?

-         It's better than stay home and wait for the rain.

So many girls leave their hometown, some work in the clothe industry, some work at billiards club, some work in the beer company, some work at Karaoke shop, they're innocent behind those rumors around the city. I want to picture on them, as a message from those sad creatures. The taxi stops in front of the cloth industry. She gets out and says to the journalist:

-         Thanks.

The journalist replies to her:

-         You're welcome, good work.

She asks him:

-         Wait a minute, I saw you somewhere but I cannot recognize you.

The driver answer to her:

-         He's a journalist for Phnom Penh daily.

-         Yeah, I see, write something about me, about the poor girls.

The journalist smiles to her:

-         Sure I will.

Now we gonna finish this movie. The last sequence is at the Pochentong airport. The girl that we saw her last time at the flat near the Royal Palace begins to smile when she sees the journalist. There's her family around, they try to catch her but she still comes talk to him.

-         I'm leaving.

-         I got a story to tell you.

-         What story?

-         The Nom Banh Jok, I found my life is like a plate of Nom Banh Jok.

She asks him:

-         I don't understand, what you mean the Nom Banh Jok?

-         My life without you is like a Nom Banh Jok without the vegetable, it's not a delicious Nom Banh Jok.

She looks at him with full of love:

-         I understand but I am married now, I gotta go live with my husband.

-         He's a cool man?

-         He's a good man, a computer scientist.

Everybody in the family look at them, they all know that two people love each other but they don't have any sorrow to separate them. I hate this sequence. I hate all the parents who sell their daughter. I hate all the people who use money to buy love. Not for sell, love. I don't understand either, but they dream about life in abroad. As I am a dreamer, I should find a reason to finish this story.

In the space, if I don't have all the reasons, it means I got always a reason (Do you mathematics?). Pull away my eyes so that I can not see anything, root up my hands so I can not write, Pull away my heart so I can not feel the pain, Cut! Cut! It’s not good we begin again. We're here together to finish this movie. I am not the first guy who thinks about that. It's difficult to know why, no, no, it's not easy to know why. We should have some hope in life, we will finish this sequence and go to sleep for a month. The journalist say to his sweet love:

-         Take care.

She shakes her head and says back to him:

-         Write me sometime.

She's not unfaithful, neither mutual. She's simply a California dreamer. Everybody got on the helicopter we will follow the taxi that is rolling back to Phnom Penh on the Pochentong Boulevard. The sun goes down, it's about 6 PM in Cambodia.

Now show the Cast: no one in this movie got a name. They don't have the name. How can I make a movie without a name? Because it's just only a movie about the Nom Banh Jok.

End