The_Phantom_Projectionist In theory, CHAMPIONS should have been at least a modest international success. Released shortly after the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the movie based on the formation of China's first national martial arts demonstration team in the early 20th century is so rich in national spirit that you'd think its distribution would have matched CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. Alas, the movie didn't turn up in North America for a full two years following its original release and even now is barely known on the straight-to-DVD market - something I think is largely due to the flightiness of the movie's storyline and the fact that, despite its subject matter, it just fails to carry any amount of weight.The story: A martial arts stable, led by the Master Cheung Chi-Kong (Rongguang Yu), must overcome daunting financial, political, and physical problems en route to preparing the first-ever kung fu team to be featured at the Olympic Games.The film is directed by Siu Ming Tsui, and I must admit that he makes an honest effort at making a minor epic: CGI is utilized, as is an orchestral soundtrack, the cast rivals a BBC miniseries for breadth, and the movie has a surprisingly long runtime of approximately two hours. In that last aspect lays my first major complaint: the movie is way too long. Ninety minutes would have been plenty of time to tell the main storyline while still including one or two of the more interesting subplots, but instead, at least half an hour is given over to padding and side-stories. When the movie is supposed to be about Olympic hopefuls, why are we concerning ourselves with kidnapped babies and jealousy between sprinters? The cast does its best but can't really hold your attention: Rongguang Yu contrasts his KARATE KID character by proving that he can play a benevolent sifu as well, but both he and former kung fu child star Miu Tse aren't given nearly enough screen time; the same cannot be said for ol' Dickey Cheung, who tries so hard to be funny and likable but ends up getting on your nerves.The action is hit & miss, but it's safe to say that anybody who's seen a Yuen Woo Ping feature of the last decade has already experienced everything the movie has to offer. Though commendable for thoroughly showing off a few animal styles (particularly praying mantis and eagle claw), the fights generally all return to wire-aided wushu for better or worse. Rongguang Yu's two major fights are the exception, as he engages Xiang Dong Xu is a series of strikes, holds, and counters. Overall, I won't say that the fight content is poor - I actually really enjoyed the warehouse brawl-for-all near the end of the film - but there's nothing here to genuinely impress anyone who isn't a total newcomer to the kung fu genre.The movie's strong patriotic sentiment is inoffensive but more than a bit corny: more than once, the script has the cast chanting "Go China! Go China!" in unison. What impressed me more was the point it made concerning unity among differing martial arts schools, advising that wanton competition between them will lead to self-cycling hatred - something you clearly see in both kung fu films and the modern world. Cumulatively, this adds up to an acceptable movie that's nonetheless far from the grand standard the filmmakers probably imagined when they started this project. Check it out if the subject matter interests you, but otherwise find something else.

Robert Chan 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.

Chung Mo 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.

Harry T. Yung 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.