Dragon Girls: Martial Arts School Documenta

[marvin8]

Directed by Inigo Westmeier
Genre documentary
Year 2013
Country Germany
Language Mandarin

That’s business as usual at the Shaolin Tagou school in Henan province, China, an internationally acclaimed institution that’s a proving ground for wannabe martial artists. Having given us a vivid sense of the school’s scale and daily operations, German director Inigo Westmeier wisely zooms in on three female students, each of whom is struggling to stay on the warrior’s path.

MULTIMEDIA
Dragon Girls:
Based on the evidence here, the physical rigours of such a bone-crunching education are actually secondary to the emotional toll of homesickness and self-doubt.

In terms of its style and structure, Dragon Girls is completely conventional, but its stubborn, earnestly striving subjects and the sprawling grounds of the school itself have definite star qualities.

Storyline
The documentary "Drachenmädchen" (Dragon Girls) tells the story of three Chinese girls, training to become Kung Fu fighters, far away from their families at the Shaolin Tagou Kung Fu School, located right next to the Shaolin Monastery in China, place of origin of Kung Fu. Three girls in a crowd of 27.000 children, under pressure to conform to the norms and structures: They are turned into fighting robots and yet, if you look behind the curtain, you see children with dreams and aspirations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nAuZC-aVpQ