The fastest-selling film at the Shanghai Film Festival is set to be released. "The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru" reveals a truth from 82 years ago
2024-08-13
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"During World War II, a large Japanese ship sank here (in the waters of China's Dongji Island). For more than 70 years, no one has been able to find the shipwreck..." As the TOP1 of the 10 films that sold out the fastest at the 2024 Shanghai International Film Festival, it won numerous praises and expectations as soon as it was released. Netizens who watched the film in advance praised it as a "great work" with "extremely detailed text" and "multiple perspectives". This is the documentary film "The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru" produced and directed by Fang Li. Today, the film officially announced that it will be released on September 6.
"Since I learned about this, I led a team to explore out of curiosity, hoping to find the shipwreck. After finding the ship, I wanted to find the people related to the ship and learn about their stories and what they experienced 82 years ago. That's how I unearthed this story. Now, it's time to tell it to more people," said Fang Li.
“A virtually unknown historical truth”
——What exactly happened on the Lisbon Maru 82 years ago?
The trailer starts with a series of questions: Why did the Japanese cargo ship "Lisbon Maru" sink in the waters of China's Dongji Island? Why has no one found the sunken ship for more than 70 years? More than 800 young Allied soldiers on board were buried forever on the seabed. Who are they? What happened back then? Why does the public know so little about this history that happened on China's doorstep?
These questions are the truth that the documentary "The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru" aims to reveal.
In December 1941, 1,816 Allied prisoners of war were put into the hold of the Japanese armed transport ship "Lisbon Maru" and traveled from Hong Kong, China to Japan. Because the Japanese army violated the Geneva Convention and did not hang any flags or signs for transporting prisoners of war on the ship, the "Lisbon Maru" was hit by a torpedo fired by a US submarine in the waters of Dongji Island, Zhoushan, China after sailing smoothly for three days.
From the trailer, we can see that Fang Li interviewed the survivors who escaped from the "Lisbon Maru", the families of the victims, the fishermen on Dongji Island, and even relevant people from the Japanese side. The content of the interviews is rich in perspectives and detailed in views.
Everyone's words were shocking: "The Japanese often carried prisoners of war on cargo ships without marking them." "What I saw through the periscope was a fully armed ship." "We were locked in (the cabin) and couldn't go anywhere." "These bastards wanted to drown us." "This has become a deliberate mass murder." "All the civilians on the island who had boats rowed out."
Through these people's words, it is not difficult to piece together the historical truth that has been buried for 82 years. The film more completely reproduces the entire process of what happened on the "Lisbon Maru" that year, and all of it will be presented to the audience when the film is released.
“The film is based entirely on historical facts”
——More people should know about the heroic deeds of Chinese fishermen 82 years ago
After being hit by a torpedo, the Lisbon Maru gradually sank, and the Allied prisoners of war on board were in imminent danger. At this time, the Japanese army chose to nail the cabin shut and shoot the Allied prisoners of war who tried to escape the cabin or jump into the sea, attempting to bury all the prisoners of war in this sea area. At this critical moment, 255 Zhoushan fishermen on a nearby island braved the hail of bullets and rowed into the sea again and again to rescue the prisoners who fell into the sea. The righteous act of the Chinese fishermen interrupted the Japanese army's massacre, and 384 Allied prisoners of war were rescued.
More than 80 years have passed, and most of the Chinese fishermen who participated in the rescue have passed away. The Chinese old man who appeared in the trailer and narrated the history of that year was named Lin Agen. He was also the last fisherman who witnessed the sinking of the "Lisbon Maru" at that time.
The film records his last memory of that period of history, and also records the scenes of the descendants of Allied prisoners of war visiting and expressing their gratitude to him on China's Dongji Island. On August 6, 2020, Mr. Lin Agen passed away. Many descendants of Allied prisoners of war sent condolences, expressing their condolences and thanking him again for his righteous act: "The legacy he left to the world includes courage, heroism, and the kindness that a person can bestow in the face of the worst atrocities of mankind."
"When a Ship Sinks to the Bottom of the Sea"
——“Science and Engineering Man” Fang Li led the marine technology team and it took two years to find the sunken ship
The movie "See You Tomorrow", produced by Fang Li and directed by Han Han, has a theme song of the same name. The first line of the song is "When a ship sinks to the bottom of the sea", which is referring to the Lisbon Maru.
In 2014, when Fang Li was filming "See You Tomorrow" with Han Han on Dongji Island, he heard local fishermen talking about a World War II shipwreck nearby. As a "science and engineering man" who graduated from the East China Institute of Geology (now East China University of Technology) with a major in applied geophysics, and who happened to be engaged in system integration, R&D and manufacturing of earth exploration and marine survey technology equipment before entering the film industry, Fang Li was curious and led the marine technology team to conduct surveys in 2016.
By September 2017, it was finally verified that the steel physical properties of the sunken ship on the seabed were completely consistent with the history, physical and mechanical structure of the construction of the "Lisbon Maru", thus confirming that the shipwreck located at the coordinates of "30°13'44.42"N 122°45'31.14"E" belonged to the "Lisbon Maru".
Since there is very little information about the "Lisbon Maru" in historical records, Fang Li could only combine his own investigation results with limited historical clues to unravel the mystery and study details such as the hull structure of the "Lisbon Maru" with physics professionals.
After confirming that the sunken ship was indeed the Lisbon Maru, he invited Dr. Tony Banham, author of "The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru: Britain's Forgotten Wartime Tragedy", to serve as a historical consultant and retired British Major Fearnke as a military consultant. They jointly searched for historical eyewitnesses and descendants around the world, and eventually found more than 380 survivors and their descendants from China, Japan, Britain, the United States and other countries, and communicated face to face with more than 110 of them.
Fang Li combined their stories with animation and historical data, striving to truly restore the sinking process of the "Lisbon Maru" and the "hellish" experience in the cabin. The fragments of history were picked up piece by piece, and Fang Li, with his meticulousness and rigor, revealed the meaning behind the set of coordinate numbers and made the stories and historical truths of the 1,816 prisoners of war in the shipwreck public.
Fang Li used one word to describe his unremitting efforts in the past decade - "It's what I deserve." "I happened to hear the story of this shipwreck, and I happened to be engaged in physical exploration and ocean surveys, and I happened to make movies, so I had to do this - it's what I deserve!" Therefore, Fang Li was driven by curiosity, professional instinct, and sense of responsibility, step by step to find the truth and save history. It took 8 years, and finally this year, a complete and detailed documentary film was used to bring the truth of this historical period that had been submerged for 82 years out of the silent seabed.
Yangtze Evening News/Ziniu News reporter Kong Xiaoping
Proofread by Xu Heng
