Operation Red Sea (Chinese: 红海行动) is a 2018 Chinese action war film directed by Dante Lam and starring Zhang Yi, Huang Jingyu, Hai Qing, Du Jiang and Prince Mak. The film is loosely based on the evacuation of the 225 foreign nationals and almost 600 Chinese citizens from Yemen's southern port of Aden during late March in the 2015 Civil War.[4] The film is in similar style to that of Operation Mekong
It serves as the highlight film presented to audiences as a gift for the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, as well as the party's 19th National Congress.[6] This film is said to be "China's first modern naval film".[7] The film has grossed USD$579 million, making it currently the third-highest-grossing film of 2018 and second-highest-grossing ever in China.
Plot
While on duty and touring through the waters of the Red Sea, the Chinese Navy patrol fleet receives a distress call that Somalian pirates are boarding a cargo ship called the Guangdong and endangering Chinese passengers and seamen on board. They immediately deploy the 8-person Jiaolong Assault Team 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 while awaiting the main Chinese fleet on duty in the Red Sea. During the operations, their primary sniper receives a crippling spinal injury from gunfire 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 on the Arabian Peninsula becomes unstable, orders are given to evacuate local Chinese personnel and workers from the country. Given the unrest and threats from rebels and local terrorist groups, the Jiaolong 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 French-Chinese 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 the PLA soldiers guarding them in the nick of time while also saving an Arabic man forced to participate as a car bomber.
