Arthouse heavyweight

A documentary on boxing in China has won global acclaim, but Yung Chang says his delicate character study of success and sacrifice has only an outside chance of becoming a box-office knockout at home. Mike Peters talks to the filmmaker.

Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Yung Chang says taking his boxing film to the theaters is a crapshoot. "The box-office draw of a documentary is unpredictable."

But Yung is eagerly rolling the dice with China Heavyweight, which opened on Dec 20 in more than 200 cinemas across the country. The film won best documentary at the 2012 Golden Horse Film Awards in Taiwan, best film at the recent Milano Film Festival and was nominated for a Sundance Grand Jury Prize last year.