Operation Hadal (Special Edition)

蛟龙行动 （特别版）

Hong Kong/China, 2025, colour, 2.35:1, 129 mins.

Director: Lin Chaoxian 林超贤 [Dante Lam].

Rating: 3/10.

Non-stop, repetitive action and almost zero human interest sink this splashy submarine drama set in the Asia-Pacific.

STORY

Exclusive Economic Zone S-47 Sea Area, somewhere off the coast of China, the present day. Following a super-typhoon, divers from Shenlan 3 production platform are sent down to inspect the damage to some underwater pipelines and discover an unmanned underwater vehicle, which they hawl onto the rig. Then a team of armed, English-speaking frogmen board the rig and seize the vehicle in order to transmit its data. The Chinese navy arrives and eight members of the Jiaolong commando unit, led by Meng Chuang (Huang Xuan), board the rig using jet packs and kill some of the frogmen. However, others, including their leader Walter (Bryan Larkin), escape. A Shadow-class attack submarine appears and tries to torpedo the Chinese navy’s attack submarine Lansha, commanded by Zhao Qihong (Zhang Hanyu). It is unsuccessful and vanishes into the dangerous Phlegethon’s Waters, where there is an active lava flow. Zhao Qihong decides to pursue it but in the middle of the chase there’s an eruption by an underwater volcano. It turns out that the frogmen mercenaries were sent by the state of Siekerman 希凯克洲尔门, which has repeatedly been causing trouble in the Asia-Pacific region. Despite some damage, the Lansha makes it safely home. Some months later China’s Anti-Submarine Warfare Command Post receives intelligence that Siekerman has now sent the Hunter-class nuclear submarine Abyss to execute the top-secret Project Stellar 恒星 in the Asia-Pacific region. Abyss is a generation ahead of any submarine that China has. Despite that, it sends its most advanced submarine, the Longjing, to investigate, and chief of staff Fang Yi (Duan Yihong) insists that his old friend Zhao Qihong commands it, even though the latter was intending to retire from active duty and teach. At Wusongjing naval base the Jiaolong commando unit, numbering 13 people under Meng Chuang, arrive to join the Longjing. Relations between Meng Chuang and his deputy, fellow commando Han Xiao (Yu Shi), an old childhood friend, are tense. Meng Chuang has also lost any feeling in his left cheek, scarred during serving on the Lansha. Chinese naval intelligence is not sure precisely where the Abyss is heading but it could be the Phlegethon’s Waters. Meanwhile, Walter and his Thunderwave special forces board the Abyss, which is commanded by George (John Arnold) and executive officer Lark (Kris Gummerus), who disagrees with Walter over Project Stellar. The first contact between Longjing and Abyss leads Zhao Qihong to think that Abyss is heading for Snow Chime Island 北雪鸣島. Meanwhile, Walter takes over command of the Abyss by force, and Zhao Qihong is informed by naval intelligence that Project Stellar involves a devastating nuclear weapon developed years earlier that a mutinous group in Siekerman now wants to re-activate.

REVIEW

High-tech submarines battle it out somewhere in the Asia-Pacific in Operation Hadal 蛟龙行动, another in the series of Mainland-funded action flag-wavers by Hong Kong film-maker Lin Chaoxian 林超贤 [Dante Lam], following Operation Mekong 湄公河行动 (2016) and Operation Red Sea 红海行动 (2018). Unfortunately, the film-makers seem blissfully unaware that the era of these kind of Wolf Warrior 战狼 movies has long past – and also that it’s much harder to make the kind of bang-bang-boom-boom movies that Lin specialises in when most of the action takes place underwater. Both Mekong and Red Sea took a lot of money (RMB1.2 billion, RMB3.65 billion) but Hadal flopped badly. Initially released (only in China) in a 145-minute version on 29 Jan 2025 as a New Year attraction (see poster, left), it was withdrawn on 15 Feb, partly blaming a bungled marketing campaign for its lack of success. Six months later, at the end of August, it was re-released in China in a “Special Edition” (reviewed here) that was 16 minutes shorter; that version was then released in the rest of the Far East in September. The film’s total hawl has been a mere RMB390 million, against a reported production budget of around RMB1 billion.

In the seven years since Red Sea, Lin has not been idle, directing two notable action segments of The Battle at Lake Changjin 长津湖 (2021) – when Chinese troops are strafed in a sea of boulders by US planes, and a half-hour sequence when they take out a US signals tower at night – as well as two features – coastguard drama The Rescue 紧急救援 (2020), starring Taiwan’s Peng Yuyan 彭于晏 [Eddie Peng], and Bursting Point 爆裂点 (2023), an anti-drugs-trafficking drama starring Hong Kong’s Zhang Jiahui 张家辉 [Nick Cheung]. On the latter Lin was billed as “chief director” 总导演, with fellow Hong Konger Tang Weihan 唐唯瀚, an assistant director on Red Sea and The Rescue, billed as director. Both films lost money at the box office.

Hadal is presented as a follow-up to Red Sea (Lin’s biggest success ever) but the only things in common between the two movies are the use of the word “operation”, the reliance on non-stop action, their gung-ho, flag-waving tone, and, more pertinently, their focus on a commando group called Jiaolong. However, the group this time has a new leader and the only repeat members are deputy leader Xu Hong (played by actor Du Jiang 杜江) and machine-gunner Tong Li (played by martial-arts tomboy Jiang Luxia 蒋璐霞). As the token woman in the whole film, Jiang, now 38 and again shaven-headed, is barely recognisable, and neither her nor Du’s character stand out in any way from the sea of grunts.

