Released theatrically last year, Born to Fly follows pilots undergoing rigorous training in order to test mainland China’s experimental stealth fighter jet. Deeply patriotic and extremely silly, it’s propaganda devoid of suspense, humor, and credible characterizations.
The screenplay by Gui Gang and director Liu Xiaoshi follows the Top Gun: Maverick template pretty closely. Bookended by dogfights after incursions by foreign fighters into Chinese air space, the movie then introduces us to a military suffering from a raging inferiority complex.
“The first battle is the final battle,” an officer warns his students. Other countries help each other out, but “we are on our own.” Perfecting a stealth fighter jet is the only way China can protect itself from invaders.
To test the new “Taishan” engine, recruits take physical and psychological exercises designed to weed out the weak. Hero Lei Yu (Wang Yibo) competes against rival Deng Fang (Yu Shi) for the top spot, but is too individualistic to succeed.
Forced to fly with team leader Zhang Ting (Hu Jun), Lei becomes resentful. The movie also suggests he might be a bit of a coward when he ejects from a crippled jet. Another crash leads to Zhang’s death as he heroically steers his jet away from a populated area rather than saving himself.
Born to Fly milks this sequence for everything it can get. We see Zhang’s family before, during, and after the crash, his young son bursting into tears now that he can’t have noodles with his father. A long funeral service gives everyone else in the cast the chance to cry. (It’s actually the second visit to a vast cemetery for pilots.)
Lei Yu had quit the group earlier, only to return after learning his lesson by packing parachutes for the true heroes, pilots willing to give up their lives to help others. He’s badly injured in the Zhang crash, and is nursed back to health by Dr. Shen Tianran (Zhou Dongyu).
Now a functioning part of the unit, Lei Yu implements his innovation of attaching an anti-spin parachute to the jets. (It’s the spectacularly non-aerodynamic equivalent of a T-shirt cannon bolted to the back of the jet.) Another near-crash sequence mirrors the beats of a sequence in Top Gun: Maverick.
One more inconclusive dogfight, the hint of a chaste romance between Lei Yu and Shen, and Born to Fly ends with what seem to be recorded transcripts of actual pilots.
It’s a measure of Born to Fly‘s failure, its lack of imagination, that the filmmakers shoehorn Zhou Dongyu into the thankless role of lovestruck doctor. One of the best performers in cinema, she can’t do much with such a paper-thin, emotionally demeaning role.
A fixture in propaganda films, Hu Jun is appropriately stalwart as a veteran who leads by example. The other pilots are good-looking but essentially anonymous.
Credits: Directed by Liu Xiaoshi. Screenplay by Gui Gang and Liu Xiaoshi. Director of photography: Bai Yuxia. Director of lighting: Ma Qingyuan. Original music: Guo Sida. Visual effects producer: Jessica Yang. Visual effects supervisor: Wang Shaoshuai. Production designer: Qin Weili. Cast: Wang Yibo, Hu Jun, Yu Shi, Zhou Dongyu, Bu Yu, Zhai Yujia, Wang Zichen, Lu Xin, Qu Zheming.
Released on Digital and Blu-ray on March 26 by Well Go USA Entertainment. Photos courtesy Well Go USA Entertainment.
