If two people were to be born at the exact same instant
and very near to one another,
they would become what's known as Astral Twins.
They would share a destiny.
I shall cast your natal chart - find out what makes you tick.
I can't this evening. I have a rendezvous.
You can't read.
I need you to get rid of someone.
- Thank you for the company. - Where are you going?
To find Miss Wetherell, of course.
I know where my purse is.
I went for a swim. Why, I must have left it on the beach.
I'm looking for one of your guests - a Miss Wetherell.
She's not here. She didn't stay.
Do you know the penalty for murder, Miss Wetherell?
You hang from the neck until dead.
I've never seen this gold before, I promise you.
What happened last night?
I didn't kill him.
That is my husband,
Croshie Wells.
Let's get him on the couch.
Get me on the couch.
So good to see you.
I need that.
You've had quite enough.
You put the kettle on while I close up downstairs.
- Of course. - Poor fortune teller you are!
You never saw it coming, did you, Mrs Wells?
You're quite right. I never did.
Have you ever seen a piece of gold before?
Psst!
Hey.
I was on a riverbank, and I stepped on my spade,
And when I brought it up, there was a band of colour
right across the clay.
I'll never forget it - long as I live.
Who are you?
We met downstairs.
- Hm. Friend of Lydia's. - I'm her apprentice.
Apprentice?
Oh. Apprentice.
How'd that come about?
My purse was stolen - all my money.
I didn't have anywhere else to go.
Mm. I don't believe that.
Which part?
You must have someone.
Well...
here we are.
Did she tell you how we met?
- Crosbie, not now. - I was a punter.
I came in to spin the wheel.
I didn't know her from a stick of chalk.
I just heard the music and came on in.
We were introduced.
I said, 'What's the jackpot, Miss Greenway?'
And she said...
'Tonight, Mr Wells,
'the jackpot...
'is me.'
It's very late.
Come down. I'll show you.
Come down.
It's what she said to everyone, any time she was hard up.
Never thought she'd have to pay out, you see. You know why?
The game's rigged.
It doesn't hang true.
However hard you spin it,
you never land...
on the pot.
The needle always just slips on past.
Except that night - the first and only time it ever happened -
it stuck.
And so...
she married me.
Enough. More than enough.
To bed.
He made a strike, Francis! He's rich.
Where's he keeping it?
It's under his pillow.
It's thousands of pounds, Francis.
I've never seen so much money. This changes everything.
I just had a premonition.
I think you're about to get robbed.
I had the same premonition,
- but then I had a better idea. - Shh.
- Mr Carver. - Harbourmaster.
Madam.
Everything you lost when you went to prison,
you'd get it all back. You'd be a captain again.
Well, I've gotta hand it to you, Mrs Wells. You've got brass.
You think it's mad?
Yes, I do.
You'll have to get rid of the girl.
- She's too valuable. - No, she'll get in the way.
I'll be careful.
What about Staines?
What about him?
What if he comes looking for her? This city's only so big.
Can't you pack him off, buy him a ticket to the field?
He seemed determined to find her.
So make him think she already left.
No.
For helping me.
I don't want to have any part of it.
I know you're lying. I just don't know who for.
Well, he's a stranger to me.
And to me.
No marks on the body, no signs of a struggle.
- You ever done this before? - I've read about it.
All I want to know is - did he die or was he killed?
Laudanum, and he didn't get it from me.
He was full of it.
Come in.
Oy, oy!
- Hey, Juliet. - Married yet?
Yeah, are you married-?
She didn't come. She didn't show.
Oh. Smarter than I took her for.
Coming?
I'll catch up.
Top of the line. Nothing safer.
- Morning, Miss Wetherell. - Good morning, Mrs Wells.
Good morning, Mr Wells.
Come. Eat with us.
Mmm.
We must celebrate your great good luck.
What do you say to a banquet
with bacon and oranges and cream for your tea...
and the finest tobacco in the world?
I don't smoke.
You must take up the habit at once.
How are you in the kitchen, Miss Wetherell? Can you cook?
Much better than I can, I'm sure.
I shall defer to you entirely.
From now until sundown, the kitchen shall be your domain.
I'll go and put the order in.
Do you know a man named Carver?
Francis Carver?
Nah. Why?
Who is he?
It's just a name I heard.
Ah. How about...
this?
Perfect.
And that will go out in tomorrow's paper?
Tomorrow morning. Yes, sir.
Thanks.
Give us a kiss.
You are a rich man now, Mr Wells.
You must look the part.
