(Subtitle Revised by HchC)
Get out of here! Go off!
Excuse me.
I was expecting to be met.
Good morning, Truscott.
I am Belansai.
Welcome to our country.
He's a bright chap.
He'll be the head man of his Longhouse in two years.
John Truscott.
Henry Bullard.
I'm the governor of this district,
but you just think of me as God.
Hop aboard.
You've got far too good a degree for this job.
What are you running away from? Your debts?
Your family? Or a woman?
No, no debts. No woman.
My mother died two years ago.
My father was killed at Passchendaele, so...
Well, why in God's name are you here?
My father was a district officer out here.
William C. Truscott?
Ahhh.
He'd drawn up a plan to bring education to the Iban
which the governor general had approved,
but then he had to go back to the war...
and it never happened.
And you've brought this plan with you, have you?
Yes, I think it's our duty to educate primitive people.
God, you sound a sanctimonious little prig.
Still, you're young.
Sarawak'll knock it out of you.
Famous, you lazy bastard!
Look at the state of this place.
Bring Truscott tea and gadgets double quick.
Come on. Chibi, chibi, chibi.
It's got bugs in there.
He's the best cook in Sarawak.
Though strictly speaking he's still on parole.
What did he do?
Oh, he hacked some damn fool rickshaw driver to death.
But you should taste his meringues.
- Shouldn't he be in-- - Now, tomorrow,
you've an invitation from your local Longhouse,
the Gawa Kenyalong.
So Belansai'll pick you up.
The feast to honor the war god
where they take the giant hornbill statue down from the rafters.
Oh, God.
You read-- books.
I'm afraid they insist upon it at university.
Do they?
Has it come to that now?
Yes, I'll--
I'll see you in a day or so.
Excuse me.
Excuse me...
What's my job?
This is my father, Melaka.
He is head man of the Longhouse.
This is rice wine.
Ah. Um...
I won't drink on duty, thanks.
To refuse is an insult.
Left, right. Left, right.
It's chibi, chibi, chibi!
It is a... very ancient tribal dance.
Oh, no, um... no.
Very kind of you to offer,
but I think I'll give it a miss this time round.
You must make us entertainment.
A song? A dance?
A poem?
Perhaps all three.
''The sand of the desert is sodden red,
Red with the wreck of the ranks that broke.
The Gatling's jammed and the Colonel dead,
And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.
The river of death has brimmed his banks,
And England's far and honor's a name,
But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks,
'Play up!
Play up and play the game!'''
? Da-dum-dum-dum ?
? Da-da-da-da, Dum-dum-dum-dum ?
? Da-da-da-da ?
Oh, Truscott, you are very funny Englishman.
Excuse me. What's going on?
The dancing is over.
We go to sleep now.
You deliberately dropped me in it, didn't you?
You know I made a complete fool of myself?
They like a man who makes them laugh.
Iban society is based on heavy drinking,
violent sport and practical jokes.
Just think of it as English public school
without the buggery.
I'm on a mission to civilize, not to entertain.
The mining concessions at Kera Pulau
have been trespassing outside their boundaries.
Your local Longhouse
got to some Chinese miners before I did.
You're going to have to bring in their heads.
What?
Well...
we limit the areas where the mining concerns can--
No, no, no. You said...
you said ''their heads.''
Well, yes.
The Iban have cut them off.
What?
Ahh.
My dear.
This is Selima.
She's going to live with you.
As what?
Uh... she performs wifely duties.
Oh yeah? What... sewing?
She performs wifely duties in the bedroom.
- For God's sakes, man. - I sleep with you.
We expect you to know the language within six months.
Selima's what's known around here as a ''sleeping dictionary.''
Sleep...
My mother was also sleeping dictionary.
That's why I speak the King English.
There's nothing like bed for learning a language.
It's the only reason I speak Portuguese.
No, look, poor girl.
- She was just-- picked? - I pick you.
And she's really choosy.
She turned down my last two cadet officers.
Listen, your contract forbids you
to marry for three years.
Three years can be very lonely.
And after three years?
We'll probably all be dead, so why worry?
Oh, dear.
Listen...
you'll go home on leave to England
and you'll come back with a rosy-cheeked little wife.
Selima will go home to her Longhouse
speaking fluent English.
Oh, damn it, man, it's worked for centuries.
There's no reason why you should be different.
No, I'm sorry, no. No.
