China Heavyweight

A pellmell fight among village children in Sichuan Province to become professional boxers in Sichuan Province bounces off the screen in this documentary by Chinese American filmmaker Yung Chang. The tenuous fates of rural teenagers recruited by state athletic coaches for Olympic hopefuls fall under the guidance of a coach named Qi Moxiang. A former boxing star, Qi trains the students with a careful distance as they come across the dilemmas posed by grueling physical regimens and troubled family lives.