Plot

It is New Year's Eve 1999 in Macau. Ho Yi-Cheung just graduated from university and is anxious to leave the confining island to teach art and find himself. Yi-Cheung has been haunted by a sense of abandonment ever since he was a child when his mother left for Taiwan to work and support him and his father, a failed Cantonese opera singer. However, when Yi Cheung's lifelong girlfriend Mei tells him that Macau is her home, he reluctantly agrees to stay. He becomes an art teacher in Macau, but his passionate, honest, and raw approach nearly costs him his job. Feeling like a failure, Yi-Cheung vows he wouldn't repeat his parents' mistakes and decides that what matters most is making enough money to buy a house for Mei and their growing family. He becomes a croupier at a casino, working such long hours that he completely neglects his family. It isn't until Mei takes the kids and leaves that he realizes she never wanted a big house-she only wanted the same thing he always wanted: for the family to spend time together. That's when it hit him-his fear of losing Mei has caused him to lose everything. Will get back into art and unchaining his passion that Mei had always championed when they were young be enough to show her that he is the person she always thought he was?

Ho Yi Cheung and Mei, a young couple in love, graduate from university in 1999, the same year as the handover of Macao back to China. Yi Cheng is anxious to leave the confining island, but Mei insists that Macao is her home and convinces him to stay. They choose a life they value, he an art teacher and she a nurse, and soon she gets pregnant. However, as the economy starts to boom, Yi Cheung chooses to make more money to support his family and quits his job to become a casino dealer. He starts to forget the old Macao that he and Mei used to wander around, becomes preoccupied with work and neglects his family. Only after Mei leaves him does he start to realize that his fear of losing his family has caused him to lose everything. Will getting back into art and unchaining his passion be enough to show her that he is the person she always thought he was?