Summary
If you thought that the West had ridiculously explosive action films locked away under a registered trademark, Dante Lam asks them to hold his Tsingtao.
Dante Lam’s latest action film does for the Chinese navy what Sky Hunter did for the air force. It just does it better. The second highest grossing film ever in China, following the similarly militaristic Wolf Warrior 2, it’s arguably the most explodey film of recent memory as well.
Crafted as a “gift” to audiences for the 90th Anniversary of the Founding of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Lam wastes no time in establishing the kick-assery of the Chinese Navy. Introducing their 8-person Jiaolong Assault Team during a high-seas battle with some Somali pirates, we’re treated to the knowledge that they are awesome at slow-mo bullet attacks while still being respectful to international borders. Perhaps OPERATION RED SEA (红海行动) is positing the notion that Captain Phillips would have been a very different film if this crack squad had be on the scene.
Based loosely on the evacuation of 225 foreign nationals and almost 600 Chinese citizens during the 2015 Yemeni Civil War, the film kicks its high gears into the stratosphere when the 8-man team, led by Yang Rui (Zhang Yi), is called into the fictional nation of Yewaire to help evacuate the unstable region. At the same time, French-Chinese journalist Xia Nan (Hai Qing) is informed that terrorist group Zaka is set to disrupt the operation, and plans to weaponise yellowcake materials into a dirty bomb. Mmm…yellow cake.
In the 20 years since Lam’s Beast Cops, films like the award-winning Beast Stalker and The Viral Factor have continued to show that he knows his way around an action film. With OPERATION RED SEA, director Lam doesn’t pull any of his punches. From an early stage, a firefight in an enclosed cross-street is a masterclass in large-scale action, with Yuen Man Fung and Wing-Hang Wong’s cinematography giving us regular bird’s-eye views of the explosive orchestra. Similarly, there are desert convoy and wingsuit scenes that are elegantly shot, contrasted with CG bullets and shells that often look like they are ripping through the fabric of space-time.
Nobody could accuse this film of subtlety, with the melodrama hanging in the air as thick as the clouds of smoke from the last detonation. This is, after all a film where Lam garnered support from the Chinese Navy. It’s also a frequently brutal film, with dangling limbs, flying fingers, and bloody stumps par for the course in scene after scene. Yet it’s also the kind of movie where you think you’ve seen it all, and then Feng Ji’s script throws a sandstorm at the heroes for good measure.
Sure, it’s a jingoistic, flag-waving bit of oorah. In fact, the film literally comes to a climax on a slow-motion shot of the Chinese flag. There are times when it’s difficult to know what’s going on in the moment, which strangely works in a fog of war kind of way. Even so, it is relentless in its bloody, shooty, and blowy-uppy action, and constantly punctuated by Elliot Leung’s staccato soundtrack. So as far as birthday gifts go, it’s one worth taking out of the box and playing with for a while.
2018 | China | DIRECTOR: Dante Lam | WRITERS: Feng Ji | CAST: Zhang Yi, Huang Jingyu, Hai Qing, Du Jiang, Zhang Hanyu, Prince Mak | DISTRIBUTOR: Magnum Films/ChopFlix (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 139 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 22 February 2018 (AUS)
