CHINA HEAVYWEIGHT |

CHINA HEAVYWEIGHT

By admin
30 May, 2012
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Screening @ Open Roof Festival on July 12th, 2012 - Buy Tickets

Director: Yung Chang

Award-winning director Yung Chang (Up the Yangtze) takes his camera back to China to follow Qi Moxiang, a charismatic state boxing coach, on a search for raw talent in the village schools and rural tobacco fields of Sichuan province. Those chosen leave the poverty of their farms for training in special schools in the hopes that they’ll turn out to be extraordinary, winning medals and honour for their country. In this observational film, Chang entwines Coach Qi’s desire to fight “one more time” with an intimate portrait of the students’ lives, the rigours of training and the camaraderie as they grow from teenagers to young adults.

As a new century of change and fierce competition sweeps through China, the best must decide between communist ideals of the common good and Western individualism: Will they fight for the glory of their country or for fame and money, becoming boxing kings like Tyson or Pacquiao?