Born To Fly is now available on Blu-Ray and Digitial in the UK from Trinity CineAsia.
Aiming as high as Hollywood when it comes to production quality was definitely on the itinerary for director Liu Xiaoshi, as he neared completion on most recent aviation thriller, Born To Fly. The film was reportedly shelved for over three months to allow time for post production to improve on the visual effects according to a statement from Alibaba Pictures and Bona Film Group, releasing about a month prior to Paramount’s Top Gun: Maverick overseas. This was mainly what sat with me going into Born To Fly as this, my second viewing experience with a cast led by actor Wang Yibo, who was terrific in Cheng Er’s seething WWII spy drama, Hidden Blade.
The special effects weren’t mainly a singular issue for me either. Patriotic cinema in China existed long before anyone in my generation, and as someone who enjoys his fair viewings of Top Gun and Black Hawk Down and the brisk, kickass popcorn cheese of John Cena’s role in The Marine akin to that of Wu Jing’s directorial debut and 2015 starrer, Wolf Warrior, I rather wanted to see what I could take from Born To Fly, following Liu’s protagonist in Wang as the film stayed the course in its fervor. Jingoistic overtones can be distracting when gauging how a story is told and its characters are performed, which is why I don’t always beat my chest for every film waving the American flag. Some of these movies, just some, are godawful.
Films, especially action titles, are at their best when they give you someone to root for in the progression of its story, and for what its worth, Born To Fly does the trick. The crux of this story deals with the China Air Force and the training regimen of a school of test pilots as the force works to improve its mechanisms in order to create a new and improved stealth fighter jet to outclass its rivals. Lei Yu (Wang) is a pilot who volunteers for a new stealth fighter program upon an invite from squad commander Zhang Ting (Hu Jun), ultimately pitting him with a class of other trainees including Deng Feng (Yu Shi) who once refused to salute Yu after losing a previous contest.
The program ultimately resigns each pilot to become both designer and engineer as it works to improve the functionality and handling of its stealth jets for the men on the front lines. This also includes partaking in a rigorous slate of exams testing the physical and mental limits of each pilot, with only seven spots to earn if the test pilots can pass each exam. This is where Yu comes in, after a round of failures that force him on the sidelines, learning how to stack parachutes instead of engaging in the flight courses. This is where the troubles have already pretty much begun for Yu. Interestingly though, it also finds him venturing into different areas of flight mechanics that will inevitably contribute to the learning process for everyone involved.
Sadly, this is also where the story takes a much more tragic turn as Yu is faced with a harrowing tragedy that not only sets back the program, following a test flight that crashes when an engine burns out. It’s a key moment for Yu in his tale of injury, risk-taking, lesson learning and redemption, as he efforts to apply what he’s learned in order to help successfully create a next generation stealth fighter, even to the dismay of his family amid the horrors of war. It’s easy to understand where the need to continue onward comes from, especially when it comes to doing something that you love and appeals to you in your personal growth.
For Born To Fly, that’s the film’s biggest strength as a military-touting action adventure drama. It’s not all bells and whistles aside from the opening and closing sequences which basically bookend the film’s central warcry, warding off foreign invaders who would dare to intrude on China’s open air space. The pomp and circumstance does come and go, but it doesn’t interfere much with following Yu’s story and the events and actions of the supporting characters therein. Yu’s rivalry with Feng falls right in line with the Maverick-V-Iceman levels of enmity to an admirable degree, invoking similar tensions that boil over as the plot thickens. The emotive and quintessential resolve and sense of unity comes well into the last act of the film as everything and everyone is brought full circle, including the burgeoning connection between Yu and test flight examiner, Dr. Shen (Zhou Dongyu, Better Days), even as in ons scene she claims she’s fine being single.
I’d like to think moviegoers each have their way of gauging how special effects are delivered in a film. Obviously some films present better examples than others. Born To Fly looks as spectacular as viewers might hope in terms of action and spectacle, even if some of the flight sequences in a few select shots look like something out of a CG-animated movie. It didn’t come across as too distracting, and I wasn’t taken out of the film by any of it. It left more room to enjoy the movie and cheer on our protagonist in his resurgence from failure and introspection, completing a worthwhile tale to enjoy with a poignant and touching finish as the end credits roll.
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