I’m on a commercial deadhead out to Los Angeles and I’m looking for a movie to watch.
“Seen it. Seen it. Mrs. Kong wants to watch that one with me. Seen it. Seen it. Seen it.”
Then I saw “Operation Red Sea”, Chinese with English subtitles. I thought “what the heck?” I figure either it’s decent or it’s so bad that I can laugh at it.
I’ve watched a few Chinese movies before. Mostly epic historical dramas like The Great Wall. I thought it might be interesting to see what a Chinese war movie looks like.
The movie opens with a Chinese merchant ship being boarded by pirates off the coast of Somalia. You know they’re pirates because the leader has an eye patch. Yes, really.
The Chinese Navy moves in, stages a daring commando-style raid to retake the ship, and then chases down the pirate leader who’s escaping in a boat. All without violating Somali territorial waters. And that’s before the opening credits!
Fast forward to the main plot. A fictional Middle-Eastern country is fighting off an Islamist uprising. Chinese citizens are taken hostage. People’s Liberation Army Navy Marine Corps to the rescue!
(Seriously, that’s what they’re called)
I once joked about Chinese aircraft carriers having the People’s Liberation Army Navy Air Force but that’s actually the real name. You can’t make this stuff up.
This was apparently very loosely based on the real-life evacuation of Chinese nationals from Yemen in 2015.
They look good. I’ll give ‘em that much.
What follows is the most ill-conceived military operation since Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg. The rescue convoy is ambushed by militants and damn near wiped out. You would think that elite commandos would know enough to not stop in the middle of the road so that someone can rain mortar rounds down on them.
“Hey I know! Let’s park our vehicles close together so they can get a bunch of us with one shot!”
The eight survivors then somehow infiltrate a heavily fortified town guarded by 150 militants and pull off a daring rescue. You would think with 1.3 billion people they could have sent some reinforcements. Of course they’re discovered and have to shoot their way out. With plenty of gratuitous explosions.
You would think after this the four (count ‘em) survivors would get a week of shore leave. But no, they then have to go stop a sub-plot concerning stolen uranium to build a “dirty bomb”.
Sending four actually seems like overkill. By this point I’m convinced a single Chinese commando armed only with a toothpick from an MRE packet could have pulled it off.
She’s had enough of your shit! That knife is good for at least ten terrorists!
So how to describe this movie?
First off it’s gory. Really gory. Like, Saving Private Ryan gory and then some. They must have gone through fake blood by the truckload with this one. Limbs are blown off. People are impaled. Faces are shot half off. Hostages are beheaded (mercifully off camera). It’s not for the squeamish.
Meanwhile on the set of Operation Red Sea.
There is no sex. No nudity. Not even a romantic subplot. Nobody kisses. Nobody so much as holds hands. Horrific violence good, kissing bad. Got it.
There is no profanity. At least in the translation to English. This makes for some cheesy dialogue like “Give ‘em heck!” and “Darn those Chinese!” The terrorists are humorously referred to as “villains” in translation.
Kind of like a 1980’s action film except with 1950’s dialogue. Rambo Part Six, starring Wally and the Beav.
“Gosh Wally! We sure taught those bad guys a lesson didn’t we?”
The movie does have some cool military hardware plus the usual “that’s not how those work!” moments. We get to see the Chinese warship stop a missile attack with its close-in defenses and then fire back with its main gun.
Of course there’s a battle between the rescue team’s sniper and his terrorist counterpart.
There is some creative use of drones. They had a little drone about the size of a Frisbee that flies into the enemy position and explodes. I don’t know if those exist but it looks like it would be useful.
There was a rather unbelievable running tank battle between a commandeered T-80? tank and a couple of M-60’s doctored to look like something more modern. From what little I know of armor tactics, I don’t think it works like in the movie.
The tank battle was more like something out of a Fast-and-Furious movie.
I do know that surface to air missiles don’t fly past you, make a 180 degree turn and then hit your helicopter from the other direction.
I know a former USAF Blackhawk pilot. When asked what he’d do if someone shot a missile at him he said: “I’d land and run away! I’m in a f*cking helicopter!”
I’ve never seen a bomb with a blinking red light that told you when it was going to explode. And I’ve seen plenty of bombs in my time.
Even I’m smart enough to know not that you don’t fire an RPG (bazooka) from inside a room because the back-blast will kill anyone behind you.
The Chinese commandos mostly die heroically after taking out 10-20 militants apiece. Sometimes they mow down 5 or more bad-guys with a single burst. They may not be the smartest bunch but they’re certainly tough. It seems to take 3-4 bullets plus a couple grenades to stop one.
It’s mostly the usual mix of stock war movie characters. You’ve got the commander trying to shoulder the weight of responsibility. The cocky sniper. The unsure-of-himself soldier who finds his courage. The calm, dispassionate ship’s captain. The plucky female reporter. Most of them are straight out of central casting.
The exception being there’s no wet-behind-the-ears Lieutenant or tough, grizzled Sergeant. The leaders are portrayed as competent and the troops follow them willingly.
I don’t know enough about China to tell you if any of the characters were regional stereotypes like you see in an American war movie. Based on the dialogue, or lack thereof, I’d say there weren’t any.
They were pretty much all-business. Nobody talked about what they were going to do when they get home (always the first one to die). Nobody carried a picture of their sweetheart back home (usually the second one to die).
Being Chinese they follow orders and don’t question their superiors. The ship’s Captain strictly follows the rules of engagement as directed by his government.
They do look like soldiers. Young, fit, very short cropped hair. Their uniforms are, well, uniform. That makes it hard to tell the characters apart sometimes, but it’s also correct. A military is all about standardization. There is one female soldier who is indistinguishable from the men. I’ll give them credit for not trying to sexualize her.
Don’t mess with the People’s Liberation Army Navy Marine Corps!
Take a typical American war movie from the last 20 years, remove any romantic subplot, scrub the profanity, and you’d have this film. The special effects are good, but you’ve seen them all before. Hollywood was doing the slow-motion bullet thing at least 20 years ago.
The movie ends back in China with the dead being honored. In the final scene the Chinese Navy ominously warns ships from some unnamed (cough United States cough) country to “leave Chinese territorial waters immediately”.
Would I recommend it? Only if you like lots of blood or if you want to see what a PLAN recruiting film looks like.