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Post by ace35 on Oct 4, 2020 19:18:42 GMT -5
I assume China also has a men's vball team, but I think Japan is the only Asian country that does much of anything on the men's side? As far as world popular team sports, it's pretty much soccer and basketball? Tackling sports I feel are more regional with Europe and the South Pacific dominating rugby and little to no interest in the Americas. While American football is obviously just popular in North America. Baseball isn't even in the Olympics anymore. Hockey maybe slightly more popular than baseball, as far as the world goes. Cricket, mainly South Asian. Handball mainly (north?) European? As far as men's sports and in terms of viewership/fanbase, yeah, soccer and basketball are the 2 biggest sports worldwide (with soccer being clear #1). However, I read somewhere that as far as the number of professional athletes playing it, volleyball is the #1 sport in the world. I don't know know how accurate that is, though. As for women, the clear top 2 are volleyball and tennis, in that order (although there's more money in tennis than in volleyball and attracts more mainstream media attention, the latter is still more popular worldwide and it absolutely dwarfs all other female sports in the number of athletes playing it).
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Post by BeiBei on Oct 4, 2020 22:31:29 GMT -5
I just watch the movie and it is good
Lydia Bai did a great job playing young Lang Ping
I was curious how come the coaches (Yuan weiming) and players in the 80s( Sun Jinfang, Zhang rongfang etc)were not named and found out later it was becos Chen Zhonghe kicked up a big fuss about the way he was portrayed in movie and make a complaint.
I knew Sara Sage is making an appearance and wondering when i will find her and it was actually at the very beginning of the movie. I was suprised to see Madi Bugg and Victoria Garrick too. Obviously they played the roles of team USA players at the 2008 olympics, the person who played Haneef Park is way too short haha.
Nice to see Tom playing herself
I did not know lang Ping dismissed two important players and I suspected one of them is Wang Yi MEI
Zeng Chunlei was not selected because she was too well scouted by the opponents. She was in her best form and that was very heartbreaking for her
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Post by StanfordFan on Oct 5, 2020 1:26:19 GMT -5
I watched the movie yesterday in the theater. I enjoyed it as well. A little schmaltzy. A little nationalistic. The movie was built a lot around the relationship between Lang Ping and Chen Zhonghe (how he was brought in as a young guy to act as a hitting partner, and ultimately became head coach of the women's team). Almost all of the China NT was in the movie. Logan Tom, as mentioned, and some of the Brazilians. I didn't notice the other NCAA players, but to be honest, I know most of them by name, and not by appearance. I was surprised they had a scene on Zeng Chunlei's dismissal from the Rio team. Also surprised they allowed scenes with Lang Ping challenging the sports bureaucrats on the training system. I cried several times, especially the scene of the old team with their families on Chinese New Year. Those teams really did sacrifice their entire lives for the sport.
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Post by ironhammer on Oct 5, 2020 9:14:37 GMT -5
I watched the movie yesterday in the theater. I enjoyed it as well. A little schmaltzy. A little nationalistic. The movie was built a lot around the relationship between Lang Ping and Chen Zhonghe (how he was brought in as a young guy to act as a hitting partner, and ultimately became head coach of the women's team). Almost all of the China NT was in the movie. Logan Tom, as mentioned, and some of the Brazilians. I didn't notice the other NCAA players, but to be honest, I know most of them by name, and not by appearance. I was surprised they had a scene on Zeng Chunlei's dismissal from the Rio team. Also surprised they allowed scenes with Lang Ping challenging the sports bureaucrats on the training system. I cried several times, especially the scene of the old team with their families on Chinese New Year. Those teams really did sacrifice their entire lives for the sport. That is interesting. I would imagine China would have to portray its state apparatus only in the most positive light. So to allow criticism against some organ of the state bureaucracy is interesting indeed. As for being nationalistic, that is another concern of mine. I don't like propagandistic films, where they extoll the unquestioning obedience to the glory of the national leader (or something like that). I have seen my share of Chinese propaganda films. Lines like "Glory to Chairman Mao" I really can't stand. So just how nationalistic was it?
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Post by ironhammer on Oct 5, 2020 9:18:41 GMT -5
I just watch the movie and it is good Lydia Bai did a great job playing young Lang Ping I was curious how come the coaches (Yuan weiming) and players in the 80s( Sun Jinfang, Zhang rongfang etc)were not named and found out later it was becos Chen Zhonghe kicked up a big fuss about the way he was portrayed in movie and make a complaint. I knew Sara Sage is making an appearance and wondering when i will find her and it was actually at the very beginning of the movie. I was suprised to see Madi Bugg and Victoria Garrick too. Obviously they played the roles of team USA players at the 2008 olympics, the person who played Haneef Park is way too short haha. Nice to see Tom playing herself I did not know lang Ping dismissed two important players and I suspected one of them is Wang Yi MEIZeng Chunlei was not selected because she was too well scouted by the opponents. She was in her best form and that was very heartbreaking for her You don't have to suspect, it was pretty clear Wang was shown the door by Lang Ping. She kept Wang Yimei for a while in 2013, but with the emergence of Zhu Ting as a promising new player, Wang was disposable, to put it bluntly. That sounds harsh, but in truth, despite her amazing spikes, Wang never managed to up her defensive game as her reception was often lousy. Lang Ping could not allow that, as she stressed her players need to have all-round skills.
