We are Champions
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Film description
A sports film doesn't have to rediscover the genre to be thrilling and exciting. Using familiar motifs and schemes can be an advantage, if the elements of the plot are arranged in the right way and the production value is on spot. This is the case of "We Are Champions," which is considered to be one of the best basketball films in the history of cinema.
Chang Jung-Chi's film is a gripping, perfectly composed story of two brothers for whom basketball becomes the meaning of life and a way to escape their miserable condition. Both start out together with a street basket. Then, one of them is admitted into an elite school and quickly turns into a star, while the other, due to his hearing difficulties, gets into a team that is about to be dissolved. The High-School Basketball League (HBL), which is extremely popular in Taiwan, is a background for an exciting tale about solidarity in sports and emotional challenges faced by the players.
The director is recreating the reality of the game in meticulous detail, having spent years interviewing basketball players and encouraging the actors to spend months in training before shooting. The final outcome is more than perfect.
text:
Marcin Krasnowolski
Chang Jung-chi
Born in Taipei in 1980. He started his career as a documentary filmmaker. In 2006, he received the Golden Horse Award for Best Documentary for "My Football Summer." His feature debut "Touch of the Light," a story of a blind pianist, was produced by Wong Kar Wai and brought Chang another Golden Horse Award. With his later films, the director confirmed that he is a filmmaker who feels comfortable within different conventions and can saturate his stories with both humanism and visual energy.
2006 Qi ji de xia tian / My Football Summer (film dokumentalny)
2011 Wu yue tian zhui meng 3DNA / Mayday 3DNA (film dokumentalny)
2012 Dotyk światła / Ni guang fei xiang / Touch of the Light
2014 Gong fan / Partners in Crime
2017 Xia tian 19 sui de Xiao xiang / Edge of Innocence
2019 Jesteśmy mistrzami / Xia ban chang / We Are Champions