Just as the United States gets bogged down in another potential “forever war” with Iran, Chinese moviegoers have been flocking to watch a reimagining of America’s past Middle Eastern misadventure in Iraq—Once Upon a Time in the Middle East (欢迎来龙餐馆, literally “Welcome to Dragon Restaurant”). The film follows a Chinese chef named Xu Fu (Shen Teng), who takes a job in the Middle East to clear his family’s debts, and runs headfirst into an American invasion.
“Manifestly Not Baghdad”?
Technically, Once Upon a Time in the Middle East never names the country it is set in, and Director Wen Muye has stated in media interviews that he did not intend to depict any specific country or conflict. Yet, the movie’s veil is gossamer-thin. The film’s unnamed Middle Eastern locale gets invaded by Americans in the year 2003, who wear authentic “coffee stain” Desert Camouflage Uniforms topped off with mismatched woodland body armor. Zayd, Xu Fu’s local business partner for the eponymous “Dragon Restaurant”, is a government technocrat who the movie explicitly cites as a Ba’ath Party member. There’s even a shoutout to the infamous Coalition Provisional Authority Order 2, which dissolved the Iraqi military and is widely cited as a major contributor to the eventual Iraqi insurgency.
Though the US military is front and center in Once Upon a Time in the Middle East, China’s military and government are conspicuously absent. In recent years, the intersection of “Middle East” and “Chinese cinema” has brought movies like Operation Red Sea which, alongside the Africa-set Wolf Warrior 2, flexes China’s military muscles. However, these militaristic movies did little to enhance China’s soft power amongst international audiences, and met with mixed reactions from commentators in the Global South given their stereotypical depictions of poverty and violence.
Once Upon a Time may signal a change in tact. The movie depicts China in a way that is more authentic to how everyday people in the Middle East and broader Global South might encounter the country—through commercial interests and cuisine. It is both a shrewd and accurate choice. China has overtaken both the US and EU as the largest trading partner of almost every Middle Eastern country, with China Middle-Eastern trade doubling between 2017-2022.
Angry Arabs and Fratty Americans
Besides dialing down Chinese jingoism relative to Wolf Warrior II and Operation Red Sea, Once Upon a Time also demonstrates some improvements in its depiction of local Arab characters. Xu Fu might be the movie’s prime protagonist, but Zayd—Xu Fu’s aforementioned business partner—and Seif—a hardscrabble orphan who becomes Xu’s culinary protege—also have fully fleshed narrative arcs. For example, we see Zayd slide towards extremist violence in a full causal chain, spurred by tragic events that befall his family. Seif, too, grapples against the temptations of violence—and matures in the process. These character arcs stand in especially stark contrast with how Hollywood’s most prominent Global War on Terrorism movies—American Sniper, Zero Dark Thirty, The Hurt Locker, A24’s recent Warfare—lump Arabs into some nameless mass, occasionally trotted out for individual attention from the waterboard.
Of course, Once Upon a Time’s representation of the Middle East is only a relative improvement from a low bar; the movie still resoundingly fails the Riz Test. Tropes about Middle Eastern conflict still abound, for instance with extremist militants recruiting children as suicide bombers. Compilations of social media commentary from Iraqi and other Arab netizens about the movie indicate that, while some appreciate China’s fresh perspective on non-intervention in foreign affairs, depictions of Arabs as violent aggressors may still blunt Once Upon a Time’s resonance amongst actual Middle Eastern audiences.
On the flip side, Once Upon a Time’s portrayals of Americans are actually not as scathing as one might expect from a movie with its premise. Yes, the Americans are still villains. The movie shows corrupt US military officers using cancer-stricken children as extortion opportunities, and doesn’t shy away from depicting detainee torture a la Zero Dark Thirty or Abu Gharib. However, despite flashes of cruelty, the Americans in Once Upon a Time in the Middle East are ultimately filled with an authentic air of insecure bravado.
One of the movie’s more intriguing secondary characters—a Chinese American US Army Private First Class named Tony Wang—perhaps offers the best view into its attitude towards America. Despite moments of casual racism and alcohol-induced aggression, Tony still becomes fast friends with Xu Fu, with moments of genuine warmth and homesick vulnerability peeking through his frat boy swagger. It’s a spiritual embodiment of the United States that some Americans might feel is slightly embarrassing and stereotypical, but would find difficult to dispute altogether.
Cringeworthy but Noteworthy
Any debate around representation and character stereotypes, while present in Chinese internet discourse about the movie, did not thwart Once Upon a Time in the Middle East from becoming a box office success. Granted, Director Wen Muye already had a strong track record from his 2018 movie Dying to Survive, which drew plaudits (and box office riches) for its socially conscious depiction of a Chinese man who smuggled lifesaving drugs to help leukemia patients. In fact, Chinese cinema connoisseurs likely need little effort to detect Dying to Survive’s successful formula transplanted wholesale to Once Upon a Time in the Middle East. Both movies are “inspired by real events” and place an actor best known in China for comedies (Shen Teng for Once Upon a Time, Xu Zheng for Dying) into the role of a Chinese everyman who, while initially motivated by money, eventually develops a heart once exposed to the humanity of those around him.
Compared to Dying to Survive though, Once Upon a Time seems to lean even more heavily into melodrama and spectacle. While this might have helped the movie become a blockbuster, it may also prevent Once Upon a Time from having staying power as an artistic monument. The movie is replete with massive, tacky explosions that feel pulled from Transformers. Its depictions of characters’ suffering can feel somewhat cringeworthy and contrived—for instance, deploying culinary chili peppers in certain torture scenes—and some of its characters’ motivations feel plucked from well-worn tropes of Korean dramas. Certain Chinese commentators have even gone as far as claiming the movie “turns war into entertainment, and suffering into melodrama” (战争娱乐化、苦难奇情化).
Still, Once Upon a Time in the Middle East deserves the attention it is receiving in Western media as a sign of China’s rise in the Global South. The movie’s timing is rather convenient—it debuted five months into the still-ongoing US-Iran War, a conflict that China is using to highlight its own seeming non-interventionist benevolence in contrast with fickle American crassness. Indeed, while claiming Once Upon a Time is not specifically about the Iraq War, Director Wen has also winked at audiences to view the movie as a more universal “story about war and humanity—one that could have happened in the past, or could be happening right now.”
Through Once Upon a Time in the Middle East, China can signal that hotpot diplomacy—even if it sometimes comes with spice—is at least tastier than gunboat diplomacy. Even with its flaws, the movie helps China chip away at Hollywood’s monopoly on war stories, just as China chips away at America’s hegemony on other fronts. Curious American viewers in the age of “Chinamaxxing”, and audiences across the Global South, may find the movie’s novelty worth its tropes.
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Once Upon a Time in the Middle East (Chinese: 欢迎来龙餐馆) — China. Dialog in Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, and English. Directed by Wen Muye. Running time 2hr 20min. First released August 11, 2026. Starring Shen Teng, Jiang Qiming, Omar Sherif, Sherif Sabry, Aarif Rahman, Naira Al-Qasim.