Wu Jing’s Imperial Cinema
As Vladmir Putin seeks to destabilize Europe and take over Ukraine questions have arisen around what actions China will take as a response. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping, who in 2018 got rid of term limits to become “president for life”, recently hinted in a government report that he will be looking to resolve the issue of Taiwan. Taiwan is a small, independent country located in the South China Sea. China laid claim to Taiwan in 1949 and ever since it has faced similar issues of occupation as Ukraine. Historically both countries since declaring independence have constantly been daunted by their larger neighbors who seek to occupy the land. In order to understand China’s larger military and political goals, we can look at the films of one of its country’s most populist and highest-grossing box office director’s Wu Jing.
Wu Jing is a unique figure in Chinese cinema. Jing is viewed by western film critics as a bridge between the heyday of Hong Kong action films of the 80s and the newer, more politically aware movies of the Jinping era. His first film as a director, Legendary Assassin follows an assassin who mistakenly becomes a prime suspect in a murder which takes place on a vibrant undisclosed island outside of Hong Kong. It does not take long to realize that this island is probably Taiwan. Moreover, this 2008 film shares an ancestral DNA with the works of Jackie Chan. Jing chose frequent Chan collaborator Nicky Li Chung-Chi to choreograph the film. It is in this 90 minute film in which Chung-Chi receives a co-directing credit. In a 2018 interview with The New Yorker Magazine, Jing cites the 1988 blockbuster Die Hard as having a major influence on him. Much like Bruce Willis’ character John McClane, Jing’s performance as Bo Tang Lam shares an “everyman quality.” Furthermore, both McClane and Lam seem to be in the wrong place at the right time. Even moreso, the crime boss in Legendary Assassin played by Kou Zhan Wen could easily be interchangeable for Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber. Following Legendary Assassin’s successful release in late November 2008, Jing took a pause on directing to return to acting.
Legendary Assassin can be viewed in the same light as the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. Both were meant to portray a “new China” to the world. Ads for the 2008 Summer Olympics by US, British and China Mainland media companies all shared the same basic narrative. The message is that China has evolved from small rural villages to urban metropolises. We can see this from a Jackie Chan Visa commercial and a state run television advert. Furthermore, both Jing’s first feature and the Olympic ad campaigns all reference the country’s past while simultaneously looking towards the future. A future in which China is viewed as a major force on the world stage.
In the United States since the mid-1970s it has become commonplace to see movies with “superhuman level” military heroes. Look no further than the Slyvester Stallone helmed Rambo franchise and its B-Movie cousin Missing in Action. One can see the influence of this type of blockbuster film throughout Wu Jing’s next directorial feature Wolf Warrior. The film follows a member of an elite special forces team (played by Wu Jing) who is being hunted by foreign mercenaries. While this plot may sound like a low budget Lionsgate action flick , its thinly written script is more brazen in its intent. One such line comes during a heroic montage in the last quarter of the film in a voice over by a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) general. The PLA general says, “Now let us swear our oath as honorable soldiers. Those who desecrate our nation shall be hunted to the end of the Earth.” While this line may sound like it was out of Patton, it summarizes the importance of this film. It shows China’s might as a military superpower who will not back down from any threat. Even in this fictional movie, Jing received the support of the PLA which provided him with several active military aircrafts, tanks and missiles. Thus, blurring the lines of this movie’s fictional basis. For the record, Tony Scott’s Top Gun did receive similar military support which was discussed in J Hoberman’s seminal book, Make My Day: Movie Culture in the Age of Reagan .
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a non-profit organization focused on defending press freedom around the globe, released a list in 2019 citing the ten most censored countries. Halfway through the list you find China. While this may come as no surprise, it does speak to how mainland China, specifically, views moving images. It is worth noting, since Hong Kong left British colonial rule and rejoined China in 1997, that it operates similar to a city-state. Hong Kong’s slogan is “one country, two systems.” One such director who has been able to keep his autonomy even as Hong Kong has begun to face harsher censorship is Wong Kar-wai. Wai, the director behind the Academy Award nominated The Grandmaster and Chungking Express, has been fortunate enough to find funding for his projects in Europe; a near impossible accomplishment for many of his Hong Kong Independent filmmaking peers.
Wu Jing could not be more different than Wong Kar-wai. Wai is an independent auteur who makes personal films with the highest artistic merit and, in many cases, makes little to no money from it. Jing, on the other hand, is a big budget populist filmmaker whose work could be retitled with any number of “patriotic movies” sweeping China’s multiplexes. Nonetheless, in mainland China one is more likely to see patriotic movies such as 1911, Air Strike, The Wandering Earth and Red Cliff in a cinema than the works of Wong Kar-wai. Moreover, China’s direct market censorship of selected movies resulted in Wolf Warrior’s $81 million blockbuster success. This picture led the China Film Channel, a state run media agency to greenlight a sequel.
Wolf Warrior II, released in July 2017, is a far more politically important work than its predecessor. Shaped in the mold of a James Bond film, we now find Wu Jing’s character, Leng Feng, living in an unnamed African country after he has been discharged from the Wolf Warriors. This unnamed country is suddenly attacked by a group of rebel forces, which we find out is made up of US Black Operatives led by a character named Big Daddy. As you can probably guess by now, Leng Feng ultimately saved the day.
It is interesting to watch how Wolf Warrior II explores the current political landscape by examining the relationship between Africa and China. Over the last decade the Export-Import Bank of China has been investing millions of dollars into the African continent to support infrastructure projects as a means to gaining political allies. The agreement with African countries is that they must not recognize Taiwan’s independence. If they violate this policy, they receive a 2.7% reduction of funding. This quid pro quo sets up a political “debt trap” dynamic on the world stage because China is currently involved in 39 African countries. In Wolf Warrior II it is emphasized by the Black Ops leader that “China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council. And I need them on my side when I take political power.” Jing further expresses his pro-China message by the last scene in Wolf Warrior II, during which Leng Feng runs through a war zone waving the Chinese flag. This causes the violence to stop as both sides admire the flag as a symbol of peace.
The African perspective of this Chinese neo-colonialism behavior is explored in Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s 2010 feature, A Screaming Man,and the audience comes away with a very different sentiment. A Screaming Man spotlights a local hotel in the African country of Chad as it is taken over by Chinese investors. The investors drastically downsize the hotel staff and demote the main character. Through a series of events, his son is forced to enter the military and fight in a civil war to preserve the livelihood of his family. Haroun’s film, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, is a stark contrast to the pro-China narrative which Wu Jing is promoting.
Wu Jing is a global force to be reckoned with in both the film and foreign policy spaces, as evidenced by his influence on contemporary Chinese politics under President Xi Jinping. During Wolf Warrior II’s credits a title card appears which reads “When you find yourself in danger in a foreign country, never give up hope. China’s strength will always support you.” President Jinping was so strongly impacted by Wu Jing’s work that he named his foreign policy doctrine, “Wolf Warrior Diplomacy”. As Wu Jing’s work and perspectives influence Chinese policy, it leads one to wonder how much it has impacted Russian policy. While China and Russia forcibly look to expand their borders into independent countries, the fate of both Taiwan and Ukraine seem eerily similar. At the very least, in times of war it is worth paying attention to artists like Wu Jing.
Wolf Warrior and Wolf Warrior II are currently streaming for free on PLUTO TV. Both films are available for purchase on Blu-Ray/ DVD from Well Go USA.
A Screaming Man is currently streaming for free on TUBI.
