Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Wolf Totem 3D Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 14, 2015

Jean-Jacques Annaud was responsible for one of the most unique and unusual “narrative” films of the past several decades, the 1988 film The Bear which played almost like one of those old Disney True Life Adventures as it documented the travails of a bear cub struggling to make it into maturity and then after that particular benchmark is achieved, to simply continue to survive. The film eschewed virtually all dialogue and still managed to create a viscerally compelling tale told pretty much exclusively from the titular ursine’s point of view, with Annaud capturing some incredible footage of various creatures in the wild supposedly behaving naturally but (as documented by some charming behind the scenes footage) actually responding to a coterie of wranglers trying to get them to respond appropriately to propel various plot mechanics. Annaud is no stranger to more traditionally structured films, though, as evidenced by such plot heavy outings as The Name of the Rose, Seven Years in Tibet and Enemy at the Gates. Those three films tend to point out the fact that Annaud typically always likes to get up close and personal with the environment, often offering imposing vistas that tend to place any given human as a decidedly minimal element in the overall scheme of things. Annaud’s scenic proclivities are once again fully on display in the interesting if only fitfully engaging Wolf Totem, a film that benefits from a rather unusual set up and indeed even setting, while making perhaps predictable if still laudable ecological points.

Americans (including yours truly) can tend to be notoriously uninformed (or at least under informed) about various epochal historical movements that have taken place in other countries, and that may in fact be true about the so-called Cultural Revolution that roiled Communist China back beginning in the mid- to late sixties. The ironic thing about the reactionary elements in Mao Zedong’s government at the time is that in a way they were almost the “flip side” of what the United States itself had gone through during the McCarthy Era a decade or so previously. In the case of the 1950s “Red Scare” in America, politicos and pundits were up in arms about a supposed “Fifth Column” of Communists who had infiltrated our capitalist way of life and who sought to bring it all crashing down. In a kind of “bizarro world” formulation, the Cultural Revolution was undertaken by Mao at least in part to scour Communist China of potential capitalists. It may be hard for some westerners to contextualize all of this, but the incipient youthful exuberance that was part and parcel of the early days of the Cultural Revolution plays into Wolf Totem’s rather exotic storyline.

While the ostensible reason that the Cultural Revolution sent youth into isolated territories was to help disseminate the “true gospel” of Mao’s way, one gets the feeling there may have been an equal urge to get potentially sophisticated young folks out of an urban environment and into rural communities where the work ethic of natives might “rub off” onto them. Wolf Totem doesn’t really directly address any of the subtext of the Cultural Revolution, instead simply plopping both the viewer and Chen Zhen (Fen Shaofeng) down in media res (at least with regard to the Cultural Revolution itself), with Zhen leaving Beijing for the wild and wooly “north” of Inner Mongolia.

The awesome beauty of this region provides a wealth of visual interest which Annaud exploits brilliantly, and initially at least the narrative also seems to be moving in a quasi-mystical direction where Zhen is ostensibly becoming more and more “one” with his environment. He has a close encounter of a frightening come with a pack of wolves out on the steppes, but is “saved” due to his quick thinking and also perhaps due to some supernatural intervention, an intercession that Zhen receives a visionary glyph of when a spiritual face appears in the clouds (see screenshot 3 accompanying this review).

The film ultimately opts for a bit more mundane political stance when the lifestyles of the “noble savages” of Inner Mongolia become threatened by interloping Chinese. The threat finally extends to the region’s wolf population, which is where Annaud goes completely “green” (in a manner of speaking), detailing an admittedly horrifying attempt to rid the region of the species, which results in a surprisingly effective set piece when the wolves decide to fight back.

Dramatically the film may falter, wasting valuable momentum in a number of sidebars, but from a visual perspective things are so jaw droppingly stunning so much of the time that some viewers at least will be willing to cut the outing a little slack. The ironic thing is the environmental message of the film is probably delivered better by Annaud’s amazingly beautiful widescreen vistas than by any putative plot dynamics. As Annaud proved quite admirably in The Bear, he's virtually peerless when it comes to capturing wild animals in their native habitats, especially when he requires the beasts to "perform" in one way or the other.

Wolf Totem 3D Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Wolf Totem 3D is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment with both MVC (3D) and AVC (2D) encoded 1080p transfers in 2.39:1 on the same disc. According to the IMDb, this was filmed with both Arri Alexa and Red cameras, but the result is completely homogenous, and frequently just stunningly gorgeous as is well evidenced by several of the screenshots accompanying this review. Annaud and DP Jean-Marie Dreujou capture (literally and figuratively) some eye popping panoramas, and the image offers crisp detail and some profound depth of field in many exterior sequences (virtually the entire film takes place out of doors). There are a couple of somewhat clumsy framings on display intermittently, at least some the result of attempting to catch various animals in the midst of their "performances". Close-ups offer spectacular fine detail in elements like the interesting ethnic outfits and even the textures of things like the yurts the Mongolians live in. Colors are lush and inviting and very natural looking (very little if any of the film has been aggressively color graded).

Unfortunately, the 3D presentation isn't quite up to the largely excellent levels of the general image. While the film offers huge, awe inspiring widescreen landscapes in a virtually nonstop array, width doesn't necessarily translate to depth, and unless Annaud offers a foreground object delineating a spatial frame of reference, things can look at least relatively flat some of the time in the wide shots. Midrange shots and close-ups actually tend to fare better in this regard, as there are typically clearly delineated planes of depth within the frame.

Wolf Totem 3D Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Wolf Totem 3D features an inviting if often quite subtle DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix in the original Mandarin. This is sadly one of the last filmed scored by late James Horner, and he provides a typically elegiac set of cues which offer nicely burnished brass and soaring strings, all of which float through the surround channels quite evocatively. The outdoor sequences provide a lot of opportunity for nicely placed ambient environmental effects, and in a couple of blistering set pieces, the sound mix becomes quite aggressive, documenting both the feral sounds of the wolves but also the panicked reactions of other animals and humans. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly and is well prioritized on this problem free track.

Wolf Totem 3D Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Director's Adventure (1080p; 5:26) is a brief profile of Annaud.


• A Look at the Cast (1080p; 3:19) offers some interviews and scenes from the film.


• Saving the Environment (1080p; 5:28) is more EPK fodder, this time concentrating on environmental issues, but with some interesting interviews with the real life Chen Zhen.


• The Nature of the Wolf (1080p; 11:27) is the best supplement of the bunch, and looks at the training and wrangling processes utilized during the shoot.

Wolf Totem 3D Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As a travelogue, Wolf Totem 3D is largely unimpeachable, immersing the viewer in an exotic land filled with exquisite landscapes and appealing wildlife. Dramatically the film is a bit more inert, though the basic setup is interesting enough to help it overcome at least some of its self-created obstacles. Fans of The Bear will almost certainly appreciate this new film from Annaud, while others may be willing to forgive some narrative hiccups since the scenery is so unbelievably compelling. Technical merits are generally first rate, and Wolf Totem 3D comes Recommended.