DECATHLON: THE CK AND RAFER JOHNSON STORY tells the story of Taiwan’s greatest Olympic hero, CK Yang, and his friendship and rivalry with the great American athlete, Rafer Johnson—a friendship that transcended race, nationality, and geography, and survived the pressures of the Cold War and the battle for civil rights. This is a tale of triumph, tragedy, and an enduring brotherhood that still resonates in these turbulent times.
In this powerful documentary, Mama Yang, an 84-year-old woman living in New York, finds herself in correspondence with 45 high security prison inmates she views as her own children. Most are Chinese American immigrants, and see in Mama Yang a mother figure they never knew before they stepped through prison walls.
For Mama Yang though, the story is about more than Christian charity. She had already lived a full life in Taiwan when her husband died at age sixty and her son lost their house in a financial blunder. She moved to the US to start anew and lives with a Taiwanese American granddaughter that remains distant. In a film marked by family separations, Mama Yang writes letters – whether to the incarcerated or to her own granddaughter – to heal lifetimes of wounds.
