Operation Red Sea movie poster. Bona Film Group.
For my newest movie review, I'm going to cover Operation Red Sea, a Chinese action movie very loosely based on an actual event that occurred during the Yemeni civil war in 2015. During that conflict China evacuated hundreds of Chinese and foreign civilians as the country fell into chaos and fighting between the government and Houthi rebels.
It's a fairly decent action/war movie and I recommend it. It's not the best by any stretch but I was happy that I watched it, even if there was some inaccuracies and silliness. I was impressed by it's quality and I recommend it to anyone who likes action or war movies and can stand reading subtitles. It's also an important film for historical reasons because it tells us a ton about how China views their military and their role in the world.
Before I say anything else, though the film was based on a true event, it is obviously not an attempt to tell the real story that happened in 2015. The Chinese Navy was given a much larger role and was thrust into combat in the movie while none of that happened in real life. It was by all accounts a successful mission for the Chinese but as far as I am aware most of the major events in this film did not happen. It almost seems as if the film was more of a "what if?" scenario where things went wrong and the special forces had to be deployed.
The plot of the movie was fairly simple and I will warn that there are spoilers ahead. China's PLA Navy is patrolling for pirates and help save a Chinese cargo ship from Somali pirates. China's elite Jiaolong assault team responds to the pirates, killing all of them while losing their sniper to injury.
After that they are brought into the Yemeni conflict. Though the names of the major players have been changed, China evacuates their citizens in the middle of a conflict between the Yemeni government and the Houthi Rebels. An al-Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula or ISIS themed group called Zaka is also involved in the plot.
The Chinese manage to rescue their consulate personal and then attempt to save a large group of civilians and a French-Chinese reporter. They manage to evacuate the people but their convoy is ambushed by Zaka and most of the civilians die horribly. The Jiaolong group then attempts to rescue more civilians, including a Chinese national, and succeed, though taking heavy casualties. Finally, they have a final showdown with Zaka as they discover they are plotting dirty bomb attacks.
For what it is worth, the plot is fairly basic. It does get the relative factions right in Yemen and shows just how horrible that conflict has been. It also doesn't take much in the way of chances and there is no ambiguity over who the bad guys and good guys are. That's not surprising since the film is essentially a propaganda piece, but it's also probably the films weakest point.
The action is pretty good though. It's a bit over the top compared to US war films, which are more about gritty realism, but it's serviceable. There were a few parts that were kind of silly, including a scene where two cars are driving along while one flips on top of the other one, all while the passengers shoot at each other. I'd say if it had been a less serious film it would have been fine but it did bug me a bit.
Operation Red Sea was beautifully shot though. Morocco stands in for Yemen and they did an amazing job making the country look like a war zone. The action scenes are pretty good but the scenery and special effects were on par with a major Hollywood release. That's amazing since they only spent $70 million making the film. There are few scenes that had obvious special effects and in some cases I wasn't sure if what I was seeing was an effect at all. The movie had some very impressive visuals.
There were a few things that were kind of dumb though. Though the movie provides a handwave about it, it was very distracting to see Chinese troops using American and European weapons and vehicles. Though they did use accurate QBZ-95's and 97's in some scenes, it was hugely distracting to see Chinese troops using fully kitted out SCAR's and CZ-BREN's. Sure, the idea that the Chinese couldn't use their own weapons due to them being incompatible with local forces makes some sense, but it still felt weird. Plus, I get that the troops are special forces but they seemed to be way too familiar with foreign weapons and even steal a tank at one point, somehow knowing how to drive and shoot it.
Another thing that was strange was that one of the Jaiolong operators was a woman. Tong Li, a machine gunner was the only woman in the squad and it made me wonder if any Chinese women had actually made it to that high of a level in the Chinese special forces. I looked into it and did not find any good answers. About 7.5% of China's military is female and they do have women in combat roles, especially as fighter pilots, but I wasn't able to figure out if they serve in the infantry.
Regardless of how accurate it was, I did like that they made her actually look like a solider by shaving her head and making her look tough. In an American movie you know she would have long blond hair, would weigh 90 lbs and would have perfect hair and makeup despite being in a massive war zone. She still managed to beat a larger man in hand to hand combat, but to be fair she was getting her ass kicked before she turned it around. Much better than the whole "90 lbs woman somehow beats up 30 full size guys without even getting a scratch on her" thing that US movies are obsessed with..
I do have to say that I was very surprised at how bloody this movie was. Hundreds of people die and some of them do so in realistic horrible ways. People lose limbs, have their faces blown off and get blown to bits. That's fairly realistic but in all but rare to see in American movies that aren't either going for over the top gore or full realism (or both like the last Rambo movie.) If you are at all sensitive to such things, you might want to skip Operation Red Sea.
I was also surprised that China was willing to show their troops get wounded and killed. Two of the main characters die and three more are severely wounded, including the sniper in the beginning. I think even some Chinese civilians and military police die as well, which is surprising. The film doesn't shy away from the horrors of combat and shows that even the "good guys" can get hurt and killed. And one of the soldiers, the spotter for the sniper team, has some pretty obvious signs of PTSD.
In that way, the film is similar to the US Navy's own propaganda film, Act of Valor. Indeed, you could very easily compare the two films. Both of them are recruitment films for the special operations forces for their respective countries. Both of them are better than they had any right to be. Both of them are excellent action films. And both of them are totally propaganda.
So how effective was the film on the propaganda front? It certainly made the PLA Navy look competent and high tech. Indeed, I doubt that the Chinese Navy could pull off everything they could do in this film. They did act honorable and were trying to help people which paints them in a good light and would entice recruits with promises of action, while at the same time reminding them that they could get blown up or killed.
I do have to say that the last part of the film was more than a little jarring. After the funeral services for the dead Jaiolong members, the setting switches to the South China Sea, where a Chinese fleet is telling an American one to back off. It has nothing to do with the rest of the movie but is a middle finger to the US Navy and is followed by more real life pictures of the Chinese Navy in action.
The entire movie seems to be a message, not only to the Chinese people, but to the whole world. China is strong. China has a competent military. China is willing to take casualties to get what they want. And China isn't going to leave the world stage anytime soon. It's a strong message and one that is more than a little concerning. They won't let terrorists or America get in their way...
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