THE KOI KEEPER
Synopsis
by
Felice Bassuk & Richard F. Russell
Logline: An American teen, kidnapped in Bangkok,
falls in love with her mysterious rescuer and marries him,
only to discover he is the underworld kingpin who abducted her.
Bangkok, Thailand. KIMBERLY HARRINGTON (late 30s), blonde, svelte, free-spirited, and her rebellious Japanese-American daughter SYBIL (16) stroll through a mall on a girls’ day out. CLAY HARRINGTON (40), a high-ranking US diplomat and Kimberly’s cuckold husband, labors in his Embassy office. Although addicted to the drugs her lover TOSHIRO (40) supplies, Kimberly ends their affair. Clay returns home to find her dead of an overdose. Toshiro is quietly enraged, and his jilting ignites this tale of revenge, domination, seduction, and triumph. At Kimberly’s memorial, Toshiro studies Sybil unobserved. The following day, Sybil is attacked in the street. Her bodyguard resists in a highly charged martial arts battle – but she is beaten, and Sybil is hauled away. Locked in a cold cell, abused, starving, Sybil is on the verge of death. Suddenly, she is whisked off to a resplendent estate with walls and guards and gates. She eats with other captives who obey a strict pecking order. At the head of the table sits GOLDEN GIRL, a blonde Thai, the slave-master. She is tough, aggressive, and hates Sybil’s ‘privileged’ attitude. RATANA, a practical Cambodian girl, briefs Sybil on the rules, and they bond as sisters. Sybil has her first meeting with Toshiro. He helps her call her father, but she cannot reach him…anywhere. Toshiro invites her to consider the compound her temporary home and promises to keep trying to contact her father. Finally, he informs her that her father has left the country without a trace. Toshiro leads Sybil to a garden where men and women trainees spar with Golden Girl. Upon Toshiro’s signal, Golden Girl levels each one with ease and grace. On another occasion, the trainees challenge each other. Winners stay for further training; losers are evicted. Sybil watches in awe. At a glistening koi pond, Toshiro draws Japanese philosophic lessons from the multi-colored fish. He tells Sybil that koi seek perfection; if they fall short, they are released from a flawed life. Sybil is increasingly fascinated by Toshiro, but is he her protector or her captor? Sybil makes a desperate attempt to escape but is captured and brought back to the compound, where she is brutally punished. Sybil settles into this strange, new life at the compound – a mix of luxury, iron-clad rules, martial arts, and koi fish. Devastated by his double tragedy and having no inkling of his daughter’s whereabouts, Clay teams with a gang leader, SOMCHAI, who demands visas in return for information. Clay supplies Somchai with the illegal visas. For this, the American AMBASSADOR deports him. Clay departs for Laos, but sneaks back into Thailand through jungle and rivers, braving predators and police. He arrives in Bangkok, installs himself in a run-down hotel, and continues his search for Sybil. Having lost her fight at the compound, an ex-trainee plots to kidnap Sybil and claim the reward offered for Sybil’s return. She leads a posse of “businessmen” into Toshiro’s compound. They grab Sybil, but are blocked by Toshiro, who rescues Sybil and demolishes the invaders. Toshiro arranges for Sybil to begin fight training the next day.
Golden Girl, the keeper of the koi, senses Toshiro’s growing attraction to Sybil and burns with jealousy and malice. Reluctantly, she trains Sybil to fight, and Sybil’s skills improve rapidly.
Toshiro learns where Clay is living and sends Ratana to kill him. Instead, Clay kills Ratana.
With her friend gone, Sybil focuses on the koi and grows to love them. She learns to identify the different types and how to care for them. Toshiro appoints Sybil his Koi Keeper – replacing Golden Girl, who can barely conceal her rage.
WONGSAWAT, a police captain, visits Toshiro, looking for a missing girl. He doesn’t find her, but remains distrustful of Toshiro.
Stockholm syndrome: Sybil becomes deeply enamored of Toshiro. She’s been seduced by his looks, his mysticism, his power, and the drugs he offers. Her moxie, her fighting ability, and her care of the koi have impressed him. He takes her out to buy her new clothes and wines and dines her.
Clay discovers Sybil at a fresh food market. He pleads with her to come home, but she refuses, rebuking him for abandoning her.
Then the koi are massacred. Sybil claims responsibility, but Toshiro knows it was the work of Golden Girl. In a stunning motion, he slashes her throat.
Sybil accompanies Toshiro to Tokyo on a trip to restock the koi pond. He shares his tortured memories of being deserted by his family and convinces Sybil they are joined by their common abandonment. They marry in a simple Shinto ceremony and honeymoon in a luxurious hotel.
Somchai learns where Sybil lives, and Clay joins the gang in an attack on Toshiro’s compound. A gun battle rages between the gang and Toshiro’s guards, and Clay kills a guard. But Sybil is nowhere to be found. She and Toshiro are still at the honeymoon hotel.
The police arrive, and Clay is arrested for murder. Incarcerated, Clay’s beard grows wild as he wastes away, unaware that Sybil rejoices in her love for Toshiro.
But love, like Sybil’s story, takes many twists and turns. Sybil finds evidence of Toshiro’s affair with her mother and deduces that he was her kidnapper. She confronts Toshiro, who denies nothing.
Clay’s friends at the Embassy hear of his arrest and concoct a scheme to break him out of jail.
Wongsawat places surveillance on the compound, and has enough evidence to plan a raid.
Under a moonlit sky, a drunken Toshiro dances with Sybil at the koi pond. Suddenly, gunshots explode from all directions as the police, Clay’s gang, and Toshiro’s guards converge. Sybil buries a knife in Toshiro’s chest, and they struggle. Clay reaches the pond, and he and Toshiro battle it out. Just as Toshiro is poised to kill Clay, Sybil plunges her knife in Toshiro’s back. Barely alive, he is taken into custody.
Clay and Sybil return to the States, to their home in Virginia. But a month later, they are back in Thailand. Heir to the compound, Sybil has converted it into a camp for training women in self-defense.