I am a WOLF LOVER, and for that reason alone I could not bear to watch more after they murdered those wolf cubs!!! It thoroughly disgusted me!!! Sure, in the beginning, the cinematography was very good, and the acting was so-so. I could easily envision the greed of humanity, which is a given, more so in our time, but still valid even then. Watching humans STEAL the very food from the wolves after they worked so hard in obtaining it for their cubs, only to see humans and their inhumanity at work murdering the very cubs the pilfered food was meant to feed. Near the beginning one of the main actors is reading a book about how it's better to be dead than to lack freedom and then he goes and catches a wolf? Again, I couldn't bear to watch man's constant inhumanity to other living creatures! This is the main reason I gave this movie such a low score.

Short and straight, the movie is beautifully shot and some pretty good actors in the mix.Always pleasant to see different landscapes, gorgeous animals and different cultures.That being said, the movie, from beginning to the end, is a violent documentary on how to mistreat and disrespect these wonderful creatures, with 3 excuses: they kill the cattle, they are worth money, they serve as sacrifices to Tenger, one of the Mongol Gods.So.... all these 3 reasons together seem to be enough excuse to extinguish a race from the face of the earth (at least on their territory).Violence, specially to the wolf pups is hard to swallow, specially if you admire this creatures. It's like a movie about Eskimos killing seal pups just to sell the skins....Word of caution, don't watch this with your kids.I'm sure (and hope) the director didn't hurt any animal shooting this. The violence is cleverly shot to avoid seeing it until the end.... BUT it is there, the action is there, the movie is stained from beginning until the end with pointless acts of violence towards wolves.In the end, a very unbalanced effort, leaning towards gratuitous violence. Pointless, stupid, to the point of frustrated boredom and sadness overall.To avoid, sincerely.

This movie was essentially on ecology, environmental protection and on the dignity of nature and all creation - here exemplified by the Mongolian wolf. The tradition and culture of Mongolian tribes unfolded before the eyes of the chief protagonist, a city boy from Beijing sent to these realms by waves of the Cultural Revolution. The audience followed his adventures and drank in the beauty of the awe-inspiring grasslands, learnt about the (sometimes cruel) facts of life and were drawn into the joys and woes of the Mongolian herding tribe. Fascinated by the wolves, the Han student rashly tried raising a wolf cub. His actions led to unimaginable consequences and irreparable damage as he found himself accomplice to ruining the Mongolian people and the grasslands he grew to love. In the end with a heavy heart we witnessed the darkening destiny of the "great life" of the grassland, ever intertwined with that of the "little lives" of all life forms dependent on it. The movie tried to portray that there was a faint speck of light and hope with the return of the captive wolf, though it was not really comforting. Fabulous acting on the part of the wolves; with discernible laudable effort and bonding between trainers and the animals. Worth watching despite the unflattering take on humanity and greed, if only for the noble creatures of its namesake.

It was unprecedented that the film market in China was so prosperous during Spring Festival. Seven blockbusters of different styles were released on the first day of Chinese New Year that created more than 170 million earnings in this 7-day vocation.The box office earnings of whole year in China was only about 200 billion, dating back to last decade when the market was just awake, which was difficult to compare with the data today. In that period, nevertheless, Dadi cinemas picked the digital screening strategy, even though it was much higher cost than film screening, to make the second- tier and third-tier cities that with larger population enjoy fair treatment on watching new movies, and therefore promote the development of Chinese film market. This investment mode of Dadi Media was used to be bantered as "Quixotic Courage", what meant the commercial mode was lightly regarded. However, it was dumbfounded that Dadi insisted on breaking high-price barriers and making ticket prices more reasonable for audiences.All decisions Dadi made were depended on the inherent attribution of films that they would be led back to the source -- the public. Keeping the original intention that "Make movies ubiquitous, make good movies ubiquitous" in mind, Dadi Cinemas sacrificed immediate interest and contributed to prosperous film markets in the second-tier and third-tier cities, aiming at spreading culture, mind and art of movies, keeping infusing blood with dream into Chinese films. The desire for "good" movies in Chinese market was increasingly intense after explosive growth these years. It was comforting that movies during this Spring Festival satisfied audiences' needs for fierce actions, extremely cute and all-age theme. In addition, movies achieve our dreams on showing feelings, conveying the belief and transferring power -- in case of watching the movie Wolf Totem. New perceptions on savagery, humanity, survival, freedom, dignity and faith, will all be found after watching this movie.Indeed, Dadi Cinemas are looking forward a new start from The Wolf Totem, a new start of film art that need to be put thought into it. As a consequence of this expectation, Wolf Totem was released averagely 2 percents more than it occupied the box-office proportion in Dadi Cinemas. During the 7-day vocation of this Spring Festival, more than 460 thousand audiences have watched this movie in Dadi Cinemas in more than 130 cities around China. The germination of Chinese film market has come to this era while audiences discussing ardently about the movies they just watched in Dadi Cinemas near their home, such as Wolf Totem, Dragon Blade, The Man From Macao 2, and so forth.It is reasonable to believe that when more practitioners make sacrifice for the art of film, such as Wolf Totem and movies in the future that belong to film culture, art, this era, and all audiences who love movies, the development of the film market in our country will be inevitable healthy and permanent.Even though the strength of Dadi is possibly not strong enough right now, movies that obey the heart and keep unique style are definitely respected. It is a new step of Dadi, from loving the "Wolf" in the Year of the Goat.