Kung Fu

MY NAME IS NICKY SHEN.

AND THIS HAS BEEN MY HOME FOR 3 YEARS,

SHAOLIN MONASTERY IN YUNNAN PROVINCE, CHINA.

MY MOM SENT ME ON A CULTURAL TOUR OF CHINA.

TURNED OUT IT WAS REALLY A MATCHMAKING TOUR

TO LAND ME A CHINESE HUSBAND.

Welcome to speed dating.

Find your name card at the table...

NICKY, VOICE-OVER: JUST ONE OF THE MANY WAYS

MY MOM TRIED TO CONTROL MY DESTINY.

I PANICKED. I RAN.

Nicky?

NICKY, VOICE-OVER: THAT WAS THE FIRST TIME ANYONE TOLD ME

I HAD A CHOICE IN ANYTHING.

PEI-LING RAN THE MONASTERY.

I WAS ONLY PLANNING TO SPEND THE NIGHT,

BUT THEN I SAW SOMETHING THAT I KNEW I WANTED TO BE A PART OF.

THESE WOMEN WERE WARRIORS, AND SO I STAYED,

AND PEI-LING BECAME MY SHIFU...

MY MENTOR.

Shifu.

The purpose of the training is

not to hide from your pain, nicky.

You must find peace with your family.

Well, peace and my family

don't really go together.

You believe you are the only one

with a difficult family?

I had a very different life before I became a shifu.

You would not have recognized

the old zhang pei-ling.

So much pain and anger,

regret.

I, too, thought to find sanctuary here,

but what I left behind still haunts me.

Shifu, this is my home now.

Don't make me go back.

You make the path that you live.

Your life. Your choice.

But learn from my mistakes, hmm?

Come.

It will be dark soon.

Shifu? Pei-ling?

Shifu?

Zhilan.

Hyah! Hyah! Hyah...

Zhilan, no.

The sword is not meant for you.

Shifu!

No! Shifu.

We have to get you to a hospital.

No. The sword...

You must get it back.

You must stop her.

Stop zhilan.

Don't leave me, please.

You killed my shifu.

I should've killed her long ago.

Hyah! Hyah...

This sword is too powerful for you.

Your shifu should've warned you:

Never step in the way of destiny.

Biange has no obstacle.

I looked everywhere for pei-ling's killer,

but she was a ghost.

I had no choice.

I had to go back to the place I ran from,

back to the people I hurt--

my family, my ex.

I had to go home.

Baba.

Nicky.

I'm sorry. I should've called.

I missed you so much.

What happened to your eye?

Oh, nothing. I fell off a ladder.

Uh, let me see you.

You're too skinny. You need to eat.

Come on.

Am I interrupting something?

Oh, the whole family is here.

Althea's bridal gifts were just delivered.

I'm sorry. What? Bridal gifts?

Yeah, your sister's getting married.

Althea...

Look who's here.

Nicky?

Did you know about this?

No idea.

Uh, congratulations.

Come here!

Well, you look amazing.

Oh. Mom's pre-wedding regime.

She has me on these chinese herbs that taste like garbage.

Oh, my god. You haven't even seen this.

Wow!

That's massive.

You know the lucky groom, dennis soong.

Dennis, come in here.

The mathlete from high school?

He's changed a little since then.

Nicky? So good to see you.

Yeah! Nice to see you, too.

So how did you two...

Dennis' company was gonna invest

in my software startup, but things are on hold,

at least until after the wedding.

The cake isn't gonna pick itself. Ha ha.

Well, look who's here.

You miss every family event

for the last 3 years

but show up for the presents.

Power move, sis.

Ryan, I missed you.

I'm pretty sure when you ghost someone,

it means the opposite.

What's with the lab coat?

You haven't graduated yet, have you?

Where's your robe and shaved head?

Thank god. Ha ha.

I'd have to give her extensions

for the wedding.

You're just in time.

We're picking a wedding date this weekend.

Super low-key event.

Just a fortune teller and 200 guests.

Mei-li, your daughter's home.

My daughter died 3 years ago.

That honestly went better than I thought it would.

Mama, I'm sorry.

Sorry?

What did we do to make you hate home so much?

It wasn't that I hated home.

You know why I stayed away.

What you did, you betrayed me.

What I did was make sacrifices for you.

Tutors, gymnastics camps,

piano, soccer, chinese. Huh.

I could've used that money to buy new shoes

or a facelift like mrs. Lee or mrs. Yang.

I would've thought living in china

would make you see "sorry" is an american idea.

One little word is not a magic eraser.

I know that.

If you were so miserable,

why didn't you say something?

This was a mistake.

Nicky, don't leave.

She doesn't want me here.

I will talk to her.

Meet me at the restaurant later.

Please don't run away again.

Because he defrauded his clients,

because he lied to investigators,

and, oh, yeah, because he's guilty.

Evan.

Sorry. I was gonna call,

but I wasn't sure what to say.

How did you get in here?

You still use the same hiding spot.

Where--

what's going on?

I'm not really sure where to start. Heh!

How about the part where you broke up with me

out of the blue because you needed time to "find yourself"?

That was 3 years ago.

Evan, I'm sorry.

I truly am.

I just needed to put some distance

between me and--i mean, you know my family.

The pressure, the expectations, my mom.

Should've stuck up for myself.

Nicky...

Are you ok?

Not really.

Well, I'd better get us a drink.

All I could think about was catching pei-ling's killer.

I pulled myself up from the cliff,

made my way to a hospital and then a police station.

Made a full report.

Gave them everything I had. I showed them these.

Did they know who this zhilan woman was?

No. But as soon as I mentioned the word "biange,"

I could feel a shift.

They tried to get me out of there as fast as they could.

Biange?

It means "changes" or "transformation."

Something about that word scared them.

I think biange is a gang maybe.

A new triad?

I tried looking into them, but I got nowhere.

Looking into a triad isn't going to end well.

You nearly got killed already.

Right. So I was hoping maybe you could make some calls,

reach out to people.

You're an assistant district attorney now.

You have connections with the police, the fbi. I--

that's why you came to see me after all this time,

my connections?

No, of course not.