Wolf Warrior II occupies an important place in the canon of film productions in 2017, being the one that topped all records for box-office takings in the history of cinema in China – a whooping 5.68 billion CNY (yuan), equivalent to 900 million US$.
The runaway success of the film, due not only to its patriotic message but also the superb quality of the action scenes, has brought the international spotlight onto its writer, director and actor Wu Jing. His previous outing Wolf Warrior (2015), was about an audacious anti-narcotics operation against foreign mercenaries operating in the boundaries of southern China; in Wolf Warrior II, the action shifts to Africa, the plot becomes international, and China acquires a role in the world peacekeeping forces and in the defense of its nationals on foreign soil. The main character in the film is Leng Feng, an ex-member of the army’s crack Wolf Warriors team – he was expelled from the special forces after killing a man in a clash with criminal forces in the pay of real estate speculators. During his time in prison, Leng Feng’s girlfriend and colonel of the WW, Long Xiaoyun, is killed in action in Africa. Once his sentence is complete, Leng Feng returns to Africa with the aim of finding Xiaoyun’s killers.
In a non-specified African country, he takes on a variety of tasks, gets on the good side of the local population, takes a young African boy under his wing and gets to know opportunistic and dishonest Chinese traders, who make appeals to his sense of patriotism only when they find themselves in danger. But the nation is undergoing a coup d’état, rebels working alongside European mercenaries are causing death and destruction, threatening the life of a renowned Chinese doctor working in a local hospital, as well as the 47 workers in a Chinese-owned factory. The Chinese ambassador tries to protect his fellow countrymen, but the Chinese marines cannot intervene without the approval of the United Nations, so Leng Feng, guided by his old motto “once a Wolf Warrior, always a Wolf Warrior,” offers to save his fellow countrymen single-handedly. In the incredible adventures and colossal clashes that follow, Leng Feng finds himself assisted by a young Chinese-American female doctor, disappointed by how her fellow Americans are deserting the country. In the Chinese factory, the two encounter a variety of characters that represent the varied elements of contemporary Chinese society: the cynical and racist manager who only wants to protect the Chinese workers, abandoning the African ones to the mercenaries; the factory owner’s son, a spoilt and presumptuous kid who acts the tough guy, but when faced with real danger, crumbles; and an ex-military man who immediately gets back into the team spirit when faced with challenges. But Leng Feng is the pivot of the whole story: a man who has almost animal instincts in the face of danger, and almost superhuman abilities – when the film was released, China celebrated finally having on the big screen their own version of Rambo.
Underwater without an oxygen tank, not only does he manages to dodge bullets and knife attacks, but he even manages to tie up four men and drag them along by rope; he avoids a grenade using a bed base; he survives an infection that would normally kill a man; and so on and so forth. The ultra-technological final reckoning with the rebels comes down to a classic old-fashioned fight scene, during which the mercenary says to Leng Feng, “People like you will always be inferior to people like me.” He replies with a memorable: “That’s fucking history,” followed by images of a grand finale with call to mind classics of Communist iconography.
The film has been hailed, especially abroad, as an affirmation of the nationalist spirit of China, which has become a world power-player, through peaceable means. But Wu Jing has explained his film as a way of encouraging the Chinese public to appreciate the fact that while the world is going through a turbulent phase, China is experiencing a moment of florid economic development and internal peace: “Let’s make the most of the present, and not get bogged down in negative thoughts…”
Wu Jing
Wu Jing (1974, Beijing). Sent to study martial arts at the Beijing Wushu Academy at the tender age of six, as his father and grandfather was martial arts artists, in 1995, he came to the attentions of the famous martial arts choreographer, Yuen Woo-Ping, who had gone to the academy to scout talent for the film Tai Chi 2. The film launched Wu Jing’s career as an actor in Hong Kong and continental China. He made his directing debut in 2008 with the film Legendary Assassin co-directed with Nicky Li. Loved for his extroverted personality, he contributes to the writing and choreography of the films he appears in, and he was also much appreciated for having taken part in the rescue operations following the Sichuan earthquake in 2008.
FILMOGRAPHY
2008 – Legendary Assassin
2015 – Wolf Warrior
2017 – Wolf Warrior II
Maria Barbieri