What shall I buy you? A horse and trap?
The thing to understand about the sky
is that it's always moving.
Mrs Lydia Wells.
Oh! Oh, no.
Mrs Lydia Wells.
I'm not going to hurt you.
- Who did this to you?
I'm gonna get you some medicine, all right?
Something for the pain.
- No doctor. - No doctor, I promise.
No tell.
I won't tell a soul.
Hey!
You've gotta settle up your tab.
What tab?
Nice try.
No!
- It's only laudanum. - No.
You must. It's for the pain.
Poison. Terrible poison.
It's not poison. It's medicine.
What's your name?
Sook.
Sook?
Mr Sook.
I'm Anna.
What's wrong with you?
My friends took off without me. They stuck me with the bill -
cleaned me out. I can't stay here.
What is it about you, Mr Staines?
Everyone seems to take advantage.
Come on, then.
Where to?
You're out of pocket. You'll need something to sell.
Mm, this looks simply delicious, Miss Wetherell.
I find myself quite outclassed.
But you must join us. Don't go.
Oh, I- I was gonna head out for a bit.
All that hard work - you must be famished.
Hey, let her go.
Take your time.
I do hope the tide hasn't taken it.
Taken what?
Your purse.
Staines is his name - Emery Staines.
Oh, here we go - Mr Emery Staines.
To the Majestic Hotel, George St.
I was in the wrong place.
Cleared out this morning. He'll be long gone by now.
You don't know where he went?
Off to the diggings, I guess - same as the rest of them.
Let it out,
then bring it in. Play.
Who was that man last night?
His name is Sook Yongsheng.
I did business with his father during the war.
What war?
The Opium War.
The Chinese wouldn't trade; they wouldn't take our currency.
So what did we do? We gave them something
- they couldn't live without. - Opium.
The Chinese imposed a death penalty.
Anyone caught with the drug would be executed on the spot -
their law, not ours. We didn't want them dead.
We wanted their business, for God's sake.
Sook family owned an export business in Guangzhou.
They were stupid. They got caught.
They were put to death - all except Yongsheng.
He was just a boy. He didn't understand. He still doesn't.
He wants someone to blame, is all.
And in his eyes, that person's me.
- What did he say to you? - He said he's come to kill me.
He's been looking for me all his life.
Oh, I was starting to worry.
- No luck? - You told me the wrong hotel.
What do you mean?
Last night... I was waiting for him at the wrong hotel.
Show me the address again.
I don't have it. You tore it up.
My dear.
I truly hate to say this, Miss Wetherell,
but this young man - what's his name?
Emery Staines.
Mr Staines may have given you a false address on purpose.
Young men can be very cruel.
Miss Wetherell's rendezvous has given her the slip.
Well, then he's a bloody idiot.
I'm sure it was just a mistake.
You go down the customhouse? Look up his name?
Yes. He already left.
Well, that's lousy. Sorry.
Mustard.
You really here all alone?
Yes.
You're a runaway. I grew up in a whorehouse, missy.
You're not gonna shock me.
Now go on.
What are you running from?
Just...
who I used to be.
I was unconscious.
I'll start a fire.
I haven't seen Crosbie Wells in months.
I didn't even know he was out here.
And yet you knew the way.
I don't know what happened last night. I...
can't remember anything. It's just a gap.
The laudanum in his stomach.
I didn't kill him.
You are known for your dependence, my dear.
It wasn't me.
So you admit that he was killed?
Shite.
- There's an engraving. - What does it say?
'Aurora'.
That mean anything to you?
What is it?
I can read.
Prendergast Finest Treacle.
Pa-Paraffin.
Boot polish.
- I can read. - So I see.
No, you don't understand! I never could. I never learned.
What is this? What's Aurora?
The contract you showed me. Mr Carver...
You and I, Mr Staines,
are now equal-share partners in the prospecting venture -
Aurora.
It's a claim.
Whose gold is this?
Half and half of nothing...
Half of nothing is nothing!
- Quee. - What?!
Quee. Ah Quee. He works the claim.
How do I know that?
Something's happening to me!
You saw a man dying. Maybe even killed him.
- You're in a state. - No, no, no.
- No, it's something else. - What happened here last night?
- I don't know. - Miss Wetherell.
I truly don't.
I don't remember anything.
Think of the sky like a looking glass.
What you see is who you are.
Who you are, of course, is no simple thing.
Each of us is a living constellation of habits,
desires, notions, memories,
all shaped by the circumstances of how we've lived
and what we've been through.
