- When a dance teacher is the victim of a brutal hate attack, her boyfriend must face his own everyday racism to regain her trust.
- Dance teacher, Li Po is running late to class so she asks her boyfriend, Tommy for a lift. He's busy on the phone, tells her to walk and makes fun of her accent while talking to his colleague. Annoyed, she leaves and takes a shortcut through a back alley where she runs into two bored, smart-ass white guys. What seems like a fun way to pass the time, quickly develops into a brutal, racially-motivated, sexual assault. A passing man sees what is happening, but looks the other way.
Li Po is wheeled down the corridor in Emergency. She is numb.
Tommy comes to visit Li Po at the respite center where she is staying. Li Po screams at him and he leaves, bewildered.
Alone at home in the early hours and unable to sleep, Tommy retraces her steps that fatal afternoon and finds the alleyway. There, in the leaves are Li Po's dance shoes. Devastated, Tommy sinks on the side of the alleyway. In his grief, he has a vision of Li Po dancing the tango with a man who will not look at her. It is him. Tommy immediately returns to the respite center and clumsily attempts to apologize for his behavior. Li Po tells him the legend of Princess Hang Li Po, who came to a foreign land from China as a gift to the Sultan of Malacca. Tommy realizes he has been trying to make Li Po into a white Australian, just like him, without making an effort to learn about her or speak her language. He says a few words in her language. Though he can't say much, Li Po can see he understands now. There may be a way to love again.
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