I know you think I'm just some young idiot,
but if I don't follow what I think's right, what else is there?
Then you'd better find another way to learn the damn language.
Because if a so-called educated man
can't speak the language of the people he governs,
he's no right to be here!
Fine, maybe she can stay as... just a dictionary?
- If she doesn't mind, that is. - What?
Mind not sleeping with you? I'm sure she'll survive.
She said yes.
What else did she say?
You'll have to learn Iban and find out, won't you?
I'd stand back if I were you.
Ha ha!
Ants.
Yes, ants. Thank you very much.
Good night.
You say no, she get very angry.
Rain always stop in morning.
Sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite.
Chinese heads as per request.
Thank you.
As you know, the Longhouse will be fined.
Beyond that, there will be no further action.
Monkey heads.
We make a joke on you.
Maybe I'll make a joke on you
and bring a detachment of colonial police up the river.
I want those heads delivered to my bungalow by tomorrow morning
or I will confiscate your--
your pigs.
Master?
I bring you someone.
This is Jasmine.
He is assistant chef.
What do we need an assistant chef for?
- He assist you. - Me?
He assist you in...
private way.
Is this one of your relatives?
No, no, no. He very clean.
He come from Englishman on coast
who too old for all that now.
What?
Oh, good God. Get him out of--
No, get him out now!
- But, master-- - Get him out of here!
And Selima, bring me a whiskey.
What are you doing?!
I'm not servant.
Fine. You don't have to be a servant.
You're fired! Dismissed!
You cannot fire me because I am not yours to fire.
I fire you.
You are dismissed.
Make no attempt to follow me.
- What are you doing? - I live here now.
You can't live there.
Then I will live in the jungle.
I like the jungle.
No, listen. You must go back to the Longhouse.
They will laugh at her.
They will say she choose you but you no have her.
- Is that true? - No.
They will say you not sleep with her
because she too pig ugly.
Listen, I don't think you're ugly.
I think you're very beautiful.
I don't sleep with you because of my beliefs.
Because... the spirits of my country forbid it.
You want to sleep with me but you forbid by your spirit?
Yes, you could say that.
I will go to my tree now.
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Perhaps we could have another try.
If you're willing to re-employ me, that is.
I will give you one more chance.
Hey!
I want a word with you.
Last night you got completely drunk again.
My other masters, they fine me
one week pay if I blind drunk,
two week pay if I blind, legless drunk.
I blind drunk two time a month regular,
so very cheap cook.
Fair enough.
Wait.
Do you play croquet?
No.
Help me reload, would you?
I'm clearing the jungle for a croquet lawn
for when Cecil, my daughter, comes out.
It's much quicker than a working party from the jail.
Aggie Bullard, Henry's wife.
You must be Truscott.
How are you getting on with Henry's damn fool tests?
I think next I have to wrestle a crocodile.
Sleeping dictionary shaping up all right?
Truscott!
Us women don't know anything about all of that.
- Truscott! - And for heaven's sake,
bed her or the Iban'll think
there's something wrong with you down below.
Excuse me.
Re-group!
Sorry?
You're not picking up the language very fast, are you?
And where are those Chinese heads?!
You are in the bathroom.
I am in...?
the bedroom.
What do I do?
I...
I say good night to my father.
Where do you go?
Bedroom.
Bedroom... bedroom.
W-what next?
I-I go to sleep.
Do English people have dreams at night?
Sometimes, yeah.
Are we really that strange?
Have you ever sleep with a woman?
I won't till I get married.
That's our way.
But when you marry you'll be very bad at sex
and your wife will be unhappy.
I'll take evening classes, I promise.
I've never met anyone...
even a little like you.
Whyever did you choose me?
Your dance is not the dance of an Englishman.
Good night.
Yes.
I thought you didn't like our education.
You want to educate us like your father did?
You were educated because you're the chief's son.
Shouldn't others have the same opportunity?
William, William,
Henry, Henry, Richard, John, Henry,
Edward, Edward, Richard, Henry,
Henry, Edward, Edward, Richard,
Henry, Henry, Edward--
Mary, Elizabeth, James, Charles,
Charles, James, William, George, George, George, George,
William, Victoria, Edward, George, Edward, George.
The kings of England.
And why do I need to know that?
The mission school tries to turn us
into little Englishmen.
They didn't do a very good job with you, did they?
You missed Queen Anne, by the way.
