Wolf warrior’s howl roars on big screen

While TV dramas like Soldiers’ Sortie and My Chief and My Regiment have won big success on the small screen, we seldom see hit Chinese films about modern military warfare. But now, Wolf Warriors, directed by and starring Wu Jing, 41, has begun to fill that void.
电视荧幕上，《士兵突击》、《我的团长我的团》等军旅剧都曾大获成功，然而中国电影银幕上却鲜有叫座的现代军事题材作品。现在，41岁的吴京自导自演的《战狼》终于有电影填补了这一空白。

The 3-D war epic centers on Leng Feng, an insubordinate special forces soldier who is expelled from the army because he disobeys orders and shoots a drug lord during an assault mission. But his extraordinary marksmanship and tough personality win him recruitment into the elite military squadron Wolf Warriors.
这部3D战争片的男主人公冷锋（吴京 饰）是个痞性十足的特种兵。一次突击行动中他违抗军令打死了毒枭，被开除出队。不过，他的出色枪法和坚强意志赢得了进入精英部队“战狼”的机会。

In his first military drill as a member of the Wolf Warriors, Leng and his comrades are faced with a serious challenge when a troop of foreign mercenaries straddle the borderline and turn the drill into actual combat.
成为“战狼”队员后，第一次演习冷锋就和战友们在边境线遭遇了一伙实力强劲的外国雇佣兵，演习变成了一场真正的战斗。

Throughout the film, Wu shows the bold, macho side of Chinese soldiers. Wu revealed when he promoted the film in Wuhan on March 29 that to better capture the authentic lifestyle of special forces officers, he spent 18 months living and training together with them. This experience influenced the movie’s script. In the film, a 1.5-meters tall special forces soldier grabs the throat of a foreign mercenary who’s much taller than he is. The scene was inspired by a true story, Wu said, and the soldier is played by a retired special forces member.
在整部电影中，吴京将中国军人的铁血勇猛与果敢无畏展现得淋漓尽致。3月29日，在武汉宣传电影时，吴京透露，为了更好地展现真实的特种兵生活，他曾与他们一同生活、训练了18个月。这段经历也对电影的剧本创作大有帮助。电影中有一幕，一名身高1米5的中国特种兵锁住一个远高过他的外国雇佣兵的喉咙。吴京透露，这其实源自一个真实的故事，而那位士兵的饰演者本身就是一名退伍的特种兵。

What fans expect most from military themed action movies is no doubt advanced weaponry and fierce fight scenes, and Wolf Warriors delivers in full. It showcases weapons including J-10 fighter jets and other military aircraft, M25 sniper rifles and even tanks.
军事电影迷们最期待的莫过于影片中先进的武器装备和激烈的战斗场面。《战狼》定能让你们心满意足。歼十等军用战机、M25狙击步枪、甚至连坦克都在影片中大展风采。

The final one-on-one grapple between Leng and the villain, played by English martial arts master Scott Adkins, pushes the film to its climax. When watching this scene, the audience may have only one wish － that the fight could have lasted longer.
影片中的大反派由英国格斗艺术家斯科特•阿金斯饰演。最后他与冷锋一对一的对决更是将影片推向高潮。看到这一幕时，观众也许只有一个愿望：这场格斗可以持续再久一些。

War films are known to arouse a sense of patriotism, and Wolf Warriors is no different. No country is perfect, not even our own, but the scene in which the Warriors put on armbands reading “I fight for China” made my heart swell with pride.
战争片常常会激起人们心中的爱国情，《战狼》也不例外。没有哪个国家尽善尽美，即使是我们的祖国也是如此。但是，当看到 “战狼”们戴上写着“为中国而战”的臂章时，我的心中还是充满了骄傲。

The first lesson the Wolf Warriors teaches Leng is team spirit. However，the latter half of the movie is almost all about Hollywood-style individual heroism and male chauvinism, with Leng alone taking down the leader of the mercenaries and their boss.
团队精神是冷锋在“战狼”部队学到的第一课。然而，在影片的后半程，他只身打败雇佣兵首领及其幕后大反派，好莱坞式的个人英雄主义以及大男子主义尽显无疑。

The heroines Long Xiaoyun (Yu Nan, 38) is primed to be a formidable and resourceful female commander. The Warriors respect Long’s intelligence and leadership abilities, but these qualities go to waste on screen. It seems to me that this female role exists only to allow Leng one more person to project his irresistible charm on to.
女主角龙小云由今年38岁的余男饰演。在影片中，她是一个令人敬畏、足智多谋的女指挥官。但是对于她的智慧和领导才能，我们更多地只是从“战狼”队员们口中侧面了解到。看过电影，我甚至觉得这个角色的存在只是为了侧面衬托冷锋不可阻挡的魅力。

With Wolf Warriors topping box office charts last weekend, its producers caught the smell of money and are now considering making the movie into a series, according to The Beijing News. The one-man-army trope is tired, and I hope that if the movie becomes a franchise it focus more on tactical warfare and team chemistry.
据《新京报》报道，看到《战狼》上周末位居榜首的票房，制作人们似乎发现了商机，并开始考虑将其发展成系列电影。但是，孤军奋战已经早已令人视觉疲劳，在《战狼》的续集里，还是希望能看到更多的军事战略和团队精神。

以上文章内容选自《21世纪英文报》，详情请见《21世纪英文报》1099期