CHINA HEAVYWEIGHT – a documentary by Yung Chang
July 25th, 2012 by Mr. C
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Director: Yung Chang
Stars: Qi Moxiang, He Zongli, Miao Yunfei, Zhao Zhong, Ye Xinchun
Genre: Documentary on boxing
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-Mao Tse Tung banned western style boxing in 1959.
-30 years later, the ban is lifted.
-From the makers of UP THE YANGTZE and LAST TRAIN HOME-
China Heavyweight is a documentary that chronicles a boxing program in Huili, a rural village in the Sichuan province of China. A once Olympic hopeful — boxing coach Qi Moxiang nurtures and diligently trains a few chosen young pugilists. From the onset of the movie, I was expecting the story to be the stereotypical big bad China setting up training camp to clone and pump out Olympic boxing champion hopefuls but on the contrary. The story was more of a quiet and human one at that with a coach and his master both who seemed to be genuine and very passionate with their craft. Their main goal seemed to be aimed at providing the young students with another outlet to better themselves, instill discipline, and to learn a new skill with potential to gain fame and fortune for themselves and their families. The motives and decisions to train from all parties never seemed to be forced, manipulated, or glorified in any form which was real refreshing to see.
The focus of the documentary turns to the attention of two of the coach’s best students, Miao Yunfei and He Zongli. The two have been molded from clay to a recognizable boxing form in Huili and now it was time for them to move on to the next stage of training to get sculpted into a boxing machine at another program in the city. Scenes outside of the boxing camp would also help in providing more insight with their personalities and wants as they approach the first stage of adulthood.
Besides the boxing, the documentary gives us access to the subjects family and friends enabling us to see the lifeline and realties of their decisions in focusing in on western boxing training instead of working in the tobacco fields of Huili or just working in general to provide a more stable and predictable lifestyle. Decisions to try their hand in the professional boxing circuit or to remain 4 more years at the amateur training camp will eat at their hearts.
A nagging poke & reality check is also jostled at the Coach – Qi Moxiang by his family and friends on why he is not married yet in his late 30’s. Qi seems to be hinting of unfinished business with past goals and dreams not realized which still clouds his mind. He had sacrificed 5 years of his energy, soul, and time to help train the kids. Now, it was time to live for himself.
The stunning visuals with the landscape and open fields of Sichuan Province certainly painted a romantic image of peacefulness and utopia but the day to day survival of life in china is certainly anything but. China Heavyweight to me was less about the boxing and more about the nurturing of relationships with others while still being honest and true to yourself. The ability to move-on in life after witnessing the hands of success or failure will ultimately determine your fate in an otherwise vain world.
The camerawork in the boxing ring was also done with artisan love as the documentary feel with the 2 fighters clashing fists seemingly transformed into a very smooth HBO boxing after dark production! There were some instances of shaky camera work and too close a zooms to boot but overall, I was pretty impressed with the output.
China Heavyweight is most definitely the antithesis of The ROCKY story. Instead it relies heavily on the open face sandwich model in which your weighted decision to live life for yourself or for others will shed the need for layers of contrast.
If you are looking for a raging, gritty, school of hard knocks boxing tale then this documentary might not be for you. China Heavyweight delivers a quiet and honest story of the influences of western boxing in a rural village in Timbuktoo, China. The documentary provided no conclusions or cliffhangers although there were a few scenes in which they were recruiting girls into the boxing program. The filmmaker never expanded on the story with the girl boxers. Do I smell a China Heavyweight 2? Mao Tse-Tung must be rolling in his grave.
Tags: boxing, china, docuumentary, mr c
Posted in movies, mr. c | Comments (0)
