When it comes to knowing China, most of us are first-rate neophytes. And when it comes to China’s sporting life, we don’t even rate that high. The closest we get is watching an occasional Chinese NBA player, like Yao Ming, or rooting against the country’s Olympic diving team.
That’s why China Heavyweight, part of the Milwaukee Film Festival’s “Passport: China” series, is so eye-opening. Director Yuan Chang’s documentary takes viewers inside China’s budding boxing culture, one stunted from 1959-1987 because Mao Zedong banned the sport for its violent and Western character.
This is not the film festival’s first foray into foreign boxing documentaries. Sons of Cuba, an engrossing documentary about youth boxing in Fidel Castro’s country, was a poignant surprise at the 2010 festival. And while there are some similarities between the two films, notably the boxers’ Spartan living conditions and the theme of boxing as a path to glory, China Heavyweight doesn’t match Sons of Cuba’s emotional pull.
The Chinese tale is more disjointed, an unfortunate side effect of the different paths its three main characters take. There is Qi Moxiang, a local boxing hero in modest Huili County who enjoyed a brief pro career before becoming a youth coach there. And there are two of his students – the starry-eyed Miao Yunfei, who dreams of being a boxing king like his idol (Mike Tyson), and the more reserved but more dedicated He Zongli.
What unfolds is the story of two young boxers trying to forge their own glory while an older one seeks to recapture his glory of the past. The individual tales are at times moving, like when one mother cries at the thought of her son’s bruised and swollen face. There are lighter moments as well – scenes of young fighters screwing up the courage to ask for a woman’s phone number and of Qi out drinking with his friends.
But once the interwoven nature of the trio’s boxing lives starts to unravel, you sometimes feel like you’re watching three separate movies instead of just one. It’s not a fatal flaw – and indeed, Qi’s return to the professional ring is a story worth watching – but I wound up wishing the film was more cohesive.
Perhaps China Heavyweight’s true value comes as a broader window into this strange world of Chinese boxing. It’s seeing boxing coaches recruit young children, telling them how the sport will rescue them from life in tobacco fields, where they’ll be no one but their mother’s kid. It’s the surprise at glimpsing a young Chinese boxer in a Sacramento Kings jersey, or hearing a coach invoke Muhammad Ali as inspiration.
Most of all, the film serves as a reminder about the universal spirit of athletic competition. American athletes don’t have a monopoly on dedication, and Chinese fans cheer for their heroes as loud as anyone else. In these respects, only the language is different.
