OPERATION HADAL (蛟龙行动)

Genre: Action
Director: Dante Lam
Cast: Huang Xuan, Yu Shi, Zhang Hanyu, Duan Yihong
Runtime: 2 hr 10 mins
Rating: NC16 (Violence)
Released By: GV
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 11 September 2025

Synopsis: OPERATION HADAL is the big budget sequel to the Chinese action blockbuster, OPERATION RED SEA.

An offshore platform, Deep Blue 3, located in Chinese territorial waters, has been forcibly occupied by mercenaries. In response, the Chinese Navy sets sail to repel the invaders, while the Jiao Long commando team fights bravely to reclaim control of the platform. As this high-stakes deep-sea battle unfolds, the mercenaries' conspiracy is gradually revealed, presenting the Chinese Navy with unprecedented challenges.

Movie Review:

Few Hong Kong directors can do adrenaline-pumping spectacle like Dante Lam, and it is no wonder after a track record of blockbuster hits like ‘Operation Mekong’, ‘Operation Red Sea’ and ‘The Rescue’ that he would be given a whopping RMB$1 billion to devise his own sequel to ‘Operation Red Sea’.

Never mind if you did not see its gritty, intense and frankly very well-done predecessor, ‘Operation Hadal’ is pretty much a standalone follow-up, even as it sees the return of the elite Jiaolong (a.k.a. Sea Dragon) unit. This time though, they have clearly been given a tech refresh, seeing as how in the opening sequence they are seen flying across the ocean using jetpacks to mount a surprise counter-attack on a group of foreign mercenaries who have seized a Chinese oil rig.

It is also the first sign that ‘Operation Hadal’ is less grounded than ‘Operation Red Sea’, and indeed, Lam, with his ‘The Rescue’ screenwriter Zhi Yaqing, spins a wholly fictional tale about an unexpected nuclear threat by a rogue military commander of the state of Siekerman. In addition to having surreptitiously established two nuclear armed bases as well as a number of mid-sized nuclear bombs atop an underwater volcanic fault, the state of Siekerman also possess advanced submarine capabilities, supersonic missiles and – get this – mechanical combat dogs.

Like we said, Lam isn’t after realism in his latest show of bombast; instead, for a good two-and-a-half hours, he aims to numb his audience’s senses with non-stop, frenetic action. Whether is it submarine versus submarine combat, or Jiaolongs versus the Siekerman military on the underwater Sun and Moon bases (I kid you not), Lam shows no restraint unleashing gunfight after gunfight, explosion after explosion, so much so that before the first half-hour is over, you’ll be exhausted from the sheer onscreen mayhem.

Lam also lets loose his worst excesses, throwing any hint of nuance far out the window. Barely bothering to justify the East versus West contrast, Lam paints the Siekermans as a bunch of American-accented terrorists who have no qualms to unleash nuclear havoc upon the world. Neither too does he hold back portraying the patriotic Jiaolongs as the saviours of the day, and if you might believe him, the guardians of world peace, complete with shamelessly jingoistic shots and proclamations.

Even more egregious is his sheer unwillingness to give any shade of character to the Jiaolongs. Besides Zhang Hanyu as the fearless commander of the PLA Navy’s state-of-the-art Longjing submarine, as well as a special appearance by Duan Yihong as the commander’s superior, the rest of the Jiaolongs are indistinguishable from each other , sans maybe for a magic-eared sonar specialist, whom in the film’s most deus-ex-machina moment is able to differentiate the sound of a decoy from that of the whirring of a submarine engine. Lam has assembled a credible ensemble of young actors to play the Jiaolongs, but hasn’t bothered to lend any sufficient definition to any of their characters to make much of an impression.

What Lam succeeds in doing is amping up the military action to unprecedented proportions in Chinese cinema – oh yes, even more than before, Lam has thrown aside all inhibitions to revel in his biggest budget yet and his most extensive array of PLA hardware. To be sure, ‘Operation Hadal’ isn’t unwatchable if you’re a hardcore action junkie; but everyone else looking for anything more will be sorely disappointed that there is hardly anything beneath the metal, the posturing, and the sensory overload.

Movie Rating:

(All empty bombast and nothing more, this follow-up to 'Operation Red Sea' is a tedious and frustrating watch)

Review by Gabriel Chong