Boxer's Story

Wah Sang was a boxing champion seven years ago. He now works at a garage and cares for his seven-year-old son Henry. They live a small apartment and Wah spends much of his time gambling and drinking. Henry wants Wah, whom he addresses by that name him to return to boxing, but Wah is hesitant because he suffered a brain injury. Henry is a go-kart racer, and at the track, Susan sees her friend Jenny, whose son is also in the race, being rude to him, so she approaches him and bets him dinner if he can win the race. Henry tries to pass Jenny's son in a curve and runs into the grass. When his crew come to aid him, she sees Wah, her ex-husband, there, and confronts him, demanding to know if Henry is their son. Thus begins Wah and Susan competing for Henry's affections, though Henry does not yet know that Susan is his mother. Susan is married to a cardiologist, and she has a successful career in car sales (particularly to white English-speakers). They live in a large house and believe they can give Henry a better life, while Wah descends further into gambling and risks losing his son when he attacks his creditors for trying to take his son. Wah suggests that Henry ought to live with Susan for a while, and when Henry refuses, Wah slaps him around for addressing him so informally in order to get him to leave. Henry calls Susan, who takes him in happily, but when she tells him that she is her mother, he is outraged because Wah told him that his mother died shortly after his birth. Wah admits to Henry that Susan is his mother, and that he still loves her, but couldn't deal with her continuing with her career, then contemplates returning to boxing to pay his debts, even though this means risking his life.