Wolf Totem

Name: Wolf Totem
Genre: Adventure
Released: September 11, 2015
Duration: 121 min
Rating: 58
Cast: Ankhnyam Ragchaa, Shaofeng Feng, Shawn Dou, Yin Zhusheng

2015

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews

See All

USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 10 Ratings

See All

6.2

VOTE NOW

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

6.2	Your Score
6.2	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 10 Ratings

Would you like to write a review?

There is a 75 character minimum for reviews. If your review contains spoilers, please check the Spoiler box. Please do not use ALL CAPS. There is no linking or other HTML allowed. Your review may be edited for content. 0/5000

Check box if your review contains spoilers

Play Sound

Please enter your birth date to watch this video:

You are not allowed to view this material at this time.

Wolf Totem (US)

Now Playing: Wolf Totem (US)

Movie Details & Credits

Columbia Pictures | Release Date: September 11, 2015 | PG-13

Starring: Ankhnyam Ragchaa, Shaofeng Feng, Shawn Dou, Yin Zhusheng

Summary: In 1967, a young Beijing student, Chen Zhen, is sent to live among the nomadic herdsmen of Inner Mongolia. Caught between the advance of civilization from the south and the nomads' traditional enemies - the marauding wolves - to the north; humans and animals, residents and invaders alike, struggle to find their true place in the world.

Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud

Genre(s): Adventure

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 121 min

See All Details and Credits

Watch Now

Stream On

Buy on

Stream On

Expand

Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

Tirdad Derakhshani

Sep 10, 2015

Wolf Totem has some of the most exciting, mind-blowing scenes of nature I've ever seen. Read full review

Lou Lumenick

Sep 10, 2015

Be warned that Wolf Totem, featuring one of the final scores by the late great James Horner, is probably too brutal for younger children and more sensitive animal lovers. Read full review

Sheri Linden

Sep 10, 2015

There's no denying the beauty of the film's imagery, violent and tender, or the emotional power of the final moment in the boy-and-his-dog love story. Read full review

The Guardian Phil Hoad

Sep 5, 2015

Annaud’s film can’t help itself galloping off in allegorical bursts barely under his control, and intriguingly off-course from the kind of bold messages of national conciliation officially sanctioned Chinese films tend to convey. Read full review

Ben Kenigsberg

Sep 10, 2015

The landscape and painstakingly trained wolves are the true stars. Read full review

Barbara VanDenburgh

Sep 10, 2015

Wolf Totem doesn’t feel so much like fully formed narrative film as it does a trumped up National Geographic special on Inner Mongolia eager to make use of shiny new IMAX cameras. Read full review

Boyd van Hoeij

Sep 5, 2015

Tellingly, all of the film’s emotional highlights come from scenes involving the animal rather than the human protagonists and there are only very few scenes in which the two interact in a manner that feels entirely synergetic. Read full review

SEE ALL 13 REVIEWS

Write a Review

User Reviews

Marty50s

Dec 20, 2015

Moving and visually stunning autobiographical film involving Mongolians shepherds and wolves, both groups affected by encroaching settlements and bureaucratic regulations enforced by the Communist Party overseers, during the Cultural Revolution in China in the late 1960s. A BeijingMoving and visually stunning autobiographical film involving Mongolians shepherds and wolves, both groups affected by encroaching settlements and bureaucratic regulations enforced by the Communist Party overseers, during the Cultural Revolution in China in the late 1960s. A Beijing university student is sent to live with nomadic shepherds and learns their ways, including their interaction which wolves, which has a spiritual significance to them. When the ecological balance is altered by human greed, there are fatal consequences for both humans and animals.

While the photography captures the rugged majesty of the steppes in all its beauty and the action sequences are thrilling, this man versus nature drama portraits its characters with veracity never resorting to superhuman heroics or histrionics. Life is frail for both humans and wolves in their struggle for survival, wolves are not anthropomorphized, the Mongolian lifestyle is not romanticized, there are no easy solutions.

Perfectly acted with flawless cinematography, this a must-see films for nature lovers and those who are concerned about the environment. The rest of the viewers should also be rewarded by this poignant and compelling real life story.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

alessandrovergn

Mar 27, 2017

A movie worth watching, visually enchanting, fantastic photography, true story although the adaptation from the book obviously had to leave something out. Incredible training of 35 wolves that took 4 years...for this reason alone the movie is worth 5 stars.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

LeZee

Jul 24, 2016

When the man and the nature overlaps.

A semi biographical adventure-drama from China directed by the French director known for 'Seven Years in Tibet'. He was chosen after many Chinese filmmakers refused to take the project, because of the dedication it required. The film highlighted theWhen the man and the nature overlaps.

A semi biographical adventure-drama from China directed by the French director known for 'Seven Years in Tibet'. He was chosen after many Chinese filmmakers refused to take the project, because of the dedication it required. The film highlighted the outcome of the two ethnic groups, Mongols and Hans overlapping with the mother nature. The film should have been one of the best in the line of 'Siberia Monamour', but there a few things that did not work in its favour.

It was just like the 'Embrace of the Serpent', based on a person who went to a distant place with a motive, but learnt another thing. Especially realsing the value of the native people and their land and culture. The main character was totally resembling to the Brad Pitt's role from 'Seven Years in Tibet' and very inspiring. You learn nothing by observing afar, you have to get in and get along to gain knowledge of the place. So you have to be one of them in order to see through their eyes of the place and then would find its true identity.

The tale begins in the late 60s during the China's cultural revolution. Two young students from Beijing sent to a remote place in the Inner Mongolia to teach the locals read and write. Instead, one of them gets interested in wolves and decides to study them by raising a cub. During that time, the confrontation between the wolves and for the human encroachment of their natural habitant determines the future of the grassland. The ultimate face-off between them ends with the emotional.

"The problem for us Mongols is that our history wasn't written by us, but mostly by our enemies."

When you don't belong to that place, you should not intervene in its natural order. The China's history is always bad when it comes to the land grabbing, either it is the ongoing South China Sea dispute or the Tibet and thousands of others. This is such a film made by China itself that spotlights their wrongdoings. Just see the film to know how much different the Mongolian, especially the nomad culture and the Han-Chinese. They' both saw the mother nature with different intentions. So imposing one land's rule to another does not work and that's the film's most important message.

Very sad the film was not realistic since it was based on a real story. Visually it was very good, especially the locations were spellbinding and used so well to tell a story, but the animal behaviours were too silly, something like that happen in the children's stories. Then there's evidence the animals were harmed during making it, so feels uncomfortable in many scenes and I won't advise kids to watch it if they're very fond of the animals. In that angle this film got a completely a wrong motion picture rating. If you are a light hearted, you should as well turn away from it. Because even though they won't show the killings, in a few segment they were just graphics and make-up, but still you are definitely going to feel the pain, very disturbing film.

In a few scenes, feels bad for what Mongols regrets for letting the Hans to do all the terrible things to their land despite at one stage of the history they were more superior than them. At least the film ended on a positive note, only because of the alteration in the screenplay from the controversial book. It was originally selected to represent the previous Oscars, but soon it replaced with another to avoid the International humiliation. I think the film was not that terrible, but not being true to the book was the issue. It is very hard to suggest it, it might upset you for the various reasons, so all I can say is choose wisely.

6/10… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

SEE ALL 3 REVIEWS