MovieChat Forums > The We and the I (2012) Discussion > SPOILER? What was on the phone when the ...

SPOILER? What was on the phone when the 'chan family' got off the bus?

posted 11 years ago by josephhcole
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As Laidychan, the girl planning her sweet 16 party, and her three brothers get off the bus, one of them receives a text that sends them all into a state of shock and recrimination. There is a cutaway to a little bit of cellphone video showing some party preparations, but nothing that seems at all traumatic. At that point in the film, I assumed that the pictures that were disturbing them were of Laidychan's drunken girl-girl hookup from the previous party.

However near the end of the film, we are told that those pictures were on a memory card that was destroyed to protect everyone involved.

Overall I liked the film and think it could be one that really grows on you with repeat viewings. There is a lot of density in the intertwined relations here.

But in the meantime, anybody know what threw the "chan kids" into such a state?

[–] emehrkay 11 years ago

Did you watch the whole movie? They found out that the one guy in the video that they passed around, Chen's brother's best friend, was stabbed to death.

[–] josephhcole 11 years ago

Yeah, I saw that text message just before Michael and Teresa get off the bus, but it seemed like too much time had passed between the scenes for me to be sure one way or the other.

After the film was over I was left with either:
1) the Chan family got the message about the floor-slipping guy getting stabbed in an early round of texts, but nobody else on the bus gets the message for 15 minutes.

or

2) Michael was lying to Teresa about destroying the memory card, which would be sad, since at that point in the film I'm hoping for him to have a change of heart.

I guess I needed the meaning a little more telegraphed :) but thank you for some certainty!