Operation Red Sea

Operation Red Sea is a 2018 Chinese-Hong Kong action war film directed by Dante Lam and starring Zhang Yi, Huang Jingyu, Hai Qing, Du Jiang and Jiang Luxia. The film is loosely based on the evacuation of foreign nationals and almost 600 Chinese citizens from Yemen's southern port of Aden during late March in 2015 Yemeni Civil War. According to Chinaculture.org, 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. This film is said to be "China's first modern naval film". The film has grossed USD$579 million, and received critical acclaim from critics, making it currently the eleventh-highest-grossing ever in China and highest grossing Chinese film in 2018. It was selected as the Hong Kong entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards, but it was not nominated. Plot While on duty and touring through the waters of the Red Sea, the Chinese Navy patrol fleet receives a distress call that Somali 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 of the Marine 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 on Yemen) on the Arabian Peninsula becomes unstable due to a military coup by General Sharaf (loosely based on Ali Abdullah Saleh), orders are given to evacuate local Chinese personnel and workers from the country.