Operation Red Sea
Theatrical release poster
Traditional Chinese	紅海行動
Simplified Chinese	红海行动
Hanyu Pinyin	Hóng Hǎi Xíngdòng
Directed by	Dante Lam
Written by	Feng Ji Dante Lam Chen Zhuzhu Eric Lin
Produced by	Candy Leung
Starring	Zhang Yi Huang Jingyu Hai Qing Du Jiang Jiang Luxia
Cinematography	Edward Fung Horace Wong
Edited by	Choi Chi-hung Lam Chi-hang
Music by	Elliot Leung
Production companies	Bona Film Group Emperor Motion Pictures Film Fireworks Production Star Dream Studio Media
Release date	16 February 2018 (2018-02-16)
Running time	139 minutes[1]
Countries	China (Mainland and Hong Kong)
Languages	Mandarin English Arabic
Budget	US$70 million
Box office	US$579.2 million[2] (CN¥3.65 billion)[3]

Operation Red Sea (Chinese:红海行动) is a 2018 Chinese-Hong Kongactionwar film directed byDante Lam and starringZhang Yi,Huang Jingyu,Hai Qing, Du Jiang andJiang Luxia. The film is loosely based onthe evacuation of foreign nationals and almost 600 Chinese citizens fromYemen's southern port ofAden during late March in2015 Yemeni Civil War.^[4] According toChinaculture.org, the film is in similar style to that ofOperation Mekong.^[5]

It serves as the highlight film presented to audiences as a gift for the 90th anniversary of the founding of theChinese People's Liberation Army, as well as the party's19th National Congress.^[6] This film is said to be "China's first modern naval film".^[7] The film has grossedUSD$579 million, and received critical acclaim from critics, making it currently theeleventh-highest-grossing ever in China and highest grossing Chinese film in 2018. It was selected as the Hong Kong entry for theBest Foreign Language Film at the91st Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.^[8]A sequel,Operation Leviathan, was released in 2025.^[9]

While on duty and touring through the waters of theRed Sea, theChinese Navy patrol fleet receives a distress call thatSomali pirates are boarding a cargo ship called the Guangdong and endangering Chinese passengers and seamen on board. They immediately deploy the 8-personJiaolong Assault Team of theMarine Corps as their forward unit to try to slow the progress of the pirates until the heavily armed naval vessels can arrive on the scene. Using the assistance of a forward helicopter and a sniper dispatched as part of the assault team, they make significant progress to neutralize the situation and manage to eliminate all the Somali pirates onboard while awaiting the main Chinese fleet on duty in the Red Sea. During the operations, the pirate leader attempts to escape, and though eventually he was captured, their primary sniper receives a crippling spinal injury from gunfire during the pursuit and must be replaced. The assault team is praised for their success once the main fleet arrives.

Later, when the civil war situation in the nation of Yewaire (loosely based onYemen) on theArabian Peninsula becomes unstable due to a military coup by General Sharaf (loosely based onAli Abdullah Saleh), orders are given toevacuate local Chinese personnel and workers from the country. Given the unrest and threats from rebels and local terrorist groups, theJiaolong Assault team is assigned the task of evacuating the Chinese citizens to safety aboard the main Chinese naval vessels in temporary harbor in the area. Meanwhile, a Chinese-French journalist working in the area receives news that the local terrorist organization, Zaka, are prepared to impede local cooperation with the Chinese by all available military and terrorist means available. The Jiaolong squad manages to save the Chinese civilians caught in the warzone and thePAP gendarmerie forces guarding the ambassador just in a nick of time while also saving an Arabic man forced to participate as a car bomber.

The terrorists are also uncovered to have plans to weaponizeyellowcake materials into adirty bomb. The eight-person forward assault team is given very poor support by the local government which is in turmoil. They must also relocate the Yewaire civilians working there to a safe deployment area 75 miles away using only a jeep convoy for transportation.

