Movies in General
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I prefer movies where where you leave ones brain at the door.
This was very very good. I will repeat. This is very good. Thank you.
2 stars deducted because of "relegation of women", and lack of LGBTQIA+ pilots.
Published: 12:45pm, 2 May, 2023
Updated: 12:59pm, 2 May, 2023
Wang Yibo (right) in a still from “Born to Fly” (category: IIA, Mandarin), directed by Liu Xiaoshi and co-starring Hu Jun and Zhou Dongyu.
3/5 stars
Touted as China’s answer to Top Gun: Maverick, first-time writer-director Liu Xiaoshi’s high-flying action drama Born to Fly follows a hot-headed young pilot, played by rising star Wang Yibo, as he is recruited by the military’s Flight Test Bureau to help develop a new stealth fighter.
While never reaching the dizzying heights of aerial audacity and cinematic spectacle showcased in , Born to Fly is a perfectly respectable Chinese crowd pleaser, juggling its prerequisite jingoism with enough crises of confidence and flyboy rivalries to keep audiences engaged.
Rather than detailing the training of young aviators in precision flying and their proficiency in aerial dogfights, the film is instead a story about the advancement of air force technology.
The military is concerned that it is falling behind, and that its outdated jets can no longer compete against the hi-tech “gen four” fighters of other, unnamed “hostile nations” (who speak English with American accents, incidentally).
As a result, the Flight Test Bureau summons the air force’s best and brightest to a remote desert facility where they must put a new stealth aircraft through its paces, under the guidance of commanding officer Zhang Ting (Hu Jun), and chief engineer Wei (filmmaker ).
Wang Yibo (top right) in a still from “Born to Fly”.
Born to Fly is, therefore, probably closer to Philip Kaufman’s The Right Stuff – in which Nasa’s first generation of astronauts risked their lives to put the first man into space – despite hitting many of the same story beats as in Tony Scott’s 1986 film Top Gun.
As Lei Yu, Wang () strikes the perfect balance between arrogant self-confidence, naive inexperience, and pretty boy good looks to carry the film, as he is reluctantly recruited, then ruthlessly demoted before clawing his way back into the cockpit after displaying an uncanny understanding for aeronautical engineering.
His relationships with other characters remain resolutely one-dimensional, however: Hu is the tough-but-fair mentor/father figure, Yu Shi the swaggering rival who ultimately kowtows to Lei Yu’s superior skill, while Zhou Dongyu is utterly wasted as the docile, fawning love interest.
A still from “Born to Fly”. Liu Xiaoshi’s directorial debut is an entertaining watch despite the characters’ one-dimensional relationships and marginalisation of women.
Despite the relegation of female characters to teary-eyed totems of inspiration for the male heroes, the thinly veiled jabs at the United States, and the lack of much in the way of aerial combat, Born to Fly still manages to entertain.
It is also a huge improvement on such shameless propaganda as the risible 2017 movie about military recruitment, even if that film did let fly a helicopter.
Born to Fly movie review – China’s answer to Top Gun: Maverick, starring Wang Yibo as a Chinese military pilot, is a high-flying crowd pleaser
- Liu Xiaoshi’s directorial debut about the testing of Chinese jets is rich in flyboy rivalry, with Wang Yibo perfect as an arrogant young pilot opposite Hu Jun
- A lack of aerial combat and relegation of women leaves it lagging behind Tom Cruise’s blockbuster, which it emulates. But it is a good watch nonetheless
Published: 12:45pm, 2 May, 2023
Updated: 12:59pm, 2 May, 2023
Wang Yibo (right) in a still from “Born to Fly” (category: IIA, Mandarin), directed by Liu Xiaoshi and co-starring Hu Jun and Zhou Dongyu.
3/5 stars
Touted as China’s answer to Top Gun: Maverick, first-time writer-director Liu Xiaoshi’s high-flying action drama Born to Fly follows a hot-headed young pilot, played by rising star Wang Yibo, as he is recruited by the military’s Flight Test Bureau to help develop a new stealth fighter.
While never reaching the dizzying heights of aerial audacity and cinematic spectacle showcased in , Born to Fly is a perfectly respectable Chinese crowd pleaser, juggling its prerequisite jingoism with enough crises of confidence and flyboy rivalries to keep audiences engaged.
Rather than detailing the training of young aviators in precision flying and their proficiency in aerial dogfights, the film is instead a story about the advancement of air force technology.
The military is concerned that it is falling behind, and that its outdated jets can no longer compete against the hi-tech “gen four” fighters of other, unnamed “hostile nations” (who speak English with American accents, incidentally).