Blood; money;
knowledge;
where we come from; where we go;
work; marriage;
death; discovery;
who we serve;
Who we meet;
and what we...
sacrifice.
But we are more than simply circumstance.
We have free will.
We make choices.
And these choices depend on...
You've come to dig the ground. Is that right?
Make your fortune?
I'm heading over to the new field myself - Hokitika.
Got a bit of land picked out right on the beach.
You know what I'm going to build?
An opera house.
The Prince of Wales, I'm going to call it.
Is there much call for an opera on a goldfield?
From what I've seen, there's a great hunger for beauty
and for things that make sense.
It's a dirty business, digging for gold. Dirty and defeating.
It doesn't make any sense at all -
not if you get rich and not if you stay poor.
And after a while, that grates on a man.
He starts wanting better -
something higher, something to believe in.
Girl like you... could make a killing over there, you know.
Work for one year, two years...
and you'd never have to work again.
Witness! Morning Witness!
Paper! Paper!
I found your girl.
What are the chances? She had the same idea as you.
'To Mr Emery Staines...'
'The undersigned departs this morning
'for the new field at Hokitika,
'where she will remain in hopeful expectation
'of a renewed acquaintance. Affectionately yours,
'Miss Anna Wetherell.'
- This doesn't make any sense. - Why not?
She doesn't explain why she missed our rendezvous,
why she changed lodgings, why she's left so soon.
What do you want, a life story? She's got two inches.
'Affectionately yours.'
- Something wrong? - No, it's just...
She's got pluck, anyway - your girl.
What do you mean?
Well, you think this place is full of men,
wait till you see the diggings. Oof.
She'll be one in a thousand over there.
She'll need a strong stomach for that.
- Mr Carver. - Mm?
The contract you showed me - could I see it again?
Good morning, Miss Wetherell.
Good morning, Mrs Wells.
Come, help yourself.
Where's the paper?
I'm afraid I used it to light the fire this morning.
- I hadn't even seen it yet. - I wasn't thinking.
I like to read the paper while I eat. You know that.
Here's yesterday's.
Bloody waste of a sixpence!
Now, you've got to peg this claim.
- If you do a runner on me... - I won't.
- We're partners now. - I understand.
Alright, the last thing is a name -
Bonanza, Bounty, something like that.
The Aurora.
Like the dawn.
All right.
You and I, Mr Staines,
are now equal-share partners in the prospecting venture Aurora.
Mr Sook?
What are they doing?
It's an offering to Neptune, god of the sea,
for a safe journey.
- Are you off to the diggings? - No, I'm going home.
This is my treasure.
It's very nice.
You are seeking the wrong stone.
When I was your age, Miss Wetherell,
the man I loved, the man I always thought I'd marry,
was sent away.
I thought I'd never survive without him.
But I did survive.
And so will you.
What happened to him?
What's passed has passed. Crosbie is my husband now.
Fate is not a matter of what's going to happen;
it's a matter of what's meant to happen.
But what if we don't make our fortunes?
What if Fortune makes...
us?
We've all dreamed it -
plucking that nugget out of the muck.
God, she talks a lot of shite.
She stole my purse.
She made it look like an accident,
but I found it later in the pocket of her coat.
She doesn't know I found it. I put it back.
Did you know?
Look.
You can't take it personally. It's just business.
I mean, look at you.
Do you know how many times I've heard that?
I don't want to be looked at.
Anybody can be seen.
I want to see.
Come on, apprentice.
The only thing we cannot...
What about that one?
He manu. Tuturiwhatu -
a bird...
with one wing folded.
She pretends she's injured to protect her young.
I see a scorpion.
What is a scorpion?
It's like a crab...
with a sting in its tail.
She says it's a claim
worked by a Chinaman - Quee. She knew his name.
I'll bet she did. Chinaman's Ann, they call her.
She's got quite a taste for them.
I don't think she knew about that.
She seemed genuinely shocked.
Every whore can act.
Well, we've got method and motive, Mr Devlin.
Either she convinced him to drink it or she forced him
or she cut his drink and he didn't know.
It's one of the three.
Or he took it as a medicine. Or he committed suicide.
Or he was killed by someone else entirely.
You can't just assume it was her.
Oh, but I can, Mr Devlin. I can assume it. And I do.
- What if she's innocent? - Innocent?
Every night of the week, that girl is up to her neck in filth.
Innocent of murder is what I meant.
She was found next to the body.
Near the body, not next to it.
I will not suffer whores, Mr Devlin,
and I will not suffer those who frequent them.