You missed King Stephen.
I hear when you were young,
you were a champion at the underwater battles.
When I was young?
I am still champion of 1 0 Longhouses.
Yes, they say you can beat any girl on the river.
Will you challenge me then?
How you-- how you do that?
Some Englishmen
can breathe underwater
through their ears.
I wonder if I might have a word about...
those heads.
It's lovely workmanship.
I'll add those to the collection.
The ants eaten your dinner jacket yet?
I think there's an arm or two left.
Good.
My daughter Cecilia is arriving for Christmas.
First class honors degree at Oxford.
You'd like her.
Come to dinner.
Oh!
How drunk is he?
Blind, legless, daft, sick, smelly drunk.
My mother read that to me.
My father read it to me.
Do you remember your father?
He go back to England when I am four.
My dad died when I was four.
''Deep, deep beneath the sea
where the water is clear as purest glass
lies the palace of the Sea King.
There behind its... walls of coral
and roof of cockleshells lives a little mermaid.''
You can read English.
I remember it by my heart.
I made him read it many time.
Write a word from it.
''Deep.''
Now you.
''Hand.''
''Arm.''
Neck.
Lips.
Breast.
I-I'm sorry.
That was too quick, wasn't it?
You teach me English, I'll teach you this.
School is not finished.
Not quite the education my father had in mind.
Why do you always go?
For sleeping dictionary, it is proper.
For the Iban,
if a man and a woman wake up together five nights in a row,
they are engaged.
You don't want that, do you?
Cecilia's got a degree in anthropology, you know?
She did her thesis on the Iban.
- Really? - Mmm.
Why did you choose the Iban to study?
I lived here until I was five.
Till Mother and Father couldn't stand me any longer
and shipped me off to school.
But I always remembered them.
The way you'd never see them arrive,
but then suddenly there they'd be, standing beside you
as if they'd been there since...
time began.
Although, for them, of course, time only began 53 years ago.
- Really? - Yes, the year Krakatoa exploded.
- That's their year zero. - Is that true?
How the deuce do you know that?
- Well, I listen. - Do you now?
Well, I can't wait to get stuck in and meet the Iban.
Shipperly's taken over from Teague--
chap I told you about.
Went doolally and ate his own toes.
I'll tell you something I bet you don't know.
Back in Victorian times, the young officers coming out here
were given a young woman from the local head-hunting tribes
to share their bed...
so they could learn the language quickly.
I hardly think so, darling.
Now you are having us on, aren't you?
No, that's true.
I've heard tell of it from a very old Iban.
- See? - Well...
if it did exist, I'm sure it was purely
a matter of convenience and no...
higher feelings were involved.
- Don't see why. - Surely you can't seriously believe
that a primitive head-huntress
and an English officer could experience love.
Not love, maybe,
but I'm sure they could feel a great deal.
Whatever an Englishman felt,
he would never let that get in the way
of his duty to the local people.
My Iban wouldn't think less of an officer--
''My Iban''? They're not your Iban.
They might be God's, but they're certainly not yours.
We've got enough bloody dictators in Europe, thank you.
- All I'm saying-- - And all I'm saying,
is that an English officer
would never let his country down.
Nor his family.
Would he, Truscott?
No, sir.
So is she pretty?
Well, she's fairly pretty.
But does she have wings?
What happened to the spirits of your country?
They grew old and tired and packed their bags and left for England.
This is a land dispute between two Longhouses.
It's fiendishly complicated.
You must be sick of me following you around.
No, I know how interested you are.
At least this time we escaped the dreaded Shipperly.
He's harmless, but... he's like all men
who've been to an all-male school and college.
The only women they're comfortable with are their mothers.
He talks to me like I'm a Labrador.
I went to an all-male school and an all-male college.
Then something must've changed you.
Well...
yes. Being out here, I imagine.
So have you sorted out this dispute?
Yes, I think so, yes.
See, it's impossible to sort out the argument.
So if I decide for one side or the other,
it'll just seem unfair to them.
Pull!
Would you mind? That's it, perfect. Thank you.
Thank you.
Isn't she amazing?
What did she say?
There's not a precise English translation for that one.
Cecil, these children love having their photo--
She's wonderful. I wish I looked like her.
Hands higher, please.
That's it. Perfect.
Cecil, I don't think she wants her photograph taken.
- Just a couple more. - Truscott!