As a result, the Flight Test Bureau summons the air force’s best and brightest to a remote desert facility where they must put a new stealth aircraft through its paces, under the guidance of commanding officer Zhang Ting (Hu Jun), and chief engineer Wei (filmmaker ).
Wang Yibo (top right) in a still from “Born to Fly”.
Born to Fly is, therefore, probably closer to Philip Kaufman’s The Right Stuff – in which Nasa’s first generation of astronauts risked their lives to put the first man into space – despite hitting many of the same story beats as in Tony Scott’s 1986 film Top Gun.
As Lei Yu, Wang () strikes the perfect balance between arrogant self-confidence, naive inexperience, and pretty boy good looks to carry the film, as he is reluctantly recruited, then ruthlessly demoted before clawing his way back into the cockpit after displaying an uncanny understanding for aeronautical engineering.
His relationships with other characters remain resolutely one-dimensional, however: Hu is the tough-but-fair mentor/father figure, Yu Shi the swaggering rival who ultimately kowtows to Lei Yu’s superior skill, while Zhou Dongyu is utterly wasted as the docile, fawning love interest.
A still from “Born to Fly”. Liu Xiaoshi’s directorial debut is an entertaining watch despite the characters’ one-dimensional relationships and marginalisation of women.
Despite the relegation of female characters to teary-eyed totems of inspiration for the male heroes, the thinly veiled jabs at the United States, and the lack of much in the way of aerial combat, Born to Fly still manages to entertain.
It is also a huge improvement on such shameless propaganda as the risible 2017 movie about military recruitment, even if that film did let fly a helicopter.
If not due to huge movie market, 9 out of 10 American movies' adversaries would be Chinese. Not sure what this idiot complains about. As for female characters, there just aren't many female pilots to begin with no matter how libertards think otherwise. But nobody should waste time to read SCMP's movie review, these people could even find none of representatives of black people offensive in Chinese movies.
Just an additional note but this is the perfect example of "they need us, not we need them". We can have our adversaries in our movies whereas they cannot. Hollywood and the US movie consumer market can collapse tomorrow and we would still be racking up the money.
Yes thanks for the recommendation. I indeed have watched it and recommended it to others to. Leinis actually from Dongbei not Taiwan.
I have not completed it yet, just 3 quarters cuz its very long and towards the end I got distracted. One of my fave Chinese ancient drama. I feel it's different from FRR cuz one obviously is a tv series and other a movie. FRR is more of a murder mystery set in ancient china with a dash patriotic theme. The TLDIC have been compared to 24 set in ancient Tang, I never watched 24 so I don't know how true that is but the costume, cinematography and production values of TLDIC is definitely top notch . I would say it's major Hollywood movie standards. I was very impressed.
Ironically in the beginning stages I thought poorly of Jackson Yee acting compared to Lei JiaYin an accomplished actor due to other comments and my own biasedness. But towards the end, I started to think Yee performed better than Lei. I think Lei was really good in FRR but he scowled too much in TLDIC for my liking makes his badassness seem too forced lol.
Yeah I got alot of negative comments on it from people I trust so I have avoided watching it so far.
Basically it would be like how they treat Russians in Hollywood movies, plus added yellow peril and anti Chinese racism.
At present, Chinese military enthusiasts have strongly criticized this film.
After a famous military enthusiast's movie review was deleted, things got even worse.
The current objections can be summarized as follows:
1、The film creation team lacks respect for the Air Force and is unwilling to learn about the Air Force and aviation industry. This means that investors only want to borrow the support of the military to promote their actors, and they do not care about the image of the military or the narrative quality of the film.
2、 Another confirmation of the corrupt practices in the Chinese film industry. For example, creating fake box offices - making late night empty cinemas "full", a phenomenon satirized as "millions of ghosts/百万阴兵".
In addition, some people pointed out that the director of the film lacked shooting experience and had very few works. In fact, he was a vassal of the film producer Han Han(韩寒）. Han Han is a young writer and racing driver, but he has a strong individualistic tendency and liberal thinking. Unfortunately, the protagonists in the movie also exhibit various forms of personal heroism, disobedient to commands, arbitrary, and even installing their own made deceleration parachutes for airplanes.
3、The producers suppress opposition opinions, even order the removal of critical comments, and incite online violence.
This phenomenon is destined to not improve for a long time. Because military enthusiasts have high demands. Someone commented, "It is difficult to obtain profits from male audiences, but women are different. As long as a delicate male actor (or an actor like a male prostitute) appears in the camera, these female audiences don't care how bad the movie is. Moreover, even better, due to their lack of acting skills and simply being good-looking, these people are very easy to control for investors. Without the huge cost of publicity from investors, they are worthless."
