Yang Shengnan and Ye Jin are like family. They live together, train together, and feel pain together.

Boxing has made them inseparable, but it also threatens to tear them apart. Yang, who hails from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in northern China, has travelled to coastal Zhejiang province to train with the city of Ningbo’s female boxing team. Yang, 21, admires her 20-year-old friend Ye, the best athlete in the team. Yang wants her to succeed, but will their friendship survive as their lives go in different directions?

“Boxing Shadows” is a documentary about dreaming big, feeling small, and testing your limits.

Editor: Julia Hollingsworth.

(Header image: Yang Shengnan and Ye Jin train in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, Oct. 19, 2018. Wu Yue/Sixth Tone)