Go and see what's happening down there, will you?
Ask her to keep up that fierce expression, please.
- Cecil-- - Truscott!
I told you to go and see what the devil's happening!
She won't understand.
She's Yakata.
You can tell by the turquoise bracelet.
I studied them.
She was bleeding through her skin.
Come away and wash your hands.
There's a dozen more dead bodies turned up at Laksai,
50 miles out of their territory.
I'd better go up river and have a look, hadn't I?
No, you hadn't!
It's dangerous enough up there without an epidemic.
That's my job.
They'll have your head as soon as look at you.
Besides he doesn't speak the language.
Well, I'll take Selima.
She speaks half a dozen languages.
And Belansai, no one's going to tangle with him.
Send that idiot Shipperly.
A few poisoned darts might liven him up.
I'll set out tomorrow morning, shall I?
Aggie, I can't send Shipperly.
You said yourself the man's an idiot...
If you're about to be killed, at least stay for dinner.
Terrific girl, Cecil. Isn't she?
Absolutely, yeah.
If you want a child properly educated,
you've got to send them back home.
But you can't be in two places at once.
And I thought it was my duty...
to stay with Henry.
Yes.
But they've done a terrific job on her.
We're delighted.
She knows all sorts of things.
And it means she's turned out very self-sufficient, very capable.
Exactly the sort of girl one wants to marry out here,
not some flimsy little miss who's never left England.
And of course...
she's ever so fond of you.
Well, she's lovely, like you say.
But I'm not sure that I...
Love her?
I don't think I knew what love was when I was your age.
I don't suppose you do.
Well, what is it like?
Well, it's, um...
it's companionship,
fellow feeling.
Now listen,
you want these schools for the Iban.
Henry'll help you. I'll see to that.
So...
what do you say?
I'm not really sure. This is all rather sudden.
Don't take too long thinking about it.
Neville's asked her to marry him.
She'll be gone by the time you get back from your trip
and you won't see her for two years.
I'm sorry about this afternoon.
I should have stopped her sooner.
Selima?
You had other lovers before me, didn't you?
Did you and they have what we have?
Yes.
They were men like you.
But...
I thought we had something special.
No, we fuck, that's all.
You're angry? You're not telling the truth.
I'm angry, that's why I'm telling the truth.
Half my blood is English.
That is more than your king and queen,
but for you, that is not good enough.
So Iban I'll be.
Rule me if you must, but nothing else.
Go ahead. Do your sex.
Don't mind me.
''Hands higher.
That's it.
Perfect.''
''Dear Cecil,
Everything is going very well.
We've reached the edge of Yakata country.
Belansai calls them 'the invisible people.'
And even the Iban admit
they can blend into the jungle like no one else.
They're fierce warriors,
but they live as one big family.
Sharing is so much a part of their way of life
that they have no word for 'thank you.'
I look forward to seeing you when I finally come home on leave.
I'll finish this letter later.''
It's not like any disease.
It's not famine-- there's rice in the huts!
It's a white man with a rifle-- aiming at you.
Listen...
He's gone now.
Thank you.
Can you track him?
- My God. - What?
I think this could be a new species.
It's like the buffalo leech, but bigger.
Would you mind just getting it off my back?
I don't want to hurt it.
Maybe they'll name it after you, sweetheart.
Can you remember where you were when it bit you?
No.
No, I can't remember where I was when it bloody well bit me,
because I was in the middle of the bloody jungle,
which looked like every other bit of bloody jungle,
full of bloodsucking,
bloodthirsty, bloody little bastards!
Good afternoon, Mrs. Bullard.
Idiot.
They come across the mountains from Dutch Borneo.
- Very difficult journey. - That's pure silver.
They'll be making a fortune.
And it looks like they don't want any other Europeans to know.
Me get sickness.
They go away.
You'll be all right.
We'll take you down the river in the morning.
They say you brought the illness.
The Dutchmen told them.
What did you say?
I told them you are a god
and will cure them.
Oh. Good.
Ask them if they will eat with us.
The Yakata don't grow rice, do they?
So they must have traded for it.
The bastards.
The bastards! They wanted to clear the mining area,
so they put poison in the rice!
- Do we die? - No.
No, it's a slow-working poison, so it looks like disease.
So, my English friend...
do we arrest the miners?
What will the Yakata do if we tell them?
Kill them all.
Tell them.
Explosive.
Explosie.