Wolf Warrior
{{Short description|2015 Chinese war film}}
{{About|the 2015 action film|the Chinese diplomatic strategy|Wolf warrior diplomacy|the Macau basketball team|Macau Wolf Warriors}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2017}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Wolf Warrior
| image = Wolf Warriors poster.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| native_name = {{Infobox Chinese/Chinese|child=yes|hide=no|header=none
| s = 战狼
|l=War Wolf
| t = 戰狼
| p = Zhàn láng
}}
| director = Wu Jing
| producer = Lü Jianmin (吕建民)
| writer = Wu Jing
| starring = Wu Jing
Scott Adkins
Yu Nan
Kevin Lee
| music =
| cinematography =
| editing = Zhang Jiahui
| studio =
| distributor =
| released = {{film date|2015|4|2|df=yes}}
| runtime = 90 minutes
| country = China
| language = Mandarin
English
| budget =
}}
Wolf Warrior ({{zh|first=s|s=战狼}}) is a 2015 Chinese war film written and directed by Wu Jing. It stars Wu Jing along with Scott Adkins, Yu Nan and Kevin Lee. It was released on 2 April 2015.{{cite web |url= http://movie.douban.com/subject/24753810/|title= 战狼 (2015)|access-date= 9 April 2015|work= movie.douban.com|publisher= douban.com|language= zh}}{{cite web |url= http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-box-office-furious-7-788559|title= China Box Office: 'Furious 7' Dominates, Sets Sights on 'Transformers' Record|author= Clifford Coonan|date= April 13, 2015|access-date= 14 April 2015|work= The Hollywood Reporter}} A sequel, titled Wolf Warrior 2, was released in China in 2017 and became the all-time highest-grossing film in China.{{cite web |url= https://variety.com/2016/film/asia/celina-jade-joins-wolf-warriors-2-1201926252/|title= Celina Jade Joins Jacky Wu's 'Wolf Warriors 2' (EXCLUSIVE)|first= Patrick|last= Frater|date= 24 November 2016|access-date= 25 November 2016|work= Variety}}
Plot
In 2008, a combined task group of People's Liberation Army Special Operations Forces and Chinese police raid a drug smuggling operation in an abandoned chemical facility in southern China. The leader of the smuggling operation, Wu Ji, holds one of his own men hostage while taking cover behind a section of the facility's reinforced wall. Leng Feng, a skilled PLA sniper, ignores orders to stand down and fires three shots at a weak section of the wall, penetrating through and killing Wu Ji. Leng Feng is sent to solitary confinement as punishment, but is approached by Long Xiaoyun, the female commander of the legendary 'Wolf Warriors', an elite unit within the PLA tasked with simulating foreign tactics for the PLA to train against. Long Xiaoyun offers Leng Feng a place in the Wolf Warriors. Meanwhile, in the Philippines, crime lord Min Deng, Wu Ji's older brother, hires ex–US Navy SEAL "Tom Cat" (Scott Adkins) and his group to kill Leng Feng and avenge his brother.
The Wolf Warriors participate in a training exercise in a remote and uninhabited forested region on China's southern border. During the exercise, Tom Cat and his mercenaries ambush a Wolf Warrior squad, killing one of Leng Feng's comrades. Subsequently, the PLA and the Wolf Warriors are tasked with hunting down Tom Cat's squad. The combined infantry force move into the forest but are delayed by multiple traps set by Tom Cat and pinned down by sniper fire until Leng Feng manages to kill the shooter. Afterwards, the rest of the PLA force engages Tom Cat's other mercenaries, who stage a fighting retreat but are eventually overwhelmed and killed. Meanwhile, Long Xiaoyun and the other PLA commanders deduce that Ming Deng himself is also in the training area to take possession of a smuggled cache of biotechnology, which could allow the creation of a genetic weapon that could target Chinese people exclusively.
Leng Feng eventually catches Tom Cat just before China's southern border. Leng Feng is nearly defeated, but manages to kill Tom Cat with his own knife. Medical personnel claiming to be from a PLA relief force arrive, but Leng Feng recognises the wrist tattoo of a medic and realizes that they are Min Deng's men in PLA uniforms. He attacks them, eventually holding Min Deng at bayonet point on the very edge of the Chinese border. Min Deng's paramilitary force approaches from the other side of the border, but so do the rest of the Wolf Warriors and PLA soldiers. Min Deng's force retreats, leaving him to be arrested.
Cast
- Wu Jing as Leng Feng ({{zh|c=冷锋|p=Lěng Fēng}}), a marksman in the People's Liberation Army who was initially court martialled and reprimanded for failing to obey a direct order during an operation. He is later recruited into a Chinese Special Forces Unit called "War Wolf" after Long Xiaoyun takes an interest in him.
- Yu Nan as Lieutenant Colonel Long Xiaoyun ({{zh|c=龙小云|p=Lóng Xiǎoyún}}), Commander of the Chinese Special Forces Unit "War Wolf"
- Ni Dahong as Ming Deng, a drug lord who hires a group of foreign mercenaries to avenge his brother's death at the hands of Leng Feng.
