In August 2015, a series of massive explosions and fires rocked the city of Tianjin in northern China, the main port for Beijing. The new movie The Bravest (Lie huo ying xiong) tells the story of the firefighters who worked for days to contain the blazes.
The film follows the classic structure for a disaster movie: introduce several characters, get their back stories, set up the disaster, and stand back and watch how they deal with it. It this case, we see the residents of the port city deal with a total of 10 massive explosions (one of which released the equivalent of 336 tons of TNT) over 3 days. Of the 173 people eventually killed, 104 were firefighters. Hundreds more were injured, and eight remained missing, as the fires and explosions continued. Complicating the response was the fact that multiple toxic substances were stored at the port, which released toxic gases such as cyanide when they ignited. The chemicals contaminated the water and air for miles, and thousands of people were displaced by the disaster.
Director Tony Chan (Combination Platter, Love in Space) and writer Chao Wang (The Orphan of Anyang) highlight the human costs of the disaster and the challenges posed not only by the situation but also by the government. And the movie is clearly resonating with Chinese audiences, with a total box office of 281 million yuan ($40.5 million) after only 4 days of wide release. Popular Chinese actors Xiaoming Huang, Jiang Du, Zhuo Tan, and Zi Yang also aren’t hurting the bottom line.
The Bravest comes to the U.S. on August 9.
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