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.
