Synopsis
In 1969, 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.
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Cast
- William FengChen Zhen
- Shawn DouYang Ke
- Ankhnyam RagchaaGasma
- Yin ZhushengBao Shunghi
- Baasanjav MijidBilig
- Tumenbayaer
- Han Tongsheng
- Huang Xiaolei
- ChanartGertai
Recommendations
- 75
New York Post
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. - 75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Wolf Totem has some of the most exciting, mind-blowing scenes of nature I've ever seen. - 63
Washington Post
Annaud and his crew, including wolf trainer Andrew Simpson, nicely illustrate the animals’ cunning and coordination.... The human drama is more perfunctory. - 63
Slant Magazine
It becomes difficult to separate the natives from their communist masters in terms of their treatment of their natural surroundings. - 60
The Guardian
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. - 60
Arizona Republic
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. - 58
The A.V. Club
It sets out to take the viewer on a journey, but ends up giving them little more than a pleasantly diverting sight-seeing tour. There are worse ways to spend two hours. Better ones, too. - 50
The Hollywood Reporter
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.
