In Theaters

China Heavyweight

Movie Details

China Heavyweight
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release Date: 2012-07-06 NY
  • Running Time: 89 min.
  • Director: Yung Chang
  • Cast: Zongli He, Moxiang Qi, Yunfei Miao, Zhong Zhao
  • Producers: Yi Han, Bob Moore, Zhao Qi, Peter Wintonick
  • Writer: Yung Chang
  • Distributor: Zeitgeist Films
  • Official Site: China Heavyweight Official Site

A paradigmatic "portrait" documentary--the popular sort that eschews cultural information and risk to focus on "how it feels" to be its subject--Yung Chang's film visits a pair of Sichuan Province boxing trainers, employed by the state to weed through a sea of grade-schoolers and look for potential Olympic contenders. (They can be famous, the kids are told. "If you don't train hard, then you'll only be your mama's kid.") Chang eventually settles on two fierce-browed contenders in their teens, and one of the trainers, soulful thirtyish Qi Moxiang, who hasn't yet given up his own hopes for having a Tyson-esque pro career. Like so much else in China, the system is mercenary and cruel to children, but Chang falls into a repetitive training-advice-meal scene structure that's less than revelatory, and the bouts are so blurrily filmed and so leavened with reaction shots that you can't really see what's going down. In the end, once we realize the title doesn't refer to these bantams' weight class but to their strength of heart, or something, the film feels blandly respectful and, oddly enough, apolitical.

Michael Atkinson
VOICE Daily Deals

Now Showing

Find capsule reviews, showtimes & tickets for all films in town.

Powered By VOICE Places
Denver Event Tickets

Box Office

  1. Star Trek Into Darkness, 70.2 mil, 83.7 mil
  2. Iron Man 3, 35.8 mil, 337.7 mil
  3. The Great Gatsby, 23.9 mil, 90.7 mil
  4. Pain & Gain, 3.2 mil, 46.7 mil
  5. The Croods, 3.0 mil, 177.0 mil
  6. 42, 2.8 mil, 88.8 mil
  7. Oblivion, 2.3 mil, 85.6 mil
  8. Mud, 2.2 mil, 11.7 mil
  9. Peeples, 2.2 mil, 7.9 mil
  10. The Big Wedding, 1.2 mil, 20.3 mil
Movie Title, Weekly Earnings, Total Earnings

Movie Trailers

©2013 Denver Westword, LLC, All rights reserved.
Browse Voice Nation
  • Voice Places Denver / Boulder

    Voice Places

    Find everything you're looking for in your city

  • Happy Hour App

    Happy Hour App

    Find the best happy hour deals in your city

  • Daily Deals

    Daily Deals

    Get today's exclusive deals at savings of anywhere from 50-90%

  • Best Of

    Best Of...

    Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city