Ocean Rescue Movie Synopsis: China's Navy and Intelligence Agents Fight International Terrorists Who Have Excavated a Nuclear Bomb from the Ocean Floor

A limited-budget action movie, with the Chinese navy and intelligence agencies battling international terrorists who have unearthed a nuclear bomb from the ocean floor, Ocean Rescue is a routine movie that seems to end after an hour, then changes storylines for the next half hour. The movie shows signs of drastic editing, judging by its muddled narrative, and the fights, as well as the action sequences in general, are cut too tightly, reducing their impact and clarity. Reminiscent of 1990s Hong Kong action movies, with fighting girls and tough heroes, the movie grossed a meager RMB20 million when released in Mainland China in the spring.

Amazingly, the creative producer is credited as veteran producer-director Huang Jianxin, although there is no trace of his usual quality control, at least in the final release version. The director is Shen Dong, who honed his skills directing war films for August First Studio (Death and Glory in Changde, 2010) as well as various other films, including a fine film in praise of China's manned space program, The Space Dream (2011), and the more routine melodrama Six Years, Six Days (2017). Ocean Rescue - shot in 2018 in southern China's Guangdong province, with a mixed Chinese crew, including action stunt double Chen Guanghong [Joe Chan] - falls into the latter camp, with a script written by Mainland army officer/writer-director Duan Lianmin that is entirely by the numbers.

Most are TV actors, Yan Yikuan is equally stiff here as the famous forensic pathologist in Whisper of Silent Body, while fellow TV actor Wu Haochen is somewhat limited by his geeky role that is never allowed to develop. Most of the characters played come from the inexperienced side of the cast, with Qu Jingjing in a larger-than-usual role as a zealous intelligence agent who has a past history with Yan's character and Ai Xiaoqi as a jovial technician who takes a liking to naval officer Wu. Qu acquits himself well in the action scenes, and there is even a generic fight with a western villain (played by Russian ballroom dancer turned martial artist Stas Levi), although the staging of the fight (by Hong Kong's Huang Mingsheng) is mediocre. The Western roles are as usual one-dimensional. The Chinese title means “Deep Sea Crisis”, although very few movies are set underwater.

Synopsis of the movie Ocean Rescue

China, present day. Mike Steele (Aleksandr Tereshchenkov), an Irish nuclear weapons specialist, is assassinated at the United Nations in New York by terrorists and his briefcase is stolen. Soon after, in China's territorial waters, a suspicious old cargo ship that could be linked to terrorists is spotted, and Interpol asks the Chinese navy to investigate. In addition, a few days earlier, an international terrorist suspected of being involved in the murder of Mike Steele had appeared in a Chinese border town. Lin Zhan (Yan Yikuan), deputy chief of the navy's Special Forces Group, is assigned by the navy's Chief of Staff (Li Youbin) to meet a government agent at a hotel in the area. The agent turns out to be Xia Su (Qu Jingjing), Lin Zhan's former fiancée who left him standing at the altar on their wedding day and then disappeared. Lin Zhan and Xia Su are suddenly involved in a shootout at the hotel with terrorists, including Serafima Egorovna, now known as Sihna Narinskaya (Stas Levi), who manages to escape on a motorcycle and then a speedboat. Xia Su still refuses to explain to Lin Zhan why she left him on their wedding day. But she is then ordered by her boss, deputy national security chief Fang (You Yongzhi), to work alongside Li Zhan and 3rd Company Commander of Naval Special Forces Wang Haiquan (Wu Haochen).

For the mission he assigns a technical specialist, his friend Li Qianyu (Ai Xiaoqi), who happens to like the geeky Wang Haiquan. The quartet board a small boat to investigate an airplane that may be linked to a suspicious cargo ship. Pretending to be out of fuel, Li Zhan & Co. are invited aboard for tea; but then the head boatman (Hu Jianwen) sends two planes to kill them. Wang Haiquan and Li Qianyu manage to survive, but Li Zhan and Xia Su are stranded on a desert island, where they are chased by terrorists, but rescued at the last moment by the Chinese navy. 

Back at the hotel, Li Zhan and Xia Su resolve their differences. Chinese intelligence learned that the terrorists wanted to retrieve a nuclear bomb that was on a foreign submarine that sank on November 5, 1986 in Area 9, in international waters. Xia Su asked Fang to be allowed to take over the mission. She swam alone to the cargo ship, but was captured. He recognizes the terrorist leader, who now calls himself James Vincent, as Juan Fernandez (Isaac Fernandez), who he was once with at an antiterrorism training camp. Vincent has now become a criminal “for the sake of world peace”. Xia Su sends back images through the small camera in the ring she wears.

Vincent orders Sihna Narinskaya, his girlfriend, to tie Xia Su up and throw her into the sea. Xia Su is saved from drowning by Lin Zhan, who has set out alone to find her. The two secretly reboard the ship and hear from kidnapped rocket engineer William Connor (Van De Grac) that Vincent is planning a missile attack with a nuclear bomb in a few hours' time.