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Wolf Warrior

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This article is about the 2015 action film. For the Chinese diplomatic strategy, see Wolf warrior diplomacy. For the Macau basketball team, see Macau Wolf Warriors.

Wolf Warrior
Traditional Chinese戰狼
Simplified Chinese战狼
Literal meaningWar Wolf
Hanyu PinyinZhàn láng
Directed byWu Jing
Written byWu Jing
Produced byLü Jianmin (吕建民)
StarringWu Jing
Scott Adkins
Yu Nan
Kevin Lee
Edited byZhang Jiahui
Release date
  • 2 April 2015 (2015-04-02)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryChina
LanguagesMandarin
English
Box officeUS$89.9 million[1]

Wolf Warrior (Chinese: 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.[2][3] A sequel, titled Wolf Warrior 2, was released in China in 2017 and became the all-time highest-grossing film in China.[4]

Plot

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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

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  • Wu Jing as Leng Feng (Chinese: 冷锋; pinyin: 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 (Chinese: 龙小云; pinyin: 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

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The script went through 14 drafts over seven years.[5] 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.[5]

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.[5] 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.[5]

Box office

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As of 25 May 2015, it has earned US$89.11 million in China.[1]

In China, it opened on 2 April 2015, earning US$33.32 million in its 4-day opening weekend topping the Chinese box office.[6] In its second weekend, it fell to number two, earning US$36.19 million (behind Furious 7).[7]

Critical response

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The film had an overall rating of 6.8 on the Chinese review site Douban as of August 2017.[8] 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".[9]

Awards

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Date Award Category Recipient Result Notes
2015 2015 Shanghai International Film Festival Committee Special Award Wolf Warrior Won
30th Golden Rooster Awards Best Film Wolf Warrior Nominated
Best Editing Zhang Jiahui Nominated
2016 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
33rd Hundred Flowers Awards Outstanding Film Wolf Warrior Won
Best Newcomer Zhuang Xiaolong Won
Best Film Wolf Warrior Nominated
Best Director Wu Jing Nominated
Best Screenplay Wu Jing/Liu Yi/Dong Qun/Gao Yan Nominated
Best Actress Yu Nan Nominated
16th Huabiao Awards Outstanding Film Wolf Warrior Won

International influence

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Wolf Warrior and its sequel, Wolf Warrior 2, are the namesake of China's aggressive 'wolf warrior diplomacy' under Xi Jinping's administration.[10]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Daily Box Office". Archived from the original on 3 July 2015.
  2. ^ "战狼 (2015)". movie.douban.com (in Chinese). douban.com. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  3. ^ Clifford Coonan (13 April 2015). "China Box Office: 'Furious 7' Dominates, Sets Sights on 'Transformers' Record". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  4. ^ Frater, Patrick (24 November 2016). "Celina Jade Joins Jacky Wu's 'Wolf Warriors 2' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 25 November 2016.
  5. ^ a b c d 揭秘电影《战狼》拍摄幕后：获南京军区大力支持. ifeng (in Chinese). 12 April 2015.
  6. ^ Jonathan Papish (6 April 2015). "China Box Office Weekend Actuals: 'Wolf Warriors' Eats Up 'Let's Get Married'". pro.boxoffice.com. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  7. ^ Clifford Coonan (13 April 2015). "China Box Office: 'Furious 7' Dominates, Sets Sights on 'Transformers' Record". The Hollywood Reporter. (Prometheus Global Media). Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  8. ^ Tartaglione, Nancy (6 August 2017). "'Wolf Warriors 2' Chomps $400M+ At Chinese Box Office; Now #2 Movie Ever". Deadline Hollywood.
  9. ^ Lee, Maggie (28 April 2015). "Film Review: 'Wolf Warriors'". Variety.
  10. ^ Jiang, Steven; Westcott, Ben (29 May 2020). "China is embracing a new brand of foreign policy. Here's what wolf warrior diplomacy means". www.cnn.com. CNN. Archived from the original on 29 May 2020. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
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