In this movie a woman who is her sister’s mother
gets shot by a cop and her sister-daughter is
put in the care of her grandfather
and her father who are one man.
Another man drowns and another one
has his nose slit open by a man who
(in real life) raped a 13 year old girl
and lost his wife to a serial killing mob
of hippies.
All anyone can think to say
at the end of the movie is “Forget it, Jake,
it’s Chinatown,” as if the climate was responsible,
or maybe the people themselves, even though
you barely see anyone Chinese in that final scene,
and everything awful is brought to a climax
by these people blaming the locals, these people
who came from somewhere else whose job
is about moving the blame. They move the blame so well
you can’t tell east from west.
You turn off the TV after the credits
but the movie
never ends, everyone of them is in bed
with everyone of them,
all the good people are drowning
and parents are siblings and ogres at once.
And it goes on forever.
Eventually you discover
the secret of their success:
everywhere you are
is their Chinatown, and
those long red dragons
and mysterious omens
and snappy explosions for a happy new year
are not, in fact, meant for you.
