A Movie About Chinese Marines in the Attacked Yemen

YemenExtra

SH.A.

China’s Lunar New Year celebration is in full swing, and a new Hong Kong blockbuster film is hitting theaters just in time for the height of movie season: Operation Red Sea, described by the state-run Global Times as “a patriotic movie about Chinese marines carrying out a daring rescue mission.”

The movie is a fictionalized account of a mission to rescue Chinese citizens and foreign nationals from Yemen in 2015 as that country was attacked by US-Saudi coalition.

The real-life incident was the first time China’s military has helped foreigners evacuate during an international crisis.

Several countries requested Chinese assistance in Yemen, including Germany, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

The movie takes a bit of dramatic license with just how close the fighting in Yemen came to the Chinese frigate involved in the rescue mission, which is not much different from how Hollywood often handles “ripped from the headlines” stories.

The director said he was inspired by foreign films that spotlighted the patriotism and professionalism of their military forces.

What is interesting about Operation Red Sea is that the People’s Liberation Army Navy co-produced the film, whose reported $70 million budget is enormous by Chinese standards.