- We begin, like so many movies from the '80s, with a white guy in China.
- He looks like an overweight Indiana Jones, complete with a Short Round-lookalike in front of him.
- In V.O. he introduces himself as Rand Peltzer, inventor.
- He's got a story to tell, and he swears it's a story like no other.
- Turns out he's not in China, he's merely in Chinatown.
- The Short Round impersonator leads Peltzer to his grandfather's store.
- It's an odd shop filled with cages, knick-knacks, and enough candles to be a serious fire hazard.
- Speaking of fire hazard, grandpa's hair and beard is really long. Keep away from open flames, old man.
- Peltzer tries to sell grandpa The Bathroom Buddy: a Swiss Army-esque traveling gadget. It's got a toothbrush, a nail file, everything a traveler needs. Does it have a built in Airbnb app?
- But Peltzer's pitch is interrupted by the chittering of a strange animal.
- Peltzer approaches it, and Short Round tells him it's a mogwai.
- He offers $100 but grandpa won't sell.
- How about $200?
- "Mogwai not for sale. […] With mogwai comes much responsibility." Why, can he shoot webs from his hands?
- The kid steals the mogwai and gives it to Peltzer in exchange for two Benjamins.
- But before Peltzer leaves, the kid tells him the three rules of mogwai care. Keep him out of sunlight. Keep him away from water. And the most important rule: never, never feed him after midnight.