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Post by 1stTouch on Oct 8, 2020 11:40:32 GMT -5
Does anyone know if this movie can be streamed online (paid of course)? Don't quite feel safe to go into a theater (they just opened up near us) but really want to watch the movie.
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Post by c4ndlelight on Oct 8, 2020 11:44:21 GMT -5
The men's field is way more competitive. There are just way more teams that could legitimately make a run or win on any given day. It makes what the USA Men's team has done much more impressive. But that does not entirely explain the unique success of Chinese women volleyball vs other women teams from other countries. They have a billion people to go along with historical success that has given a longstanding commitment to and investment into the sport?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2020 11:56:40 GMT -5
But that does not entirely explain the unique success of Chinese women volleyball vs other women teams from other countries. They have a billion people to go along with historical success that has given a longstanding commitment to and investment into the sport? It would be interesting to see the numbers, perhaps limited to say the last 5-10 years.
- # of youth (18 and under) girls participants nationwide, in volleyball, soccer, bball, and whatever other sports they push - $$ spend to fund the sport nationally
Would guess at least the women's soccer and bball numbers, both money and participation, have been similar in the last 5-10 years.
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Post by finalthoughts on Oct 8, 2020 13:05:09 GMT -5
Does anyone know if this movie can be streamed online (paid of course)? Don't quite feel safe to go into a theater (they just opened up near us) but really want to watch the movie. I have found it online, though not through a paid method so will not post further details.
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Post by ironhammer on Oct 8, 2020 20:21:57 GMT -5
But that does not entirely explain the unique success of Chinese women volleyball vs other women teams from other countries. They have a billion people to go along with historical success that has given a longstanding commitment to and investment into the sport? Yes, population number is a factor but not a big one I think. Soccer is the most popular team sport in China and the government and private companies have invested substantial sums into the sport in hopes of raising the competitiveness of their national teams. Yet despite all the people playing soccer and the money being poured in, the Chinese team still stinks and is regarded as a national disgrace. And if we look at just numbers, India also has a billion people, yet except for cricket (which they excel in), their performance in other team sports is pretty lousy overall.
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Post by ironhammer on Oct 21, 2020 10:01:09 GMT -5
Music video not so important in the end, of course the movie quality itself is important. Does it work to entertain the audience and more importantly in this case, can it get across a cultural divide so that non-Chinese audience can also appreciate it. That is possible in this case, since volleyball is a shared sport not defined by one particular language or culture. Depending on any last minute edits (not uncanny valley Sonic the Hedgehog level, but stuff happens) there could be different tones at every arc. The newest trailer seems more serious/epic/action oriented. The one with Zhehong was more lighthearted/comedic. The later years seem more like a biopic/drama. Maybe it all meshes. Hopefully these tones don't try to do "too much". Finally saw the movie the other night. Overall, despite some mixed feelings for certain parts of the movie, I'll say it's worth watching and in fact a bit above my expectations, although by no means perfect. The movie is divided in three parts, late 70's era to early 80's era, the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the the lead up to the Rio Olympics and the actual Rio match. Like what Stanfordfan said, the story focuses on Lang Ping and her friendship with Chen Zhonghe, the former China NT coach which led China to gold at Athens in 2004. That friendship is very real, but the story is fictionalized of course, tracing from when they met to all the way to Rio, and it is this interaction between the two that holds the movie together. The first half of the movie takes place back in the late 70's to early 80's when Lang and Chen first met. I was a bit leery about this part at first, as it started off with a rather propagandistic tone which I'm not comfortable with. It does get better along the way as it vividly portrays the hardship and brutal training of that era. As Beibei said, its a shame they didn't name the players and coach, but coach Wei's face you will remember as the actor portraying him does a good job to project a demanding and stern yet ultimately caring persona. If it was just this part alone though I would hesitate to recommend the movie, as some of it is a bit cliche in terms of storyline (I won't say what it is, I won't spoil for you). Still, it did got over that initial nationalistic zeal which I don't particular like and more importantly, instead of shouting mindless slogans, the movie actually shows you very well the realistic experience of the players and their sacrifice. I was also pleased that they mentioned some real American volleyball coach and players name (the screenwriter did his homework) and there was even someone portraying a renowned 80s American volleyball player. I won't tell you who she is, you will have to watch the movie. The second