- Scott Adkins as "Tom Cat," a former US Navy SEAL turned mercenary, who is hired by Meng Deng to kill Leng Feng
- Kevin Lee as "Mad Cow"
- Shi Zhaoqi
- Zhou Xiaoou
- Fang Zibin
- Guo Guangping
- Ru Ping
- Hong Wei
- Wang Sen
- Zhuang Xiaolong
- Chris Collins
Production
The script went through 14 drafts over seven years.{{cite news|url=http://js.ifeng.com/city/detail_2015_04/12/3773069_1.shtml |script-title=zh:揭秘电影《战狼》拍摄幕后:获南京军区大力支持 |newspaper=ifeng |date=2015-04-12 |language=zh}} In order to portray more realistic combat scenes, the movie used five missiles (each at a value of one million yuan), more than 30,000 rounds of ammunition, and a variety of Chinese active military aircraft, including the Chengdu J-10, Harbin Z-9, and CAIC Z-10. In one large battle scene, 32 active tanks appeared in the same shot, including a Type 96 tank.
In order to prepare for the film, with the support of Chinese PLA Nanjing Military Region, Wu Jing trained for 18 months at a camp in Nanjing Military Region.
On the first day of shooting, it was the hottest summer in Nanjing's history. The temperature was up to 49.8 °C, making 5 extra actors suffer from shock.
Most of the film was made on location in Jiangsu province, at sites including Nanjing and Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum.
Box office
As of 25 May 2015, it has earned US$89.11 million in China.
In China, it opened on 2 April 2015, earning US$33.32 million in its 4-day opening weekend topping the Chinese box office.{{cite web|url=http://pro.boxoffice.com/china/2015-04-06-china-box-office-weekend-actuals-wolf-warriors-eats-up-lets-get-married|title=China Box Office Weekend Actuals: 'Wolf Warriors' Eats Up 'Let's Get Married'|author=Jonathan Papish|work=pro.boxoffice.com|date=6 April 2015|access-date=27 April 2015}} In its second weekend, it fell to number two, earning US$36.19 million (behind Furious 7).{{cite web|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-box-office-furious-7-788559|title=China Box Office: 'Furious 7' Dominates, Sets Sights on 'Transformers' Record|author=Clifford Coonan|work=The Hollywood Reporter|publisher=(Prometheus Global Media)|date=13 April 2015|access-date=14 April 2015}}
Critical response
The film had an overall rating of 6.8 on the Chinese review site Douban as of August 2017.{{Cite web |last=Tartaglione |first=Nancy |date=2017-08-06 |title='Wolf Warriors 2' Chomps $400M+ At Chinese Box Office; Now #2 Movie Ever |url=https://deadline.com/2017/08/wolf-warriors-2-chinese-box-office-records-400-million-1202143212/ |website=Deadline Hollywood |language=en-US}} Variety magazine wrote: "To a layperson's eyes, the military exercise does look authentic, and the cross-country skirmishes are ruggedly watchable on an acrobatic level. Yet it's impossible to overlook the inanity of the plotting".{{cite web |date=28 April 2015 |last1=Lee |first1=Maggie |title=Film Review: 'Wolf Warriors' |url=https://variety.com/2015/film/asia/wolf-warriors-review-1201480183/ |website=Variety }}
Awards
class="wikitable" | |||||
Date
! Award ! Category ! Recipient ! Result ! Notes | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
rowspan="3" | 2015 | rowspan="1" | 2015 Shanghai International Film Festival | Committee Special Award | Wolf Warrior | {{won}} | |
rowspan="2" | 30th Golden Rooster Awards | Best Film | Wolf Warrior | {{nom}} | ||
Best Editing | Zhang Jiahui | {{nom}} | |||
rowspan="12" | 2016 | rowspan="5" | 20th Huading Awards | Best Screenplay | Wu Jing/Liu Yi/Dong Qun/Gao Yan | {{won}} | |
Best New Director | Wu Jing | {{won}} | |||
Best Action Choreography | Li Zhongzhi | {{won}} | |||
Number One Film Voted By Audience | Wolf Warrior | {{won}} | |||
Best Productor | Lyu Jianmin | {{won}} | |||
rowspan="6" | 33rd Hundred Flowers Awards | Outstanding Film | Wolf Warrior | {{won}} | ||
Best Newcomer | Zhuang Xiaolong | {{won}} | |||
Best Film | Wolf Warrior | {{nom}} | |||
Best Director | Wu Jing | {{nom}} | |||
Best Screenplay | Wu Jing/Liu Yi/Dong Qun/Gao Yan | {{nom}} | |||
Best Actress | Yu Nan | {{nom}} | |||
16th Huabiao Awards | Outstanding Film | Wolf Warrior | {{won}} |
International influence
Wolf Warrior and its sequel, Wolf Warrior 2, are the namesake of China's aggressive 'wolf warrior diplomacy' under Xi Jinping's general secretaryship.{{cite web |last1=Jiang |first1=Steven |last2=Westcott |first2=Ben |title=China is embracing a new brand of foreign policy. Here's what wolf warrior diplomacy means |url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/28/asia/china-wolf-warrior-diplomacy-intl-hnk/index.html |website=www.cnn.com |date=29 May 2020 |publisher=CNN |access-date=30 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200529120219/https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/28/asia/china-wolf-warrior-diplomacy-intl-hnk/index.html |archive-date=29 May 2020 |url-status=live }}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|3540136}}
- [https://movie.douban.com/subject/24753810/ Wolf Warrior] at Douban (in Chinese)
{{Wu Jing}}
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Category:2015 action thriller films
Category:Chinese action thriller films
Category:Films about military personnel
Category:Films about the People's Liberation Army
Category:2010s Mandarin-language films
Category:2010s English-language films
Category:Films shot in Nanjing
Category:Films directed by Wu Jing (actor)
Category:Works about Chinese military personnel