EPI-LOG ARTICLE on Beauty
and the Beast
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Episode 13 (Season 1, Episode 13)
China Moon
China Moon (airdate: Jan. 15, 1988). Vincent is reading a book in the Whispering Gallery. He hears the sounds of Oriental music and he closes the book as he walks. There is much laughter because people are celebrating Chinese new year. In a dining room other people are celebrating a forthcoming marriage. An old Chinese man gives a toast to the marriage of his grandson, Peter Chang, to a girl called Lin. It is very obvious that the girl does not want to marry Peter. In a restaurant kitchen, two thugs are beating a young man. They leave him with the warning to get a new girlfriend. An old man is concocting a mixture of herbs for a customer who turns out to be Vincent. They are talking when Lin comes in. Her fiancée has threatened her. He told her that she must quit seeing the man she truly loves, Henry Pei. She speaks with Vincent who congratulates her, but she does not accept the congratulations from him because she does not love Peter Chang. She then leaves Vincent with her grandfather. Lin's grandfather explains that Peter Chang's grandfather paid for Lin's passage to America. He is just repaying his debt with Lin's hand. Vincent attempts to explain other ways that he could repay with, but the old man only knows the old ways. Vincent goes to Catherine to discuss the problem with her. Vincent wonders why sometimes it seems as if the world does everything it can to keep lovers apart and Catherine wonders why it brings them together when the situation is impossible. Catherine agrees to talk with Lin and explain her choices.
The next day, the two women talk. Lin explains that she feels that she must honour her grandfather. She then tells Catherine about the two thugs who attacked Henry. Catherine offers to help out in that situation also, but Lin explains that once she is married, it will stop. Henry is explaining his situation to a friend, Eddie, when he hears a noise in the back of the restaurant. Outside in the alley is Lin. They greet each other warmly and she tells Henry that the next evening they will leave. He is to meet her at her grandfather's store at 9:00. They don't realize that someone in the back of the restaurant is listening. Joe and Catherine are discussing how hard it is to find evidence in Chinatown and then make American law stick there. At the same time, Vincent and Lin are talking and she wants Vincent to let her and Henry hide in the tunnels. He is unsure but finally agrees to talk the plan over with Father. Father and Vincent have a heated discussion because Father feels that they owe the grandfather an obligation for all the times he has helped the tunnel dwellers. Vincent feels that they can not let Lin get involved in an unhappy marriage. Father thinks her grandfather knows what is best for her. Vincent replies that only she knows what is best for her. Father finally gives in to Vincent's wishes. Catherine and Henry are talking at his restaurant. Catherine wants him to press charges against Peter Chang and his men. But he says he won't have any need to because he and Lin are leaving that night for a secret place. Catherine assumes that the secret place might be the tunnels. She gives him her card and leaves him making him promise to call her if he needs her help. Henry goes to talk with Eddie. He informs him that he is signing over his half of the restaurant to Eddie Henry takes a cab that night to Lin's grandfather's store. She is there waiting for him, but so are Chang's thugs who ambush the couple when they arrive. Lin manages to run inside her grandfather's store and into the tunnel entrance. Peter attacks Henry with a knife, but Henry turns the tables and kills Chang. He flees. The next morning he tries to go to his restaurant but it is not safe because Chang's men are watching it. Peter's grandfather has sworn to get revenge from Henry. Henry decides to call Catherine for help. She meets him on a street corner but he has been followed and they flee into a tunnel entrance. Vincent and Father welcome Henry to the tunnels. Lin's grandfather shows up to inform Vincent and Father, whom he calls meddlers, that Peter's grandfather knows all about the tunnels. He will send his men down there to kill Henry. Father sets into motion a plan to keep Chang's men at bay. They close off many of the tunnel entrances. Chang's grandfather and his men enter the tunnels before Mouse turns off the lights. Vincent soon comes to realise that he is the only one who can defeat these men. Catherine is horrified at the though and begs Vincent to come back to her. He takes his cape and leaves. Vincent meets the army one by one and destroys them. But four of the men meet Vincent at the same time at a tunnel intersection. He overcomes three of them before he starts on the grandfather. The old man diverts Vincent as one of the men prepares to hurl a throwing star. Vincent hears the star and ducks just in time for the start to miss him but to hit the old man. Later, the tunnel dwellers are attending Henry and Lin's wedding. Catherine is wearing an Oriental dress and Vincent's gaze is full of love for her. After the ceremony Vincent and Catherine go to her balcony. Vincent tells her that their time always seems to be measured in minutes or seconds. Catherine's solution to that is to measure their life together in a different way.
Guest Cast: Rosalind Chao as Lin Wong, Dennis Dun as Henry Pei, James Hong as Change Lo Yi, Peter Kwong as Peter Chang, Victor Wong as Dr. Wong, Keye Luke [Kung Fu] as the master, Jeff Imada as Bruce, Phil Chang, Steven Ito, Leigh C. Kim as Tommy, James Lew, Brian Imada and Craig Ryan as Tong members, Jerry Tondo, Brian Imada.
Writer: Cynthia Benjamin
Director: Christopher Leitch.