Wolf Pack (狼群, 2022)
Director (and writer): Michael Chiang
Cast: Max Zhang, Aarif Lee, Luxia Jiang, Ye Liu, Yi Zhang, Gianluca Zoppa
While seeking answers about his father’s suspicious death, a tactically trained physician infiltrates a mercenary group and soon uncovers a dangerous international conspiracy that could threaten the lives of millions of civilians. – Well Go USA
Wolf Pack is the directorial debut of Singaporean screenwriter-playwright Michael Chiang while also penning the script of this action thriller which follows a young physician that gets caught up in a mercenary group as he tries to learn about his father’s death which gets thrown into an international conspiracy.
When we look at the script of Wolf Pack, its not necessarily the most original idea about mercenaries and international conspiracies, not even how the whole issue pans out. However, what does stand out is the little moments that add together to create a lot of variety and maybe a little unintended comedy to lighten up the mood in an increasingly tense plot. Despite that, the film does keep a steady tone and keeps things focused on a different view of mercenaries and focuses a lot on having good and bad guys in any spectrum whether its political or solely in the mercenary world.
As we follow the main character Ke Tong (Aarif Rahman) and learns more about this mercenary group which he basically got kidnapped into by one of the members called Monster (Luxia Jiang), he realizes that there’s a strong sense of belonging, loyalty and righteousness in this group that extends further than simply making money under the leadership of Lao Diao (Max Zhang). Loyalty and righteousness, good and evil are usually common themes in Chinese films which root from classic Chinese stories and the fact that its implemented here fairly subtly does work well. What doesn’t work as well is the melodramatic bits which is a normal staple in Chinese cinema but loses a little bit of its momentum when not executed well.
Wolf Pack does hit a lot of good elements where it counts. The casting here is pretty solid. Max Zhang has been in the business for a long time starting out as a stunt actor and eventually getting his own films. He has been part of some Hollywood films in minor roles like Pacific Rim Uprising. His wushu training from when he was an athlete lends well to his action sequences. While this film leans heavily on the firearms elements, there were a few close combat moments which was able to show off some of his skills.
The same applies for Luxia Jiang who is also trained in martial arts and wushu. However, her role of Monster has a lot more room to play around as the character brings in a little charisma to the group of men in this mercenary crew. Both Max Zhang and Luxia Jiang deliver pretty decent roles here. The mercenary crew as a whole work well while the other members have less screen time outside of the action scenes, they each do represent their role in the crew well. The cast on the whole is pretty decent especially since this involves an international plot and the English dialogue all lands pretty well.
For fans of mercenary films with lots of shootouts and infiltration, Wolf Pack is a fun choice. Of course, for those less familiar with Chinese films, perhaps there might be a little bit of dramatic moments that might feel more than what the film needs. However, Wolf Pack is a surprisingly satisfying and entertaining action film. While its a little thin on the hand to hand combat which is what Max Zhang and Luxia Jiang is trained in, there’s still enough action to keep this a thrilling film experience.
*Wolf Pack is currently available digitally on Well Go USA*