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Wolf Warrior
#1
This pits two of my fav underrated martial stars: Jacky Wu Jing vs. Scott Adkins. It's a PLA propagandist mess of a film that was ultimately very disappointing. The opening action scene was promising. Wu Jing gets recruited for the Wolf Warriors, an elite troop that plays the enemy in Chinese war game exercises on the border for the PLA. But in the opening action scene, he offed the brother of a drug lord, who hires Scott and some other white guy mercenaries to assassinate him. So the story takes place inside a mock battlefield during war game exercises, a jungle that is completely monitored by cameras somehow. And the five mercs penetrate and start killing soldiers. There's some subplot about smuggling out a virus that only kills Chinese - it's the underlying subterfuge driving a betrayal at a critical moment, but who cares about that? Now there's the PLA troops in the wargames plus the Wolf Warriors trying to catch the 5 mercs before they cross the border. Remember this is a PLA propaganda film, which means the filmmakers had access to tanks, copters, ATVs and troops of the PLA. So it's big. A big waste however. The action gets really stupid. At one point, Wu Jing steps on a landmine. He's standing on it, knowing that if he takes his foot off, it'll explode. So he delicately and time-comsumingly digs a big pit around the mine. Then he jumps off. It explodes but he is unscathed because his kung fu jump was so badass. WTH? Why didn't he just do that in the first place? What was the point of digging it out? It became like Uncommon Valor in reverse, a small band of westerners against the Asian horde. Finally it comes down to Scott vs. Wu Jing. But it's a mediocre fight at best. So disappointing.
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#2
Wow. What extraordinary ultravi. Wolf Warrior 2 just blew up in China, seizing the all time domestic box office record. It is action packed - full auto tank battle explosion action. Wu Jong delivers some major gratuitous ultravi. It's quick cut choreography, one cut, one action, but still satisfying in its complexity. There's a plot about rebels in Africa, and a plague, but that only serves to catch your breath. The rest is explosions and gunfire. Wu Jing can really move, giving his balletic gunplay an air of grace. There are themes of loyalty, racism, justice, revenge, but mostly patriotism. Gaping plot holes and absurd action (classic bad guys who can't shoot the good guys even though they are running about without cover) but who cares? Just blow up more stuff. Wu Jing vs Grillo finale fight is gritty bloody fun. I'm not sure what it says about the PRC now but I'm not going to think on that too hard for now.

The theater was fairly full and the predominantly Chinese audience applauded at the end. Cf and I were amused. It's very DOOM. I could hear y'all chuckling along cf and me at the senseless glorious ultravi.
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#3
I never saw the first one, and it probably isn't necessary.

Yes, action all the way, highly inventive, and loads of military hardware giving it a big-budget feel.  That's the great thing about propaganda films: Director: "Could we maybe borrow a tank for an afternoon?"  Commander: "Take five; use them for a week."  Then later...  Commander: "Oh, heck, take 20, and feel free to destroy them however you see fit."  Over-the-top tank-fu.  And that was just the tip of the military-industrial complex.

Lots of Africans in the movie, and as far as I could tell they were not depicted as I've come to expect from the Chinese.  Maybe DM has a take on this.  True, there were bad Africans, but also lots of good Africans.  And the bad Africans weren't really bad; they were just under the evil spell of a fuckin' Caucasian.  It was drilled into the audience's mind repeatedly that "China and Africa are friends!" usually by someone proclaiming, "China and Africa are friends!"  There was probably some stereotyping of African culture, but I didn't get a good read on that.

It's a very effective action movie, very colorful in so many ways, and it's bound and determined to deliver -- in every conceivable way.  There's the climax, resolution, and validation, but wait, it's not quite over yet, more drama, further resolution and validation, and finally the credits, with wide applause and a largely Chinese audience getting up and chattering as they leave -- only to freeze, because mid-credits the movie resumes, a little epilogue in the Arctic, with a further drama unfolding, and a big shock to our protagonist as he receives a call from his former commander, who shows him a video that, well, I couldn't quite grok.  But the protagonist is shaken to the core.  DM and I briefly debated what this was about after the movie, but I don't think we nailed it.

Then more credits and the audience begins to leave again -- but wait!  Outtakes!  Stunts going bad, people looking clumsy or silly, or even better people getting hurt!  Lots of people getting hurt!  No shit, considering all the ridiculous stunts.  And eventually we're done.

Out in the hallway there's lots of Chinese milling about, which puzzles me until I remember that DM and I went to the 6:05 pm showing, and there's a second showing coming up.

Not the typical fare DM and I occasionally catch at Cupertino, where you can usually count the audience on a Death Palm.
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#4
I'm still pondering the notion of a pattern-welded bullet. It was an obvious plot device ala the Man with the Golden Gun or the Line Ranger, but pretty dumb when you think about it. Who shoots gold, silver of pattern welded bullets?
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#5
(08-12-2017, 07:11 PM)Drunk Monk Wrote: I'm still pondering the notion of a pattern-welded bullet. It was an obvious plot device ala the Man with the Golden Gun or the Line Ranger, but pretty dumb when you think about it. Who shoots gold, silver of pattern welded bullets?

Answer: Ilya.

A question regarding Wolf Warrior I, since you've seen it.  Where did he get this bullet he wears on a lanyard around his neck?  Was it unfired?  Or did the script use the time-honored misconception that a fired bullet retains that kind of shape and can be fished out of a corpse's corpulence?

Oh, one more thing.  I was very surprised, and impressed, to see the Chinese protagonist kiss the blond Caucasian gal, and full on the lips, and an extended smoocher at that.  I was on the verge of covering my eyes when it ended.  Times sure are changing over there.
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#6
You know what? I don't remember. For some reason, I thought he wore a wolf's tooth as a pendant. Damn, I may have to watch it again to remember for my upcoming column write up. 

As for Asian men snogging blonde hotties, YES! There needs to be more of that. Much more.
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#7
[Image: Wolf-Warrior-2-Bullet-Pendant-Necklaces-...40x640.jpg]
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Wolf-War....77.VK49Hf
Wow, these really look cheap.
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