China Heavyweight (2012)

A documentary on rural teenagers in southwestern China who are recruited as their country's next Olympic hopefuls, with a focus on the coach Qi Moxiang.

Director:

Yung Chang

Writer:

Yung Chang

Stars:

Zongli He, Yunfei Miao, Moxiang Qi

2 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Zongli He	...	Himself
Yunfei Miao	...	Himself
Moxiang Qi	...	Himself
Ye Xinchun	...	Himself
Zhong Zhao	...	Himself

Storyline

In central China, a Master coach recruits poor rural teenagers and turns them into Western-style boxing champions. Through hard work and discipline, these boys and girls come of age, trained in the art of boxing and the game of life. They are filled with Olympic dreams, hoping to become China's next amateur heroes. But the pull of professionalism also weighs upon their shoulders. Their coach hopes to show them the way. The top student boxers face dramatic choices as they graduate - should they fight for the collective good as amateurs or for themselves and their own personal gain as professionals? It's a metaphor for the choices that everyone faces now, in the New China.

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Genres:

Documentary | Sport

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Eye Steel Film [ca] Official Facebook

Country:

Canada China Finland Japan UK

Language:

Chinese

Release Date:

20 January 2012 (USA)

Also Known As:

Den kinesiska knytnäven

Filming Locations:

Huili, Liangshan County, Sichuan, China

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$4,004 (USA) (6 July 2012)

Gross:

$10,481 (USA) (14 September 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

CNEX Foundation, Channel 4, Eye Steel Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Chinese title, Qian Chui Bai Lian, is an old idiom that means "to be tried and tested a thousand times over."

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Quotes

Zhong Zhao: If you make the provincial team, you'll be China's official athletes. You'll be the country's people. Don't train hard and you'll be back home farming. Then you'll be no one but your mum's kid.

User Reviews

Beautifully-shot. Stories were well portrayed!

China Heavyweight is beautifully-shot documentary about overcoming adversity and doing whatever it takes to become a champion.

Serving as a follow-up to Yung Chang's 2007 film Up in Yangtze, the Chinese-Canadian director takes his viewers back to China and introduces them to three men involved at a boxing academy in Southwest China. Qi Moxiang, is a state boxing coach who searches for raw talent in village schools and rural tobacco fields of the Sichuan province. A former boxer himself, Moxiang longs to have one more shot at victory after losing an Olympic qualifying match from a previous year. The younger boxers on the other hand, are Miao Yunfei and He Zongli. Chosen to go into elite training, both hope they won't spend their lives as tobacco farmers.

Having its Canadian premiere at the HotDocs film festival in Toronto, this film takes an observational approach into showing Coach Qi's dedication to the sport and the lives of two aspiring boxers who vie for a better life outside the village they grew up in.

While three characters can be a handful to focus on, Chang does an excellent job in intertwining their stories and bringing them back together at the end of the film during Coach Qi's final match.

But with several intimate and personal scenes involving the characters and their families, having to shoot in such close settings isn't always easy.

"We tried to build trust and a relationship with the characters," said Chang, noting that he wanted to give the audience the vision that the film was "almost in the mind of the subject".

But given that the documentary's subject is boxing, there's deeper meanings entwined in the film's narrative approach. While extremely personal, it successfully highlights the camaraderie between each individual and the struggles faced as they go away from home to take a shot at fighting for the glory of their country.

And even though the summary of this movie may seem like any sports documentary about overcoming challenges in order to become a champion, it's interesting to see young individuals evolve into elite athletes from their humble village surroundings in the Sichuan province.