A Canadian filmmaker gets a kick out of a Burmese sport where every player wins

A Burmese academic once observed: ‘‘No wonder our political culture is very antagonistic.  Look at the games we have in Burma, like kite fighting. Almost all games are designed to crush your opponent.’’

His hypothesis overlooks Burma’s national game chinlone, which is the subject of the award-winning documentary “Mystic Ball.” Its Canadian director Greg Hamilton says: ‘‘The most amazing thing about chinlone is that it is not competitive.  There is no opposing team, no scoring, no winners or losers.’’

Playing chinlone—also known outside Burma as sepak takraw or simply caneball—entails keeping a rattan ball in the air by footwork alone; no hands are allowed.  It is performed solo by chinlone experts, who are usually women, or is played by a team of two to six players who stand in a circle three or four feet apart. 

Chinlone is both a team and solo competitive sport. (Photo: www.mysticball-themovie.com)

Team chinlone is a very democratic game.  Players have to take turns at performing solo, showing off their best strokes. The solo player, called “prince” or “princess,” is cheered on by the others.

A chance meeting between Hamilton and a Burmese chinlone player in a Toronto park in 1981 led him to his love affair with the ball.  He practiced chinlone in a haphazard way for several years, and by 1997 had gained enough ball control to take courses with a chinlone coach in Burma. 

He learnt that there are more than 200 “moves” to master in chinlone. Weik Zar Than, a senior player in his 70s who died a year before the film’s 2007 premiere, stressed the importance of aesthetics in chinlone—‘‘a stroke is beautiful only when it is executed in chinlone style wherein your head, legs and hands have to be in the proper places.’’

Similar rattan ball games exist, or have existed, under different names in most other Southeast Asian countries. Nonetheless, it is in Burma, a country relatively untouched by globalization, where chinlone is found in its most exotic and traditional form—a gentle, cooperative game of complex footwork enjoyed by young and old, male and female.

The origins of chinlone are a subject of dispute even among the Burmese.  Some believe the game is at least 1,500 years old, going back to the courts of the ancient Pyu in the seventh century AD. Others argue that it first appeared in the reign of King Pagan as late as the 19th century, when it was played for royal audiences by attendants who tucked up their longyis to display the elegant legwork of the game. 

The game soon became popular among commoners, who would play it in the cool of the evenings or in the shade of the trees.

The only parallel to chinlone in the Western world of competitive sports is perhaps figure skating. They both demand great agility, balance, skill and chemistry between the players. Both are performed to music and qualify as artistic expressions in their own right. Chinlone is accompanied by intense Burmese music, played live next to the performers—Hamilton says the musicians “accent the play.”

As with many other elements of Burmese culture, chinlone was fervently promoted as a symbol of nationalism in colonial Burma (1885-1948). In 1918, the first chinlone referee training courses were organized, as chinlone clubs sprang up all over Burma. 

Chinlone became the country’s national game in independent Burma. In the 1950s and early 1960s, the Burma Amateur Chinlone Association promoted chinlone in Europe and at home. 

Those who argue that the film ignores the political aspect of Burma should be reminded that “Mystic Ball” is subtly urging the world, not just the Burmese people, to embrace the chinlone spirit of cooperation, reciprocity and democracy.

Hamilton’s documentary is not just about chinlone.  It is about the soul-searching journey of a marginalized Western boy. His physical quest to master the art of chinlone became more and more spiritual at each stage of his 20-year journey, which included eight years of moviemaking. 

The film’s Burmese characters, all chinlone masters and players, surround and encourage their enthusiastic foreign student. The picturesque scenes shot at Mahamuni Waso festivals in Mandalay, where Burma’s biggest annual chinlone exhibitions take place, will bring tears to the eyes of any Burmese viewers who live abroad.

The film’s glimpse into the life of young chinlone virtuoso Su Su Hlaing, who supports her family with the money she earns from performing an amazing solo act, illustrates the strength of Burmese women.

Mister Greg, as he is now known in Burmese chinlone circles, is also an accomplished flutist. His arrangement of the film’s background music is a brilliant patchwork of mild and mellow pop tunes and sometimes exciting, sometimes melancholic Burmese melodies. The film’s excellent editing and cinematography need no further praise. The many awards it has won at international film festivals are well deserved.

Hamilton ends his film by saying he has a ‘‘dream of taking the players on tour and spreading chinlone around the world.’’  With “Mystic Ball,” he has achieved what most moviemakers aim to produce—a spiritually and visually inspiring film. What’s more, he has done a great service for Burmese culture.

Ko Ko Thett is a Burmese researcher who studies world politics at the University of Helsinki.