Set in 1930s China, the film details the trials of a group of athletes who desire to compete in the Olympic Games. There’s a snag, however. The full amount required to send them abroad for the games is 600,000 dollars, and the government is only sponsoring half. It falls to the athletes to raise the rest themselves, and they start by saving every last penny they earn. They also attempt to raise the money through a variety of fund-raising activities, including street performances, networking for donations, and probably a bake sale, too. After deciding to fund their own way to the games, the athletes take to the streets to perform all manner of athletic demonstrations and martial arts moves in an energetic and impromptu street fair.
Reviews
The problem with this movie is that it goes so many directions and so many sub plots it kinda lost itself around. The main Character/Actor is all fine, and interesting as some mentioned, and a couple others where very decent(the tai chi master) but there so much stuff on screen, so many characters, so many sub plots it really get messy and just a whatever reason to show some Kung Fu... or more or less Wired Fu. Now i got to admit, ain't a fan of wired work usually, but this movie dosen't push too far an the action/fights are really interesting and good to watch.But sadly the sub plot drag the movie for 2 long, its hard to root for the hero or hate the "vilain" , its just like you watch a movie without any core story, just a bunch of sub plots put together to give a reason to show some Chinese kung fu...So not bad at all, but was expecting way better... like i said the action itself is all fine, wire or not, but the story really miss the point even tough some moments where emotional and interesting, others where just terrible to watch.
I saw this film just after seeing _Wushu(2008)_(qv), which I loved, and was really disappointed by Champions. Tsui Siu Ming is a very established director who has made some notable kung fu films in the past. I did like a couple of the fight scenes in this film, but in the end it was excruciating to sit through the lame story and oh so very bad acting. It's obvious that a lot of money went into this film, what with the special effects, but it was very badly executed. The story and characters are predictable, silly, and just plain embarrassing. Try to get a 15 minute edited version of this film one where there are only fight scenes and that's it. You'll enjoy it a lot more.
China was undeniably proud to be hosting the Olympics for the first time in 2008. The opening day martial art demonstration was a spectacle of human movement that movie makers wish they could pull off. Somebody had the interesting idea of revisiting when the first Chinese martial art demo team visited the 1936 Olympics. And so we have this movie.The story is based around the efforts of the Chinese National Martial Art League to raise the money to get the Olympic athletes and the demo team to Berlin. Thrown into the mix is a rivalry between women sprinters, a gangster kidnapping the baby of a kindly benefactor, the usual outdoor kung fu tournament with a "bad" kung fu school messing things up, the two male leads put into conflict with each other and lots and lots of feel good Chinese boosterism. In a way this film resembles a classic propaganda film from the days of Mao.So many things are going on it would take a deft director to corral it into shape. Unfortunately Sui Ming Tsui isn't that director. He plays a lot of tricks but never really gets it all together. He also wrote the story and co-wrote the screenplay. The film looks really good but the only character who gets any depth is the lead played by Dicky Cheung. He is a charming rascal, always wearing a hat, and quirky kung fu master who wants to go to Berlin so to impress his amour, a contender for the women's sprint race. Unfortunately, his character seems out of place in the otherwise excellent recreation of China in the 1930's. The other characters are rather shallow and not introduced very well. The bad kung fu school is, of course, an Eagle Claw school which is right out of a typical 1970's schlock chop-socky. The martial arts, which Sui Ming Tsai also takes credit for, is a combination of modern Wu Shu, traditional kung fu and obvious wire-fu. While there are a lot of real martial arts on display and the script refers to real historical martial artists, the overall effect is typical movie kung fu. The Praying Mantis Kung Fu seem to be the most accurate while the Tai Chi Chuan and Eagle Claw are the same you've seen in other films, not real. That doesn't mean that the action scenes are bad, quite the opposite, but it's nothing that other films haven't done as well or better.This film probably plays better in China than anywhere else. For the rest of the world, kung fu action enthusiasts might have a good time but everyone else will probably lose interest by the first 20 minutes.
Riding the current of the 2008 Beijing Olympics craze, this movie fails to impress. Not a total write-off, it nevertheless does not live up to its potentials.The stage is set at the 1936 Berlin Olympic. The political backdrop however is kept to a minimal, not a bad decision. The movie focuses on the prelude: China's preparation for the Games, and ends when the well-wishing crowd sees the team off at the pier. The Olympics itself does not constitute a part of the movie, but there is nothing wrong with that.Not unexpectedly, back in 1936, China participated in only one or two events. In addition, during the closing ceremony, there was a demonstration of Chinese martial arts. The movie unfolds along the dual, parallel lines: the women's splint team and the martial arts demonstration team, and a romance between the two key members in these teams. One would have thought that this is sufficient material to develop a good story, particularly with an uplifting theme of the quest to arouse a national interest in the Olympics and to overcome the obstacles (mainly financial) in putting the teams together. But what spoils things is a subplot of the kidnapping of a baby, totally unnecessary, poorly handled and dragging the movie to an unnecessary length of almost two hours.The martial arts action is the best part of the movie. There are also moments of humour which are not too subtle but decently tasteful. Dicky Cheung had given a credible performance, delivering on all fronts: laughs, action or poignancy. But everything else is unimpressive. Direction is hurt by overkills, such an elaborate but unnecessary and even out-of-place zooming, satellite-style, from city panorama to a dinner gathering. And as if director TSUI Siu-ming wants you to know that he has seen all the Hollywood movies you have seen, you are treated to a scene that is lifted directly out of ET, with a kidnapped baby camouflaged in a bunch of dolls contrived and illogical.Perhaps, the irony of the whole thing is that this movies tries too hard to impress and in doing so, backfires.
