Lost in the moment

Filming and watching one's own performance were two different things.

In fact, when Hillary saw herself as Maggie on the screen, she was stunned. Her thoughts flew back to the past, to when she was chosen by director Lyman, trained, and the boxing gym that was built...

All of it had become history.

She hadn't watched the finished film. After filming was over, she had left the production.

However, now, as she watched the big screen, she felt a strange sense of familiarity.

Although she had experienced it all during the shoot, it felt as though she was an outsider.

Yet watching it also brought back memories of the beauty of those moments.

Perhaps, this was the charm of acting: immersing oneself in the story, disengaging from it, and still holding great expectations for it.

The camera switched.

Maggie returned to the gym once again.

After exchanging greetings with Eddie, she warmed up silently and started skipping rope.

Now it was in the afternoon, and there were quite a few people in the gym for training.

Most of them treated it as a pastime or physical exercise.

Frankie, on the other hand, was seriously coaching a young black man. He was the most talented boxer in the gym and the one who had won the opening boxing match in the movie: Willie.

Willie had come to the gym today to discuss participating in a championship match with Frankie.

He believed he had the skill to challenge for the championship title.

However, Frankie was conservative and believed they should wait until the timing was right to compete.

Because of this, they had a big argument.

Willie came from a poor family, and he had always dreamed of participating in a championship match and winning the prize money.

He thought he was young and had the skill, so he wanted to earn more money at this moment.

So, one night, he went to Frankie's house to discuss it again. When it didn't work out, he went to work with another manager.

The most talented disciple had left, and on the surface, Frankie acted as if nothing had happened. But deep down, he felt somewhat uncomfortable.

The reason he didn't want Willie to participate in the championship match was that he had seen too many precedents of people rushing for money and fame, only to ruin their careers.

He didn't want to take risks.

But his friend Eddie didn't see it that way.

He questioned, "Willie tell you why? It's about you not believing in him."

Frankie was a bit resentful. "I stuck with him for eight years. How's that for not believing in him?"

"You could've got him a title fight two years ago. Hell, he knew that. I'm amazed he stayed around this long."

"Well, getting there and taking home the belt are two different things. What was I supposed to do, just put him in over his head? Not protect him?"

"Oh, you were protecting him from the championship."

Hearing his friend Eddie's retort, Frankie sneered, "Well, what about you, Scrap? What did your manager do? You were a hell of a fighter, better than Willie. He get you a title fight, or did he just bust you out... banging your head against other people's fists until you lost your eye?"

His words were hurtful.

He had touched a nerve, but at this moment, Eddie remained calm. "I had my shot. I went out swinging, and no man can say I didn't."

"Yeah, well, I remember. And excuse me if I didn't want my fighter spending the second half of his life... cleaning up other people's spit."

A few days later, the championship match began.

Willie used his outstanding physical strength to knock down his opponent directly in the third round.

Frankie watched the boxing match at home and suddenly realized that he had indeed been too conservative.

However, given his personality, he would never admit it.

Then, he saw Maggie again.

This 28-year-old girl was still persevering in her training.

As if touched by something, he tried to strike up a conversation with her for the first time.

The composition of this scene was quite intriguing.

Frankie's figure was half-hidden in the darkness, while the overhead white light cast a clear spotlight on Maggie.

With a smile, the girl engaged in casual conversation with Frankie.

Gradually, Frankie's silhouette became clearer, symbolizing his gradual acceptance of Maggie.

By the time he finally agreed to train Maggie, the small space of light and shadow contained both of them.

The use of lighting to convey the inner transformation of characters was done cleverly.

In terms of technique and direction, it was really well done.

At any rate, Quentin was down there watching comfortably.

The progression of the plot was also smooth, without abruptness.

Originally, it was thought that Maggie's serious attitude would impress Frankie, but unexpectedly, it was Frankie himself who broke through his own defenses because of Willie's situation.

Soon, the plot entered its second phase.

Under Frankie's guidance, Maggie began training in the manner of a professional boxer.

Her endurance was lacking, but she had great explosiveness.

Lyman didn't use much ink to color these training scenes.

Through montage, he covered Maggie's growth in about seven minutes.

Not only did her posture become more professional, but her physique also improved.

During the training breaks, Lyman introduced another subplot.

That was the letter Frankie had sent out, which was returned once again.

Quentin also wondered how a person with Frankie's personality could handle family relationships.

So, day by day, as the training continued, Frankie unconsciously injected some father-daughter emotions into their relationship.

A few months later, Maggie felt she was doing well in her training and naturally wanted to test herself in a match.

Frankie agreed.

However, because of Willie's situation, he brought in another manager to handle Maggie's participation in the match.

He was very afraid that his own hesitation would lead to Maggie wasting her limited time in the boxing ring.

She was older, and her prime time for boxing was shorter.

The manager he brought in didn't care about the condition of the boxer. He only cared about making money from the matches.

So, he quickly arranged a women's boxing match for Maggie.

Although Maggie was puzzled about why Frankie wouldn't train her himself, she was still happy to get the chance to step into the ring.

She considered her life a failure, but even a failure like her wanted to have shining moments.

Back at home, she had an unusually long conversation with her neighbor from across the hall and even invited him to watch her match.

But the man refused.

"I don't like boxing."

Maggie didn't take it to heart, but on the day of the match, her neighbor showed up.

In the small venue, apart from the coaches and staff, her neighbor was the only actual spectator.

Both boxers who stepped into the ring weren't particularly well-known, and no one cared much about who would win or lose between them.

But they cared.

The match was intense.

Maggie had no experience in such a setting. She had only sparred with some apprentices before, and when she finally entered the match, she felt somewhat uncomfortable.

The opponent, on the other hand, seemed younger and had good endurance.

In the first two rounds, even though Maggie was competing for the first time, she still dominated the fight but couldn't manage to knock her opponent down.

Her opponent was good at defense and had great resilience.

By the third round, the opponent began to exert more force, while Maggie started to feel tired.

This was her weakness; after all, she was getting older, which was one of the reasons why Frankie had hesitated in the beginning.

Although he had never trained a girl before, it was also a factor.