On Wings of Eagles (2016)

Eric Liddell - China's first gold medalist and one of Scotland's greatest athletes - returns to war-torn China.

Directors:

Stephen Shin, Michael Parker (co-director)

Writers:

Rubby Xu, Christopher C. Chan

Stars:

Joseph Fiennes, Bruce Locke, Shawn Dou

Cast

Credited cast:
Joseph Fiennes	...	Eric Liddell
Bruce Locke	...	Old Xu Niu (voice)
Shawn Dou	...	Xu Niu
Jesse Kove	...	Hugh Johnson
Augusta Xu-Holland	...	Catherine Standish
Simon Twu	...	Chen Quan
Elizabeth Arends	...	Florence Liddell
Kuo-Chu Chang
Richard Sanderson	...	Dr. Hubbard
Darren Grosvenor	...	Gentleman
Patrice Poujol	...	Louis Klein
Shigeo Kobayashi	...	Yoshinori Yumoto
Asta Friis Lodahl	...	Heather Liddell
Asano Nagahide
Zach Ireland	...	David Marshall (as Zach Ireland Splittgerber)

Storyline

Eric Liddell may have won gold for the United Kingdom and possessed a lilting Highland brogue, but he was born in China and lived more than half his life there evangelizing and teaching. On Wings of Eagles is everything you ever wanted to know about what happened to Liddell - who famously refused to run an Olympic race on a Sunday to honor God - after the 1924 Olympics when he returned to China, the home of his heart. But Eric's beloved homeland is about to be occupied by Imperial Japan.

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Plot Keywords:

japanese occupation | japanese occupation of china | prisoner of war | prison camp | japanese soldier | 

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Genres:

Drama | History | Sport

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some violent images

Details

Official Sites:

Official Site Official Site [Japan]

Country:

China Hong Kong USA

Language:

English Mandarin Japanese

Release Date:

3 November 2017 (USA)

Also Known As:

On Wings of Eagles

Filming Locations:

Tianjin, China

Box Office

Budget:

$12,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$5,975

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$155,111

Company Credits

Production Co:

Goodland Pictures, Innowave Limited, BondIt Media Capital

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min 96 min (cut)

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Patrice Poujol, an associate director and actor on the film, wrote a long form live case study of the film's production in his 2019 book "Online Film Production in China Using Blockchain and Smart Contracts: The Development of Collaborative Platforms for Emerging Creative Talents".

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Alternate Versions

Three different cuts exist for the film: one for China, one for Taiwan and one for North America.

User Reviews

Half biopic, half human interest drama

Joseph Fiennes is well cast as Eric Liddell, the Scottish Olympic Gold Medalist runner and Christian missionary caught up in the Japanese army occupation of China. The theme is the gift of hope and it is a touching story, if distinctly average viewing. Sadly, the film doesn't set the scene well in the first act - it rushed to conflict and felt like a TV movie in its rushed pacing and overly sentimental storyline. Liddel's affection towards children, as a form of exposition, was overplayed when more crucial biographical and background information would have helped with context, especially those not especially familiar with the Eric Liddell story. The scenes in the concentration camps lacked tension and didn't do justice to the much worse conditions people suffered. Essentially, it is a straight sequel to Chariots of Fire, but without committing to being a proper biopic.