Farewell to the King

Borneo. For most of you,

Borneo doesn't exist.

An imaginary name on a map

like Tibet or Tierra del Fuego.

The ends of the earth.

But I know the island exists.

You see, I was there near the end

of the Second World War.

My war. My youth.

I was a botanist before.

I've been a botanist ever since.

That's why they chose me, I suppose.

Special Operations trained me.

I was to help lead the tribes

against the Japanese.

But I didn't lead them, really.

No, that was someone else.

I knew him. He was the last King of Borneo.

It's all right to tell his tale now.

The wind has swept away the stench

of the corpses.

And all that we remember

is the flare of our youth.

Oh, God damn.

Tenga, are you all right? Tenga?

Yes, sir.

Don't appear to have broken anything, sir.

- Yourself, sir?

- Well, I'm upside-down.

Yes, sir.

- Use your knife.

- Yes, sir.

Sorry about that, sir.

Murut?

Iban?

Kelabit?

Comanche.

He said Comanche, sir. He speaks English.

I Comanche.

South-southeast, sir.

Towards the center and up,

into the middle of Borneo.

- I'll take the first watch.

- Yes, sir.

- Well, good night, sir.

- Good night, Tenga.

What the hell is going on, Tenga?

He's a white man, my God.

He's as white as we are.

My name is Fairbourne.

I'm a British serving officer.

Now, why have you done this?

Oh, God.

As I said before,

I'm a British serving officer.

My name is Captain Nigel Fairbourne.

This is Sergeant Lionel Tenga, my radioman.

I'm with Zed Force, Special Operations.

The Japanese are losing the war,

as well as the Germans.

Our side is winning. Am I right, Tenga?

- Right, sir.

- Thank you.

General MacArthur is back

in the Philippines.

The Australians will be landing shortly

to recapture...

I mean, liberate this country.

I have the task of organizing resistance

amongst the tribes.

We need your help, sir.

The wind has veered to the West again.

The British will be back.

Learoyd. I am Learoyd.

When I first arrived at this house, they

wanted to sell my head to the Japanese...

but I didn't know about it.

I had to learn their language like a child.

They know a little English.

It's sacred. Religious.

I ought to explain

that you are in the spirit country.

My people are the sons of the first man,

living by the law of the ancients.

All we men are free.

I have a special relationship with the spirits.

I died once.

I had to.

I had to give up everything.

Even the will to live.

It started in April of '42.

Just before the fall of Corregidor.

When MacArthur skipped out...

some of us figured it was time to go, too.

Took a small boat

driffted all the way down here to Bornio

I suppose we were all deserters.

In say that way

I remember the waves.

Giant waves.

He's dead. He's dead!

- Lights! It's a village.

- No, no. That's Japanese.

There's no choice!

No, I've had enough.

Bataan. Corregidor. You were wrong!

We're free now. We're free.

Free to go our own ways.

We're free.

I left the coastal plains,

and I wandered inland.

And then I came

to where the real jungle begins.

I was suffocated by the trees.

I longed for the sky.

But I was free.

Free to do what?

He had been hunting,

and he caught nothing.

Only me.

It was Gwai who brought me here.

Of course, it was this dragon

tattooed on my chest...

that probably saved me.

I got it in Manila one night

when I was drunk.

Lian the Magnificent

was all for selling my head to the Japs.

He had a bunch of hotheads with him,

and they were all steamed up.

They were running these people down.

It was the women who stopped him.

They were fascinated by my eyes.

They said my eyes were like the sea.

The sea means salt, and here, salt is life.

Her name was Yoo, Gwai's sister.

It was said from when she was a child,

she was born to rule.

Smackee. Smackee.

No. Moonshine.

- Moonshine.

- Moonshine.

I lived with the forest, like an animal.

For the first time in my life, I was truly free.

Men here dream of gods

and strike noble attitudes.

They want to rival the heroes of the past.

The time of Rajah Brooke

and the days of high adventure.

For them, it is a man that counts, not life.

We fought for over an hour.

Lian the Magnificent

wounded me seven times.

I struck him in the heart.

I took him to his mother.

We all mourned him.

He was a bad man...

but they all remembered the little boy

who played in this longhouse.

My children.

They were born Comanches.

Your children?

yes they were born of strife.

My children. Comanches.

Comanches sir..your majesty ?

You called them Comanches?

Yes, they remind me of Indians, you know.

You know,

only not like they are in the States...

like they were originally.

I won't have my people

selling kachina dolls and beads...

by the Grand Canyon at some train.

My Comanches will remain Comanches.

Free men. Headhunters.

And women

Yes that's right spoken like a free man

Who're they?

whose they?

You're really quite something, aren't you?

Well then uncle head man died.

Many people from the longhouses came.

They came from the black lands...

and also from the red lands

where the spirits had fled.

Six buffaloes were slaughtered and eaten.

It lasted for three whole days.

And then, on the third day, I spoke.

I told you, men dream of gods.

But you must find the words

to fire the dream.

I spent a whole year learning the words.

Well, I guess it was time I got married.

And there was the matter of all singar's people,

whose long house was on the river

They had a blood few with wise ancestors

since a time of God

There was a girl from singar's own family

and a boy from our village,they were like romeo & julliet.

When she got pregnant,it happens

Yeah well the man they wanted or

the whole disaster

I spoke to the women and

i gave them some bad ideas.

I don't like these girls, its more sex

i will stop worship if chase supirior anyway

I never see these

Sleep well ,

get for long.

Well the man suits of the

falling of their ways

After the first time in several centuries there was peice

and they all close and been setteled.

I brought them the joy of song

and the fellowship of the round table.

I had united 22 longhouses.

Forged a new nation.

Well, I guess I'd become King.

And I guess I became King.

It doesn't matter what you do,

I'll never go back.

What is it you wanted?

In the north...

the Americans are arming the Sulu pirates.

In the south, other teams like mine

are organizing the Dayaks of Sarawak.

There'll soon be general hostilities

in Borneo.

The Australians are going to land.

No one has ever controlled Borneo

from within.

The Japanese, like everybody else,

have only inhabited the rim.

But when we invade,

we will drive them into the center.

What will your kingdom be worth then?

You can no longer avoid history.

This is the Forest of the Spirits.

It's been like this forever.

It's a real hangover morning, eh, sir?

Great Mountain of the Dead.

Beyond is the Plain of Elephants.

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