Short screenplay
Five Sheep Versus Two Human Lives
A short screenplay in Greg CHEN's first collection, examining the human cost of systems that reduce life to political or material calculation.
Screenplay excerpt
Read the opening pages
A three-page preview from the supplied screenplay collection. Each page carries an embedded GREG CHEN watermark.
Accessible text transcript
FIVE SHEEP VERSUS TWO HUMAN LIVES (A SHORT SCREENPLAY) 505
Accessible text transcript
FIVE SHEEP VERSUS TWO HUMAN LIVES 506 (A SHORT SCREENPLAY)
Accessible text transcript
FIVE SHEEP VERSUS TWO HUMAN LIVES 507 (A SHORT SCREENPLAY) EXT. THE BIG YARD OF A LANDLORD - MORNING It is late fall of 1950 in North China. YANRONG (means woman with beautiful looks), a middle-aged female peasant who is in a pair of black cotton shoes, is treading on drying grain. It is quiet; only sound of her treading, the wind, and a few crows can be heard. Behind her is a terrace house with three doors. The one in the middle has double doors. INT. BEDROOM - CONTINUOUS JINGRU (4) (peaceful flower) wakes up in the kang (a bed made of bricks with a flue connected to a stove) of a big empty room. Sunlight beams shoot in from the narrow lines of the door and the window. She sits up and looks around her. JINGRU Mom, Mom, where are you? Her hair is fluffy, and flies are buzzing on her face. A newly born baby sleeps next to her. Behind her, a blurred image of a woman dangles in the air. This is her mother, PINGSHU, the landlord’s wife. Jingru climbs down. After noticing her mom in the air, she goes to shake her mom’s bare feet. JINGRU What are you doing up there, Mom? Will you come down? Please come down.