half focuses on Lang's tenure coaching the NT leading up to and during Rio, this was very surprising to me, in some way a sort of implict repudiation to the first half in theme. Whereas the first half was all about the usual collective sacrifice for the greater good, the second half is about finding your own voice, a very individualistic, almost American tone, I was surprised that the Chinese censors would allow such "US values". It shows Lang Ping butting heads with a stoogy bureaucracy and demanding wholesale change to the national program. It also, very amusingly, reveal the unique character trait of the players (who for the most part are playing themselves). Director Peter Chan studied at UCLA and his American experience no doubt influenced him to adopt this duality in theme in the movie. I thought that was interesting. One drawback though is that the movie just jumped from 1981 to 2008, that 27 years in between was barely mentioned. I would prefer some scenes about Lang going to America and adapting to life there, but that's not a deal breaker in the whole scheme of things. Lydia Bai did a pretty good job for someone with almost no acting experience. You can see she was trying very hard to portray her mom with passion and grit. The Chinese players do some passable acting. Not necessarily great, but at least much better than the NBA players in Space Jam. It helps that they are mostly playing themselves, so at most they might exaggerate their real life personality on screen. And I was very pleased to see some familiar American faces on court with Logan Tom being one of them. As for the volleyball scenes, its probably the most authentic volleyball scenes found in any movie I have seen. Granted, that's not saying much since there aren't that many volleyball movies out there, but for what its worth I liked the volleyball scenes. The way they serve, spike, receive and block is pretty legit. With other movies you could tell the actors really isn't cutting it with their "pretend athletic" action, but here that's not the case. Of course, it sure helps that it is done by real volleyball players. The way the director portrayed the matches is also very thrilling and heart pounding which I appreciate a lot. So all-in-all, parts of the movie is a bit iffy and I have mixed feelings about it, but overall it is worth watching especially for the volleyball scenes and that interesting contrast in theme between the first and second half of the movie.
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Post by ironhammer on Oct 22, 2020 9:25:54 GMT -5
Music video not so important in the end, of course the movie quality itself is important. Does it work to entertain the audience and more importantly in this case, can it get across a cultural divide so that non-Chinese audience can also appreciate it. That is possible in this case, since volleyball is a shared sport not defined by one particular language or culture. Depending on any last minute edits (not uncanny valley Sonic the Hedgehog level, but stuff happens) there could be different tones at every arc. The newest trailer seems more serious/epic/action oriented. The one with Zhehong was more lighthearted/comedic. The later years seem more like a biopic/drama. Maybe it all meshes. Hopefully these tones don't try to do "too much". I just found a "behind-the-scenes" look into the movie with an interview with none other than Logan Tom herself! Tom's part starts at the 1:37 mark. They also interviewed Brazilian Ex-NT players like Jaqueline Carvalho, Marianne Steinbrecher and others who were in the film (starting at the 2:14 mark):
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Post by Reach on Oct 22, 2020 10:38:34 GMT -5
I wanna watch this movie... Message me if you know how!
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Post by ironhammer on Nov 1, 2020 11:10:24 GMT -5
I wanna watch this movie... Message me if you know how! The US movie listing are a few pages back. See if you live anywhere near one of them. I also found a review for Leap and its a positive one: malaysia.news.yahoo.com/leap-review-three-phases-of-the-film-beautifully-weaved-together-092737326.htmlBy: Lim Yian Lu
Length: 135 minutes
Director: Peter Chan
Cast: Gong Li, Huang Bo, Wu Gang, Peng Yuchang, Bai Lang
3.5 out of 5 stars
Leap is a biographical sports drama about the China women’s national volleyball team, with a focus on volleyball player-turned-coach Lang Ping, portrayed by Gong Li. The movie highlights three phases: in the 1980s when teenage Lang Ping, starring Lang Ping’s actual daughter Bai Lang, and her volleyball teammates train vigorously despite the lack of technology; in 2008 during the Beijing Olympics volleyball game, where the US team led by Lang Ping is pitted against the Chinese team led by Lang Ping’s former hitting partner and longtime friend, portrayed by Huang Bo; and finally in 2013 to 2016 when Lang Ping returns from the States to serve as the head coach for China women’s national volleyball team.
Despite Leap being a biographical movie, its drama element has lent a hand to keep the story engaging. Running at 135 minutes may feel long, but each segment has its own intricacies which are indispensable. In the 1980s story, we see the performance of Bai Lang, who is also a member of a volleyball team in the US, in executing the stories of her biological mother’s youth. Acting alongside her as the hitting partner is budding new actor Peng Yuchang, who is known for his lead role in the Chinese version of The Prince Of Tennis (2019).
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Post by des on Nov 28, 2020 1:05:12 GMT -5
So is this actually good?
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