Can China’s latest military blockbuster Operation Red Sea strike a chord with the West?
‘Operation Red Sea’ tones down the patriotism of last year’s smash hit film ‘Wolf Warrior 2’, playing up gore over glorifying war
Against the backdrop of a fictitious war-torn Arab country, an eight-strong Chinese navy special forces team rescues hostages from terrorists, evacuates civilians from spiralling violence and foils a plot to make dirty bombs from nuclear waste.
This is the story told by Operation Red Sea, the latest Chinese movie blockbuster, which was partly inspired by a Chinese military evacuation mission carried out in Yemen nearly three years ago.
Raking in US$495 million in box-office sales after its release on February 16, it is currently the fourth highest-grossing mainland Chinese film in history.
Beyond its box-office success in China, Operation Red Sea has also fared well abroad, with analysts suggesting it has toned down the bellicose patriotism normally featured in Chinese military action flicks in favour of a brutal depiction of the savagery of war.
[Operation Red Sea] is war propaganda that comes off as anti-war
This formula could be a step towards making Chinese action films more palatable overseas, they say, as the jingoistic message found in Wolf Warrior 2 – another military smash hit film that set a domestic ticket sales record in July last year – drove moviegoers overseas away.