Saturday, March 24, 2018

Operation Red Sea

A Chinese action, war film where the Chinese equivalent of US Navy SEALs are dispatched to a middle eastern country to rescue captured Chinese citizens during a political coup. My first thought while watching this film and immediately after is "Empire is Empire". It doesn't really matter that this film is from the Chinese point of view, or that the political system that undergirds the plot is different than the US system. The military story is one of patriotism, pride, projected power, and ethnocentrism. The number of deaths of "the enemy" and "non-Chinese allies" is dramatic. And the care given to these deaths is remarkable in its vacancy... exactly like the Hollywood equivalence. Seeing this film with the Chinese perspective was fascinating. Looking forward to the next Hollywood version, while remembering this, so see if I see differently.
3 stars (out of 5)

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