Hong hai xing dong (2018) Reviews

• Dismantling Propaganda Dogma, It Shows Evolution of Socialist Realism in Chinese Film

  hilaryswank20112018-03-17

  Hong Kong director Dante Lam and his Hong Kong staffs with Mainland Chinese filmmakers perfectly collaborated in this blockbuster war action film. It highly exceeds War Wolf series (2015-17) that the top Asian box office hit film franchise in film history. China is the most successful socialist country and its film policy is socialist realism. The origin of this tradition was Chapayev (1937) and Alexander Nevsky (1939). You can see old fashioned propaganda films are bureaucratically failed in dogmatism and mixed with art film style in the past. They just hated Hollywood genre films in terms of propaganda war. What they forgot in the past was what Lenin and Eisenstein said for filmmaking. Eisenstein said: 'Applying all valuable achievements in the art practices in the past no matter whether it's feudalistic or capitalistic. Moreover, there is no so called 'socialist culture'. There will be only humanistic culture within classless society.' This is the true NEP in filmmaking. That is the true 'socialist realism' if use this term not in stalinist meaning. The contemporary Chinese filmmakers consciously learned both Hollywood and Hong Kong genre filmmaking that the most people enjoy in the modern society. That does not mean abandon of socialism but it is the necessary evolution of technology and learning the most advanced stage of development of capitalist cultural devices are necessary for socialist filmmaking. The Operation Red Sea is based on The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA)'s anti-pirates and anti-terrorist operations in Africa and Middle East regions. This topic itself is a realist approach to the politically important and meaningful incidents that are really photogenic. There are several features I found in this viewing of this film below: 1. Editing is more sophisticated than War Wolf (2015-17) in terms of multi-camera genre film operation. It follows axis. 2. Consciously exploring expressions in angles, moments and spaces with VFX. We can see unusual deep expressions in dismantling bombs and shot bullet action lines in slow motioned CG. 3. Sand Storm sequence is obviously exceeding others that acting in sand storm was actually not done by others ever before. Sand storm in war film was something just should be avoided. On the other hand, this film fully shows dramatical use of inner sand storm environment. 4.Cinematography is perfect for avoiding TV like visual expression like War Wolf. However, it is weak in the interior of battleship sequences' filming. The lighting is TV studio-like result contrary to the sun lighted exterior scenes in this film. 5.Simon Yam is the only one speaks Cantonese with Putonghua speakers that is pretty weird. Should unify the language or Cantonese conversation is more natural. This unnaturally constructed scene is something from Hong Kong director's psychology. 6. War realism is realist expression of wounds, mutation and dead. Lucio Fulci-like realist approach to ugliness of real wounds, dead and mutation among roles are really effective and new. In conclusion, this is the perfect example of the cutting edge technology of Chinese filmmaking in 2018. And socialist realism is evaluated under the Chinese government leadership. It resolved anti-genre film dogmatism that cursed by old fashioned stalinist thought. I mostly appreciate this Hong Kong and Mainland China film collaboration that solves difficulties of Hong Kong film industry. The Operation Red Sea is the one which has the high quality of Hollywood filmmaking standard and competitive with Hollywood films in terms of localization.

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• Political Propaganda? You guys watch Hollywood war movies as well right...?

  dmv_gary2018-12-08

  It recently came to Netflix, so I figure more US audience would be watching the movie, then I see so many reviews saying it's bad because it's propaganda. Thanks for showing how double standard works guys. It's not the best movie, but it's fun, thrilling to watch, based on real event and reasonablly realistic, so I give it an 8. On the other hand, If it is pure propaganda, I'm glad to know that when things go down, Chinese government get stuff done, fast.

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• Incredibly amazing action sequences

  TheBigSick2018-02-17

  Actually, most of the film is just above average, and the score would be like 7/10. However, the action sequences between Minute 100 and Minute 120 are incredibly brutal, realistic, bloody, traumatizing and unbearable, and are among the finest action scenes I've ever seen. Thus, I would give the film a 8.5/10 overall rating. Similar to the Chris Nolan's "Dunkirk" and the action flick "Operation Mekong" in 2016, also directed by Dante Lam, this film "Operation Red Sea" sacrifices plot and character development for action, and fortunately it works. The cinematography, film editing, sound editing, sound mixing, visual effects, action choreography, original score and production design are just speechless. The film borrows ideas from several Hollywood blockbusters, such as the moral debate in "Saving Private Ryan", the special force fights of "Black Hawk Down", the war scenes at "Hacksaw Ridge", the tank battles from "Patton" and most importantly "American Sniper"'s sniping sequences.

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• SPEC OPS THE ACTION MOVIE: "Operation Red Sea"

  Forestaller2018-02-17

  Who'd have thought that the first live-action SPEC OPS action movie with realistic effects work would be made by China (starring their Navy SPEC OPS "Sea Dragons")? I guess I was wrong to think that without a rating-system, Chinese movies wouldn't dare to show anything -- it turns out that they have no qualms about showing everything (without lingering over it like Hollywood gore porn, of course) if the movie/genre was right... Featuring 5 main escalating missions/set-pieces -- which are always strongly grounded by detailed sniper tactics and expertly strung together with clear plot-points as well as characterizations -- all the usual Hollywood war/military movie "fat" (such as "character arcs", "grand narratives", "social justice" polemics, etc) has been trimmed off, so that military enthusiasts can simply immerse themselves in the gritty and heart-pounding SPEC OPS action. Just for its utter lack of pretension (to appear more "balanced", "diverse", profound", etc.) -- 10/10, would BANG again!

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• This is a movie you should't miss.

  xlou-572992018-03-03

  This movie is everything but boring. I couldn't sleep after watching it and keep thinking how lucky I am to live in a peaceful place. It 's a movie that make you want to stay millions of miles away from war, any war. American social media, as they always do, think China simply wants to show off its military power and poses a threat to the U.S.'s control of South Sea in this movie(where on earth they got this?I must have missed it in the movie!) , it is really not about China being this or that, as the 8 Chinese soldiers are not even allowed to carry any Chinese weapons to enter the war zone and all used weapons are provided by local government, it is about we should be thankful that we don't live in war zone. And we shall all be damned if a war ever came, especially the commoners like you and me.

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