Daily Dialogue — August 2, 2015
SHEN: (Wistfully) My father’s throne. He used to let me play here beside him, promising someday this throne would be mine.
The throne falls from a high castle window.
SHEN: A little to the left.
GORILLA: Uh, but it’s so heavy, Master.
SHEN: Thirty years I’ve waited for this moment. Everything must be exactly how I envisioned it. And I envisioned it, a little to the left. Perfect. With the weapon by my s — a little bit more. With the weapon by my side, all China will bow before me. We move out in three days when the moon is full and the tide is high. (Laughs) And now, you old goat, why don’t you tell me my —
SOOTHSAYER: Fortune?
SHEN: F-Future. I was going to say ‘future.’ Look into your ball and tell me what glory awaits.
SOOTHSAYER: If you continue on your current path, you will find yourself…at the bottom of the stairs. I see…I see…I see…pain.
SHEN: Ow!
SOOTHSAYER: And anger.
SHEN: How dare you! That is the finest silk in the province!
SOOTHSAYER: Followed by denial.
SHEN: And this is not fortunetelling. You’re just saying what’s happening right —
SOOTHSAYER: Now?
Shen sighs in disgust.
SOOTHSAYER: The most important time is now. But if you really want to see the future…
SHEN: Oh, what do you see?
SOOTHSAYER: A peacock…is defeated by a warrior of black and white. Nothing has changed.
SHEN: That’s impossible, and you know it.
SOOTHSAYER: It is not impossible, and he knows it.
SHEN: Who?
WOLF BOSS: Lord Shen! I saw a panda!
SHEN: A panda?
WOLF BOSS: Uh, a kung fu warrior. He fought like a demon. Big and furry. Soft and squishy. Uh, kinda plush and cuddly.
SHEN: There are no more pandas.
SOOTHSAYER: Even with his poor eyesight he can see the truth. Why is it that you cannot?
SHEN: Find this panda and bring him to me.
WOLF BOSS: Yes, sir.
SHEN: One panda. That does not make you right.
SOOTHSAYER: You’re right. Being right makes me right.
SHEN: Then I will kill him, and make you wrong.
The Soothsayer takes another bite of Shen’s robe.
SHEN: Will you stop that!
— Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011), screenplay by Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Madness. Today’s suggestion by Will King.
Trivia: According to the director Jennifer Yuh, Shen proved to be a great challenge to animate, so much that the complexity of the character was like that of doing six characters all at once.
Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Will: “The antagonist as world-conquering demagogue is a standard trope, and Shen is no different in that respect. What we get here is a conversation that reveals the depth of Shen’s willful blindness to his ultimate fate. The Soothsayer functions was the warning to Shen that he cannot win, yet Shen is so driven by his desire, his madness (both his insanity and his anger at the perceived slight by his parents), that he cannot release himself from his own self-destruction even when it’s spelled out plainly to him.
The writers also have some fun playing with the idea of a soothsayer by having her finish Shen’s lines, and with the ‘bottom of the stairs’ gag line.”