Sport as a metaphor for just about any social (Chariots of Fire), political (Miracle) or economic (Moneyball) issue, particularly in the movies, is as old a convention as they come. Granted, it's a good one, and that's one of the reasons it's so prominent. But not all themes enveloped in athletics are created equal. Just look at local filmmaker Chan Chi-fat's low-key Weeds on Fire, an old-fashioned "Can you believe it?" slice of Hong Kong sport history, and the gaudy, hyper-stylized machinations of Timur Bekmambetov's (Wanted, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) remake of the classic Ben-Hur.

In Weeds on Fire, Liu Kai-chi (is he ever not awesome?) plays Lo, a middle school principal who convinces his Sha Tin school board to start a baseball program. As it's the early 1980s and Hong Kong, never mind Sha Tin, wasn't the city it is now, the idea seems preposterous. How baseball could possibly benefit Lo's mid-tier, dead-end students is beyond anyone. Nonetheless, led by pitcher Fan Chun-wai (Wu Tsz-tung) and his troubled childhood pal Tse Chi-lung (Lam Yiu-sing) as his catcher, the underdog Sha Tin Martins (it's always an underdog) become the city's first youth league baseball team - and one to defeat regional powerhouse Japan for a little league tournament championship.

The story of Judah Ben-Hur is set in CE25. For those unfamiliar with Charlton Heston's second most iconic role (after Moses) and the original hambone extravaganza (actually the second, if you count a 1925 silent film), Ben-Hur follows a prominent Jewish family's eldest son (Jack Huston, Boardwalk Empire) as his bond with adopted Roman brother Messala (Toby Kebbell, Warcraft) is strained even as Jesus of Nazareth's (Rodrigo Santoro, a Brazilian this time) prophetic star is rising in Judea. After his betrayal, banishment and miraculous survival, Judah returns to Jerusalem with help from a nomadic chariot racing profiteer (Morgan Freeman, cashing a cheque), defeats Messala at the games and meets Jesus.

Chan's Weeds on Fire accomplishes its heartstring-tugging goals and fulfils its metaphoric mandate on a fraction (one-quarter percent) of Bekmambetov's $100 million Ben-Hur budget, which recalibrates William Wyler's 1959 Oscar-winner's central event - the chariot race - for a new message and for a new generation. This was unnecessary. Yet another summer sword-and-sandal blockbuster no one asked for, Ben-Hur strains for currency in a new era by laying on the messaging thick (complete with a ridiculous epilogue) and punching up the ideas with obvious CGI. Aside from some competent action - the sea battle is actually more affecting than the over-edited chariot race that is far from the ideological and intensely personal throwdown it was in the original - and some beautiful horses, there's nothing to draw audiences in that wasn't done better in cheesy '59. Huston and Kebbell are both better actors than this, and it's a shame they don't get anything in the way of character to work with.

First-timer Chan does better with his scrappy ball team that learns to come together and rise above their modest stations to actually achieve something. There's nothing new here; the film relies heavily on convention for its shameless emotional pandering. There are plenty of clichs and missteps to complain about (a teen pregnancy, resorting to Triad life, a protracted final pitch), but Chan is so heartfelt in his filmmaking it feels like nitpicking to have to do so. There is a nice sense of time and place in Weeds, and Lam and Wu are convincing as young men coming into their own in a volatile but fundamentally sound friendship. It all works for the most part, largely because the little known bit of sporting lore deserves wider recognition at a time when Hong Kong could use a boost in its collective ego.

(China Daily 08/19/2016 page1)