The convoy is ambushed by terrorists, and takes significant losses from a trained sniper named Taha and mortar attacks. All the Yewaire civilians and local government troops are killed, except the journalist. Zaka uses a kidnapped Chinese citizen as a bargaining chip so that the Chinese navy will release the Yewairian President, and beheads another hostage, who turned to be Abu, Xia Nan's assistant, as an example. Jiaolong and the journalist track down the hostage (first priority of the mission) to a terrorist stronghold with 150 militants, the local leader Sayyid, and armed with mechanized artillery and tanks. The assault team moves in with a risky plan involving covertly swapping the Chinese hostage and the journalist. Although the initial plan goes well at first, the plan backfires when the jeep the team uses gets a flat tire attracting attention, with no other choice the Jiaolong commandos are forced to reveal themselves and fight off hordes of terrorists in the compound. Eventually the Jiaolong commandos are separated with 1 team escaping in a jeep, another in a tank and another attempting to escape through another exit. The enemy sniper Taha from earlier reappears; the replacement Jiaolong sniper and his spotter are able to take him out. The operation eventually succeeds in evacuating all the hostages, but two Jiaolong members are killed in action during the chaos and another two are heavily injured.

The four remaining members laterwingsuit into the yellowcake exchange site between the terrorists and the rebel group. Zaka backstabs the rebels, and in the chaos the Chinese operatives manage to corner Sayyid, who commits suicide. Jiaolong retrieves the dirty bomb recipe and captures the cargo plane carrying the yellowcake. Back on board the Chinese fleet, the fallen soldiers are honored for their courage under fire. Before the end credits, 5 Chinese naval vessels intercept 3US Navy ships warning them they have entered Chinese waters and must leave immediately.

Principal photography began in mid-February 2017 inMorocco and employed 400 Moroccans and 300 Chinese as part of the technical crew group.^[10][11]

Elliot Leung composed the score to Operation Red Sea, and a digital album consisting of 22 tracks was released two weeks prior to the Chinese premiere on 2 February. A limited edition, autographed by bothElliot Leung andDante Lam was given out only to those who were invited to the film premiere.^[12] Over the years, the music of Operation Red Sea has grown in popularity and has seen placements in various TV shows (most notably Guarding Our City) and concert suite performances by various orchestras.

Operation Red Sea opened in fourth taking US$76.6 million and climbed to second in its second week, finally reached the top in its third week, taking US$144.2 million for US$498 million after 17 days.^[13] It won the international weekend with US$62.6 million to topBlack Panther for the second frame in a row.^[14] The film led the Chinese film market in the third week earning RMB868 million whileDetective Chinatown 2 earned RMB483 million andMonster Hunt 2 about RMB162 million.^[15] The film succeeded in moving to the top, knockingDetective Chinatown 2 to second place, whileMonster Hunt 2 remained in third. After 23 days of release,Operation Red Sea grossed more than RMB3.4 billion and finally became the top grossing film of the Spring Festival of all time in China, surpassing the previous highest-grossing,The Mermaid (2016).

In the United States and Canada,Operation Red Sea took the highest gross, taking in US$510,000 in 45 theaters on its opening weekend averaging US$11,333, the best per-theater average among the specialty debuts. DistributorWell Go USA touted its launch, which outranked preceding weekend’sDetective Chinatown 2 when comparing straight averages, though that film played 115 runs in its debut.^[16]

Thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes reported an 80% approval rating based on 10 reviews, and an average rating of 8/10.^[17]

• List of submissions to the 91st Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Hong Kong submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

• Operation Red Sea atDouban(in Chinese)
• Operation Red Sea atMtime.com (archived)(in Chinese)
• Operation Red Sea at theHong Kong Movie DataBase
• Operation Red Sea atIMDb
• Operation Red Sea atRotten Tomatoes
• Operation Red Sea atBox Office Mojo
• Operation Red Sea atMetacritic

• 2018 films
• 2018 3D films
• 2018 action thriller films
• 2010s action war films
• 2010s Hong Kong films
• Chinese 3D films
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• Chinese action thriller films
• Chinese crime films
• Chinese war films
• Films based on actual events
• Films about the People's Liberation Army
• Films about navies
• Films about marines
• Films about special forces
• Films directed by Dante Lam
• Films set in Yemen
• Films set in fictional countries
• Hong Kong 3D films
• Hong Kong action films
• Hong Kong action thriller films
• IMAX films
• Polybona Films films
• War films based on actual events

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