Award-winning filmmaker Yung Chang returns to China for another riveting documentary on that country's ever-changing economic landscape-this time through the lens of sports. In China Heavyweight, Chang follows the charismatic Qi Moxiang, a former boxing star and state coach who recruits young fighting talent from the impoverished farms and villages across Sichuan province. A select few boys (and girls) are sent to national training centers, with the hope of discovering China's next Olympic heroes. But will these potential boxing champions leave it all behind to be the next Mike Tyson? Their rigorous training, teenage trials and family tribulations are expertly intertwined with Coach Qi's own desire to get back in the ring for one more shot at victory. -- (C) Zeitgeist
Cast
Production
| Director: | Yung Chang |
| Producer: | Mila Aung-Thwin (executive producer) |
| Daniel Cross (executive producer) | |
| Lixin Fan (executive producer) | |
| Yi Han (producer) | |
| Bob Moore (producer) | |
| Zhao Qi (producer) | |
| Peter Wintonick (producer) | |
| Writer: | Yung Chang (writer) |
Reviews for China Heavyweight
New York Post
Call it “Rocky,’’ Asian style. Yung Chang’s documentary “China Heavyweight’’ is an intimate look at teen boys (and a few girls) in rural China who hope that becoming professional boxers will let them escape a lifetime of drudgery in the tobacco fields.
Read review5 Jul 2012
Christian Science Monitor
Canadian filmmaker Yung Chan, whose previous documentary was the terrific “Up the Yangtze” (2007), comes through with the equally strong “China Heavyweight,” which is only ostensibly about boxing. It’s really about the ways in which Chinese...
Read review6 Jul 2012
Slant Magazine
Using the curious subject of previously banned Western-style boxing in modern-day China as a way to speak about the tectonic cultural shifts going on in that transforming country, like the uncredited growth of capitalism under the guise of communism...
Read review6 Jul 2012
Washington Post
The growth of Western-style boxing in China illustrates the paradoxes of that fast-changing society. It’s a foreign sport, once banned by Mao, that’s now cultivated as a source of national pride. Its brutality is unacceptable to Buddhism and...
Read review20 Jul 2012
External Links
Reviews for China Heavyweight
New York Post
Call it “Rocky,’’ Asian style. Yung Chang’s documentary “China Heavyweight’’ is an intimate look at teen boys (and a few girls) in rural China who hope that becoming professional boxers will let them escape a lifetime of drudgery in the tobacco fields.
Read review5 Jul 2012
Christian Science Monitor
Canadian filmmaker Yung Chan, whose previous documentary was the terrific “Up the Yangtze” (2007), comes through with the equally strong “China Heavyweight,” which is only ostensibly about boxing. It’s really about the ways in which Chinese...
Read review6 Jul 2012
Slant Magazine
Using the curious subject of previously banned Western-style boxing in modern-day China as a way to speak about the tectonic cultural shifts going on in that transforming country, like the uncredited growth of capitalism under the guise of communism...
Read review6 Jul 2012
Washington Post
The growth of Western-style boxing in China illustrates the paradoxes of that fast-changing society. It’s a foreign sport, once banned by Mao, that’s now cultivated as a source of national pride. Its brutality is unacceptable to Buddhism and...
Read review20 Jul 2012
Cast
| Zongli He | ... | Himself | |
| Yunfei Miao | ... | Himself | |
| Moxiang Qi | ... | Himself | |
| Ye Xinchun | ... | Himself | |
| Zhong Zhao | ... | Himself |
Production
| Director: | Yung Chang |
| Producer: | Mila Aung-Thwin (executive producer) |
| Daniel Cross (executive producer) | |
| Lixin Fan (executive producer) | |
| Yi Han (producer) | |
| Bob Moore (producer) | |
| Zhao Qi (producer) | |
| Peter Wintonick (producer) | |
| Writer: | Yung Chang (writer) |
| Composer: | Olivier Alary |
| Johannes Malfatti (co-composer) | |
| Cinematographer: | Shaoguang Sun |
| Editing: | Xi Feng |
| Hannele Halm | |
| Production Management: | Ryan Mullins (post-production supervisor) |
| Han Yi (production supervisor) |
Companies
| Production Studio: | CNEX Foundation |
| Eye Steel Film | |
| Yuan Fang Media |
| United States | 6 Jul 2012 | |
| Poland | 11 May 2012 | |
| Taiwan | 18 Nov 2012 | |
| Italy | 13 Sep 2012 | |
| Japan | 25 Sep 2012 | |
| Sweden | 8 Nov 2012 |
