3/5 stars
After earning critical acclaim for his past two Chinese productions, (2013) and (2014), Hong Kong director Peter Chan Ho-sun dives into China’s lucrative game of patriotic filmmaking with his first feature in six years.
Released a week before China’s National Day holiday, Leap is a decades-spanning look at the accomplishments of the China women’s volleyball team, with Gong Li playing legendary coach Lang Ping. At first glance, it appears to provide a welcome change from films such as , and that use military spectacle to channel national pride.
On closer examination, it’s clear Chan has found it difficult to reconcile delivering a nationalistic blockbuster with crafting a nuanced character portrait around Lang’s complicated legacy.
The film begins in 1979 – a time of historic change when the Chinese people yearned for the outside world to see them, according to text that scrolls across the screen. Chen Zhonghe (played as a young man by Peng Yuchang) joins the team as a trainer and meets the hard-working player Lang (played by Bai Lang, daughter of Lang Ping). The team’s training regime soon brings China the first of several world championship titles, and the two become lifelong allies.
Alternately thrilling and wistful, Leap offers a precise re-enactment of the Chinese team’s exploits on the court, and an intimate portrait of Lang as she becomes a key player for the title-winning team in the 1980s, spends a decade coaching outside China in the 2000s, then returns to lead a subpar Chinese team to glory at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
What it lacks, understandably, is an element of surprise. A more ambitious film would surely have delved into the inner conflicts of Lang (played by Gong Li in later life), a certified national hero, as she coaches arch rival the United States to a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics; China, then coached by Chen (played as an older man by Huang Bo), come third.
Instead, Leap treats the episode as a mere hiccup before Lang and the Chinese team start working together from the mid-2010s onwards.
While Chan’s technical feat of recreating the 2016 Rio final with real team members, playing themselves, is admirable, his documentary-like treatment of extended segments of the film makes it a stop-start affair, and with a running time of 135 minutes, Leap is bloated.
A must-see for audiences who long to relive the success of the Chinese women’s volleyball team over the decades, Leap will feel like a missed opportunity to those looking for a portrait of Lang that has some intrigue.
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