Hadal’s two hours are 95% action, starting with a setpiece of guerrilla frogmen trying to take over an oil/gas rig and followed by a prolonged pursuit of an enemy submarine into dangerous volcanic waters where the Chinese sub, the Lansha, runs into trouble. The story continues after the main title 18 minutes in, as Chinese naval intelligence learns that the guerrillas were sent by the state of “Siekerman”, which has (nudge-nudge) “repeatedly engaged in acts of provocation in the Asia-Pacific” and is represented here by English-speakers with (nudge-nudge) strong American accents. “Siekerman” is now sending a Hunter-class nuclear sub, Abyss, to execute the top-secret Project Stellar, which involves a devastating (i.e. nuclear) weapon in the same volcanic area as earlier. China sends its best sub, Longjing, to investigate, with the same Lansha captain and the same Jiaolong commandos on board.

Even more than Mekong and Red Sea, Hadal is action cinema on steroids. Visually it’s all swooping and tracking camerawork, multi-speed photography, tracking shots along gantries and through narrow corridors; verbally it’s all barked orders (in Chinese and English) and gung-ho attitude. The men, whether in dark glasses or uniform are hardly differentiated and remain undeveloped as characters beyond the briefest of scenes, and the only personal conflict (which essentially goes nowhere) is between the two childhood friends who lead the Jiaolong team.

If all that was not enough to ensure the audience’s lack of involvement, the film’s biggest weakness is the sheer repetitiveness of the non-stop action. Unlike on the ground (or even, to a lesser extent, in the air) there’s a very limited menu of action available underwater, apart from shouting orders and running around inside a sub, despatching torpedoes and watching them travel through the sea on screens, and having occasional shoot-outs in narrow corridors or crashing a sub into something on the ocean floor. With no character development, virtually no downtime to distinguish personalities, and none of the kind of silent, claustrophobic tension often found in submarine movies, Hadal simply becomes boring very quickly. Lin’s forte is with above-ground action, splashy bang-bang-boom-boom stuff with lots of gunfire and big explosions.

Technically the film is very well tooled, and a lot of time and money has clearly been poured into making the subs’ high-tech interiors as impressive as possible. The widescreen photography by Hong Kong veteran Bao Dexi 鲍德喜 [Peter Pau] has a steely-blue sheen throughout and editing by the Mainland’s He Yongyi 何永祎 (who worked with Lin on Lake Changjin) is utterly smooth. Music by Hong Kong’s Liang Haoyi 梁皓一, Lin’s regular composer since Red Sea, strives for the heroic but remains unmemorable wallpaper. Among the performers, Huang Xuan 黄轩 makes a dull replacement for Zhang Yi 张译 as the commandos’ leader, while Zhang Hanyu 张涵予, a veteran of this kind of iron-jawed stuff, tries his best to etch a character as the Chinese sub’s captain. Others, including Duan Yihong 段奕宏 guest-starring as a chief of staff, hardly make an impression.

The film shot from Jan-Jun 2024 at studios in Qingdao, northern China, with a massive crew that topped 1,300 people at its peak and a detailed 1:1 replica of the Chinese sub Longjing. Creative producer 监制 on the whole thing was Hong Kong’s Liang Fengying 梁凤英 [Candy Leung], who’s worked with Lin for some three decades. The film’s Chinese title means “Operation Jiaolong”, referring to the commando unit named after the mythical dragon that can conjure up floods and storms. During production the English title was Operation Leviathan. The “hadal” zone is the deepest parts of the ocean, below 6,000 metres.

CREDITS

Presented by Beijing Bona Film Group (CN), Star Dream Studio Media (Ningbo) (CN), Huaxia Film Distribution (CN), Guangzhou Radio & TV Network Media Group (CN). Produced by Film Fireworks (HK).

Script: Tan Yuli, Wang Shengbo. First-draft script: Feng Ji. Original story: Lin Chaoxian [Dante Lam]. Photography: Bao Dexi [Peter Pau]. Editing: He Yongyi. Music: Liang Haoyi. Production design: Zhuo Wenyao. Art direction: Zhou Defu. Costume design: Zhang Shijie [Stanley Cheung], Deng Ruhao. Styling: Zhang Shijie [Stanley Cheung]. Sound: James Ashton. Action design: Lin Chaoxian [Dante Lam]. Action: Brett Chan, Zhang Xi. Visual effects: Gao Feng, Gang Tae-gyu, Zhan Hansu, Lin Songqing. Military art advice: Yang Xiuchen. Maritime engineering advice: Zhong Jieting.

Cast: Huang Xuan (Meng Chuang, Jiaolong leader, commando), Zhang Hanyu (Zhao Qihong, Lansha/Longjing captain), Duan Yihong (Fang Yi, chief of staff), Wang Junkai (Cao Honglang, sonar operator), Yu Shi (Han Xiao, Jiaolong member, commando), Du Jiang (Xu Hong, Jiaolong deputy leader, demolitions), Li Chen (Zhou Peilin, Longjing commander), Jiang Luxia (Tong Li, Jiaolong member, machine-gunner), Wang Yanlin (Luo Xing, Jiaolong member, sniper), Han Dongjun (Qin Dawei, Jiaolong member), Li Jiuxiao (Ding Sikai, Jiaolong member), Yu Zhen (Gao Jun, Jiaolong member), Yuan Wenkang (Chen Chang’an, Jiaolong member), Gao Ge (Ling Feng, Jiaolong member), Sun Yi (Xing Lei, Jiaolong member), Ye He (Zhai Huan, Jiaolong member), Bryan Larkin (Walter, admiral, Thunderwave head), John Arnold (George, Abyss captain), Andy Friend (Miller, Stellar Base captain), Kris Gummerus (Lark, Abyss executive officer), Steven A. Davis (Layman, Phantom captain), Brett Chan (Abyss second mate).

Release: Hong Kong, 11 Sep 2025; China, 30 Aug 2025.