Wolf Pack (2022) Review

“Wolf Pack” Theatrical Poster

Director: Michael Chiang
Cast: Max Zhang Jin, Aarif Lee, Jiang Luxia, Mark Luu, Ye Liu, Chang Yi, Tang Guozhong
Running Time: 90 min. 

By Paul Bramhall

Ever since Wolf Warrior practically created the Mainland Melody military genre in 2015, movies which sing the praises of China’s military might have become safe bets for local action filmmakers to bank on. At best, the military theme is used as an excuse to create ridiculously bombastic action sequences, such as Dante Lam’s Operation Red Sea (and to a lesser extent its predecessor Operation Mekong) and Wu Jing’s own sequel Wolf Warrior 2. However in recent years the genre has also made a home for itself in the lower budgeted Chinese web movie space, from 2019’s Wolves Action and its Fan Siu-Wong starring 2020 sequel, to the Vincent Zhao vehicle Counterattack from 2021.

Joining the ranks in 2022 is Max Zhang, who top bills the latest military themed action flick in the form of Wolf Pack. At this point there’s only so many more variances using the term ‘wolf’ that filmmakers can resort to. Zhang plays the leader of a private military company called Bei Wei (an awkwardly translated opening piece of onscreen text reads “No matter how powerful the enemy, Facing Bei Wei legion, will all be destroyed.”), who along with his team of 5 travel the globe taking out targets that could threaten China’s stability. 

For reasons that only serve to justify the movies existence, on his latest mission Zhang decides to kidnap a Chinese doctor who’s been living a nomadic life offering his services wherever they’re needed. Played by Aarif Lee (Kung Fu Yoga, The Thousand Faces of Dunjia), as with almost any Chinese production in recent years that’s supposed to feature some semblance to current affairs, in the opening scene we meet him working alongside other Chinese medics helping out in a less fortunate part of the world. The time around it’s Egypt, however no sooner has he decided it’s time to resume his life of wandering before he’s whisked away by Jiang Luxia (Double World, Sifu vs. Vampire), and forced to become a part of Zhang’s crew. It turns out Zhang has a connection to Lee’s father who was killed in mysterious circumstances, a fact which is leveraged to keep Lee reluctantly a part of the group in the hopes of uncovering the truth.

Far less interesting is the main plot, which involves some vaguely defined terrorist group called God Slave 206 wanting to cut off a gas pipeline that’s a joint venture between a local and Chinese company. Considering the similar gas pipeline issues going on in the real world at the time of Wolf Pack’s release the plot may seem timely, but it’s far from being particularly thrilling. Missions revolve around such bombastic objectives as destroying a set of fake pressure release valves, and whole action sequences are hinged on the fact that a contract needs to be co-signed by 2 parties within 60 seconds of each other. It’s fair to say in the stakes category we’re only a couple of notches up here from the African mobile phone network plot that 2017’s China Salesman concerned itself with.

Following his scene stealing villainous turns in the 2015 double whammy of SPL II: A Time for Consequences and Ip Man 3, for a moment there it seemed like Max Zhang could fill the gap in the Hong Kong action genre that Donnie Yen had been trying to do single handedly for the previous 10 years. While Zhang’s leading turns in the likes of The Brink and Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy were admirable, sadly his unhinged performance in Fruit Chan’s 2019 disaster Invincible Dragon felt like a career damaging move. Depending on your perspective, Wolf Pack sees that damage come to fruition, with Zhang largely playing things completely poker faced and stoic throughout. His character is attempted to be given a backstory, but it comes via exposition from other characters, and any characterisation derived from Zhang’s actual performance is non-existent.

Admittedly it’s not the fault of his performance alone. Wolf Pack is about as cookie cutter as it gets when it comes to this type of genre fare, with every aspect of the production settling for barely average and nothing more. All of the characters are cardboard cut outs, from the member of Zhang’s crew who’s an expecting father and carries around a baby scan photo, to the foreigner bad guys played by Jason Statham lookalike Diego Dati (Vanguard, One More Shot) and Liviu Covalschi (Take Point, Shock Wave 2). A common criticism towards many of these mid-budget productions and direct to web movies is that they’re just intended as time fillers for viewers to watch on their mobile devices. Personally I consider the sentiment an overly harsh brush stroke, but it’s easy to see how a production like Wolf Pack would lead to such lines of thought.

Director Michael Chiang previously helmed the similarly unremarkable Fearless (the 2012 thriller, not the Jet Li version) and Hero of the Beggars in 2013, with a seeming almost decade long gap before resurfacing to helm Wolf Pack. The highest compliment I can give is that he applies a workman like approach to the material, with even the required jingoism being surprisingly average. When Aarif Lee tries to leave the group, Jiang Luxia amusingly attempts to make him stay by yelling that they “sponsor more than 30 charity schools in China”, and a half-baked heart to heart between Lee and Zhang unfolds via a shot that awkwardly frames the Chinese flag between them. The swelling music that accompanies the scene only adds to the forced feel of an already unnecessary exchange, giving these moments an oddly surreal feel.

One move which should be a winning one is having the legendary Stephen Tung Wai on board to choreograph the action. With over 45 years of action choreography experience, as well as sitting in the director’s chair for the likes of 1995’s Fox Hunter and 1998’s Hitman, Tung Wai is a talent who for many will need no introduction. We’ll ignore the fact that he was also on choreography duty for the previously mentioned Invincible Dragon. Sadly Wolf Pack offers very few opportunities to display his craft, with the vast majority of the action being bland shootouts consisting of unrelated shots of the cast shooting at each other. There are a few fleeting moments which threaten to entertain, including a chase sequence between Lee and Dati, and the finale allows Luxia to unleash for a precious few seconds, before the expected showdown between Zhang and Dati.

Taking the form of a knife fight, much like the shootouts it’s a decidedly bland and perfunctory affair, suffering from the usual lack of power that tends to plague fight scenes in modern Chinese genre filmmaking. If anything, the fact that after the fight concludes Wolf Pack take an abrupt turn into a hilariously overwrought final 5 minutes, apparently under the impression we’ve just watched 100 minutes of heart string pulling heroics, only serves to further highlight how misplaced the filmmaker’s intentions are. 

In one scene it almost feels like the script acknowledges its own ludicrousness, when once the bomb that was intended to ignite the gas in the pipeline is disposed of, Lee turns to Zhang and says “they could have used anything to light it, why did they choose a big bomb!?” It’s a good question, and a scholar may theorise how the presence of a big bomb is a subtle indication of how the director feels towards the chances of Wolf Pack’s box office success. Considering its modest ambitions though that theory probably isn’t worth too much scrutiny, however with not a single standout moment or sequence that delivers a wow factor, if you never have an opportunity to check it out first hand, it’s difficult to say you’d be missing much.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 5/10