After This Our Exile

In Malaysia, Chow Cheung-Sheng endures a dysfunctional relationship with his girlfriend Lee Yuk-Lin, and their son Boy Lok-Yun. Lin repeatedly attempts to leave, fueling tension and fear about the future. They cancel a planned cruise when Lin falls ill, and Sheng asks Lin to stay behind. When Sheng and Boy return, they learn Lin has vanished, and Sheng questions Lin's friend Jennifer who denies knowledge but suggests Lin had been planning to leave and may be having an affair.

Sheng is fired from his restaurant job after an outburst, leaving him unable to pay debts and causing Boy to miss school. With debt collectors closing in, the pair flee to a hotel in a different city to escape loan sharks.

Boy secretly steals a watch from a classmate and gives it to Sheng as a gesture of support. Sheng accepts the watch as a token while they relocate to a hotel in a different city to evade creditors. The watch becomes a symbol of their dwindling security and escalating desperation.

At the hotel, Sheng begins a sexual relationship with the escort Fong, offering him a temporary escape from his financial woes. Their relationship soon deteriorates as Sheng tries to attract clients and money through Fong. Their growing tension centers on money and control.

Desperate for money, Sheng tries to traffic clients for Fong, acting as her pimp to attract business. The arrangement strains their partnership and escalates conflicts over money. Sheng even hands the stolen watch to the hotel manager to cover rent.

Meanwhile, Boy returns to his old neighbourhood to search for Lin and meets Jennifer, who confirms Lin's contact and that Lin has remarried and is pregnant. Lin pleads with Boy to stay with her, but he remains angry at her abandonment and returns to Sheng.

Outraged by Lin's affair and his own injuries, Sheng contemplates fleeing to England and abandoning Boy with Lin. His plan is derailed when loan sharks track him down and beat him, leaving him too injured to work.

Unable to work due to injuries, Sheng starts instructing Boy to burglarize houses, beginning with the classmate's house where Boy had stolen the watch. The scheme exposes them to further danger and deepens their entanglement in crime.

While hiding in a wealthy family's house, Boy breaks down in tears while watching loving parents care for their sick child and is caught by the homeowners. Sheng arrives, fabricates a cover story that his son ran away from him, but the attempt to steal fails and tensions explode.

Sheng abandons Boy after a failed theft, telling him he will stop forcing him to steal and will find a legitimate job. As they walk through the neighborhood, Sheng suddenly forces Boy to break into another house, triggering a public confrontation.

Sheng is jailed for his crimes, and during a visiting moment, Boy bites Sheng's ear in anger. The act marks a brutal rupture in their relationship and signals the end of their immediate bond.

A few years later, an adult Boy returns to the hotel and asks the manager to sell him back the stolen watch, attempting to reclaim a fragment of his past. The act shows how the symbol of the watch survives decades of hardship.

Boy locates the father of the classmate from whom the watch was stolen and returns the timepiece, closing that chapter of their shared history. This act underscores his attempt to mend his childhood ties and move forward.

Boy returns to his old neighbourhood and seemingly spots Sheng, prompting a reflective moment about his childhood. The scene suggests that the past and present remain intertwined even as life moves on.