rinche-98558 This movie is based on a semi-autobiographical novel and I think they did a pretty good job in turning a literary piece of art into a cinematic experience. This is one of the reasons I gave this movie 7 stars. Other reasons included great performances (extremely natural and believable), beautiful scenery and the amount of empathy the creatures from this movie were able to develop in me from beginning to end. Of course, all of the creatures except...humans. Ok, you can try to understand them, but if you are a sensitive person you can't help but hate every single character here except the Chinese student who adopted the little wolf. The main character is the only character with a sensitive heart and a pure soul. Yes, there is a little kid from the village, I'm sorry. I studied Chinese language and literature and I spent some time in China while I was a college student, I think this is is a very accurate portrayal of Chinese people, no matter if we are talking about people from big cities or countryside. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to find a highly sensitive Chinese person. They can be wise and smart, but they are practical and cruel. And I couldn't enjoy the movie. Being a huge animal lover, my heart was shaking all of the time. The scenes are highly graphic, brutal and disturbing. I agree that these types of movies are necessary for us to raise our awareness about many things that happen between men and animals and to try to change and improve the relationship somehow. I liked the ending scene because in a certain way it blended sensitivity with "coldness", wild warrior spirit of the wolf was compared with still naive and culturally embedded spirit of the young Chinese student and they did that in a strong and emotional way. (I am not a native English speaker, so please don't laugh if something sounds strange in this review ;) ). All in all, I think that people who really love animals will have a really hard time while watching this movie.

subxerogravity The scenery of Wolf Totem was excellent in a classic IMAX style, back when IMAX was only used to shoot documentaries about wolves versus now when we shoot narratives about them..The action sequences were great as well. This is the third movie this year behind, Max and White God, that actually shows canines battling (This one being with wolves). It amazes me that PETA is not all over these people for showing animals fighting and getting kill in such a real matter. I'm not even a dog lover, but in this day in age it's surprising they do stuff like that on camera.I was also impressed with the human performance of the main actor and his female lead. I could see the passion the lead actor had for the wolf and I did not need subtitles to understand him, very good body language.It was a lovely moving painting.

tsaotracy I have read the novel. It was so touching that I shed a lot of tears. Unfortunately, this movie didn't catch or failed to express what the author did in the book. I developed such a deep respect to wolf from reading the book, while in the movie you wouldn't feel a thing. It was such a disappointment. The pictures were good though. But that is all.I went to the cinema with my husband. When the movie ended and we walked out, I asked him 'do you have any love for the little wolf'? He said 'no'. I had a bitter laugh, recalling when I was reading the book, I was hoping to fly out there to do something for the little wolf. The movie failed to catch the essence of the book and failed to help the audience understand why the herdsmen love and respect wolves.

BasicLogic This film, in general, is not bad, but the original novel's author is obviously strongly influenced by the Chinese Communism. He glorified the heartless Culture Revolution in last century, and never touched the sensitive taboos of those absolute-NO-NOs indoctrinated by the reigning Chinese Party. What we got in this film is a wonderful Inner Mongolian prairies life. Two displaced young Mandarin men were forced to leave their hometown and exiled to the far and remote Inner Mongolia province, trying to survive for the stipulated 2 years expatriation.The production team of this movie had hired some specialists to train a bunch of wolves to play the main and critical roles of this film. I have also read some of the scandals related to the rehabilitation of those wolves after the film was completed. what I found the most pretentious flaw in this film is the female actors to play the Mongolian tribal women (like the females in "Spare Parts 2015). They are extremely eye-appealing and cosmetically pretty, yet the truth about the Mongolian females(like the females in "Spare Parts 2015), most of them are not as pretty as what the movie showed us. The other unrealistic part of the film is the kind faces and the gentle way of talk from the local Chinese Communist Party officials. They looked too civilized and too reasonably kind when treating the Mongolian nomad tribes. The good part of this film is the camera work, the cinematography, it did an amazing job to show us the beauty of the Mongolian wildness, through the lens, it pretentiously beautified the tough livelihood of the local tribes, showed us the wonderful free spirit of those people. But in truth, is it true that the Chinese Communist Party would be that kind? When I watched this film, I have to remind myself that this film was not a documentary film, I had to watch carefully for those phony and false parts of it. When the Chinese Communist Party censors every book, every movie, every TV program, every blog on line, many real things would be carefully omitted and avoided, otherwise, nothing could be released or past the censorship. So it also means that anything that have been approved must not demonize the Party but praise, otherwise jail time and long term imprisonment would be implemented.So don't be fooled by this already heavily cosmetically beautified film, by its beautiful cinematography achievement, by those absolutely unreal Mongolian young beauties.