Anything else?
What?
At the cottage - did you find anything else?
No.
Nothing else.
You don't mind holding down the fort
for a couple of hours, do you?
I have some errands to run in town,
and I hate to leave Croshie alone
in case he falls down the stairs
or knocks over a lamp and sets the house on fire.
Three times this building has gone up in flames.
Would you believe it?
I'll stay.
You're too good.
Come on. We're going out.
What about Mrs Wells?
What about her?
Alistair Lauderback.
Lydia Greenway.
Good God!
I only arrived five minutes ago. This is extraordinary!
How did you know I was here?
Buy me a drink.
Come here.
You ready?
Keep your eyes open.
I reckon that's the first I've seen you smile.
It's actually on account of you that I'm in town.
Oh?
Remember that dress I bought you?
Of course.
- I sent to Melbourne for it. - I remember.
Well, I didn't want my wife to know, of course,
so I opened up a clean account,
paid cash, never used the account again.
Now, hear this - just last week,
I hear word of a private shipment,
going out Wednesday morning on Godspeed - one of my ships -
under that account.
Someone's been using my name.
How very frightening.
I tell you, when I saw it, my blood went cold.
What?
Just happy to see you, that's all.
I have a surprise for you.
- What kind? - I can't give it to you here.
- Upstairs? - No.
In the cabin of the Godspeed, tomorrow night at 10 o'clock.
Godspeed?
Oh, all this guff with the account.
How else am I to get your attention?
You little minx!
What's it about, then? What's the surprise?
I wouldn't dream of spoiling it.
- Just give me a clue. - Certainly not.
You must be patient.
Digger's dough, it's called.
Horrible, isn't it?
- Did you really eat this? - Every day for months.
Here. Wash your mouth out.
Do you know why I asked you about a man named Carver?
He the one who stood you up?
No.
The night you arrived...
after you went to bed...
Mrs Wells went out. I followed her.
She met a man named Carver -
told him you'd made a strike,
gold was under your pillow.
It's why I got this. I'm one step ahead.
I know what kind of woman she is. I'm not a fool.
This fellow, Carver - what did he look like?
Big.
Great!
You can't swim?
You can't swim.
Hey.
You know, I never came here for the gold.
I must be the only man in this country who can say that.
It was a mistake.
I was looking for someone.
Traced him to Southampton, saw his name on the departures list,
got myself a ticket - very next ship -
arrived out here three months later.
And it turned out...
I'd followed the wrong man.
'Course, by then, I'd spent all my money on the ticket over.
I couldn't get back. So I thought,
'Oh, I've got nothing to lose. I'll find a gambling-house...
'and try my hand at the wheel.'
It's funny how a life pans out -
how, in a single moment, everything can change.
Welcome to Hokitika. I wish you the best of luck.
- Can I help you? - Yes, I'm looking for someone.
I think she came in yesterday.
She? Well, that narrows it down.
- What is her name? - Miss Anna Wetherell.
No, she's not here.
Well, how can you be so sure?
Because I can count the women in this place on both my hands.
Do you happen to know whether she can swim?
There must be a list of names, a manifest.
We've had three ships go down just this week.
They're calling it the West Coast Disease - drowning.
I'm sorry for your loss.
It goes cloudy.
That's how you know.
The greenstone -
it goes milky on the surface.
A regular stone just gets wet.
You saved my life.
I was drowning.
I couldn't swim.
- Who are you? - I remember things,
like they're in my head, like they happened to me.
- What is this? - I remember you.
I remember...
making snares for birds
and fishing and sleeping under the stars.
You told me that when a person dies, they become a star.
I remember your face when you said it...
in the firelight.
What's happening to me?
Where is Emery? Where is he?
- Please. - You killed him.
No.
You killed him, and he is not yet buried.
His spirit is restless.
This is what you are hearing.
- His spirit is speaking to you. - No!
He's alive.
He wairua...
He wairua haere atu!
Haere atu!
He wairua haere atu!
- Good evening, Miss Wetherell. - Good evening, Mrs Wells.
I do hope you found a way to amuse yourselves.
What's that?
- It's for the party. - What party?
I'm sure I've told you this twice already, Crosbie.
We are hosting a party tomorrow,
and the theme is 'the British Navy on the open sea'.
And what do you care about the open bloody sea?
I care about this business,
and I know that everybody loves a theme.
Not that we need the money on what you brought home.
A toast!
To water under the bridge.
Te Rau.
What does Hokitika mean?
The place you return.
Captions by Able www.able.co.nz