Operation Red Sea was offered at my local theater and upon seeing how well reviewed it was, I decided to check it out. Directed by Dante Lam, Operation Red Sea tells the story about a rescue mission for citizens in Yemen - so I was expected to see the Chinese equivalent of Captain Phillips. I was pleasantly surprised with something far more violent and action based than I initially expected. Operation Red Sea was advertised to me as a Chinese naval film, but it is rather a land-sea counterterrorism experience that depicts China’s ongoing challenge with neighboring entities and its intense Chinese nationalism in face of this conflict.
The war scenes and landscapes were griddy and bring you straight to the warfront to the level that you genuinely cared for these characters despite the fact that you don’t even know their exact names. There is no place for a movie like such in a classroom, but outside of classrooms, there certainly is something for American audiences who typically enjoy intense action war films like Saving Private Ryan or even more modern examples like The Hurt Locker. I was thoroughly entertained with the film and now that I have made my way out of the theater, I definitely plan to read more on what China’s approach has been to the Yemen region.
8/10
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