fang li: i hope the story from 82 years ago can be heard by the world
2024-09-11
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on october 20, 2019, fang li accompanied british prisoners of war from the uk and arrived at the shipwreck area of the "lisbon maru" by boat. on the sea surface 30 meters away from the shipwreck, they scattered white rose petals to commemorate their deceased relatives.
interviewer:
fang li, president of beijing laure film co., ltd., director and producer of "the sinking of the lisbon maru"
shao ling, our reporter
at the end of september 1942, more than 1,800 allied prisoners of war were locked up in the cabin of the japanese armed transport ship "lisbon maru" and sailed 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 from a us submarine in the waters of dongji island after three days of sailing at sea. in order to prevent the prisoners of war from escaping, the japanese army attempted to bury all the prisoners of war in this sea area; at this time, more than 200 zhoushan fishermen braved the hail of bullets and rowed up again and again to rescue the prisoners of war who fell into the water.
in september 2024, the first film that fully tells this history, "the sinking of the lisbon maru", was officially released and received a high score of 9.2 on the rating website. it took fang li and his team eight years to search for the sunken ship, interview eyewitnesses and witnesses, collect materials, and make the film. in an exclusive conversation with this newspaper, he said that the salvage and narration of that history was like a relay race, and he was just running one of the batons.
--editor
wenhui daily: first of all, congratulations on the official release of "the sinking of the lisbon maru" after its successful premiere at the shanghai international film festival. could you please introduce the theme you want to express through the film?
fang li: this film may be unfamiliar to many people in terms of genre. it is not a traditional documentary. we define it as a documentary feature film. this is related to what we want to express: it is not about history, but about people's stories. telling history is only a small part of the film, accounting for less than 20%. it is more about people's fate, people's experiences, and about family, kinship, love, friendship, and the glory of human nature in a big war. it is the history of people, not just the history of war. if it was just about the history of war, it would not need such a long length and such a large screen.
this is why we decided to make a big-screen movie, because if you watch it on a small screen, you only see the information, and you can't feel the emotions and breathing of the people; this is the charm of the immersive big screen wrapped in light and shadow, which is completely different from watching it on a small screen. in terms of sound effects, whether it is water sounds, gunshots, or human voices, we also pursued authenticity and made it completely as a war film.
wenhui daily: does the uniqueness of the genre mean that many links in the production chain are original and without precedents? what is the most difficult part of the creation process?
fang li: we were completely crossing the river by feeling the stones, testing it out bit by bit.
the bbc filmed a documentary called "children rescued from the nazis". in order to film "lisbon maru", we also studied this film and even conducted experiments, but later found that there was no way to learn from its filming techniques. it used real people to perform in the historical restoration part, but because it basically only has one or two main characters, it is possible to do so. what we show is a group portrait. it is basically a war film with so many soldiers. if real people perform, it will be expensive and easy for viewers to be distracted. because we have oral history, memoirs, and photos, it is too real. no matter how the actors perform, it is impossible to restore history.
we tried other methods, including spending a year and a half on 3d motion and facial capture, but it didn’t work. we finally decided to use 3d rendering and 2d animation, which is what you see in the film now. this was the most difficult part of the whole film, and it took four years. of course, the narrative, editing, story structure, etc. were also difficult, but no matter how difficult these parts were, it only took two years.
after the three-dimensional rendering and two-dimensional animation restoration plan was determined, we took a lot of detours in the process. for example, we first scanned the sculpture model, then made 3d assets, and then rendered it into a two-dimensional textured animation, because if it was a traditional realistic 3d animation, the characters would have an uncanny valley effect. after rendering into two dimensions, we found that the characters could not move. once they moved, the audience's attention would be on the characters, ignoring and interrupting the narration and emotional transmission of the voice-over. moreover, the simulated 2d animation has 12 frames per second, and the characters move slowly and stutter, which is completely unable to restore the tense state of shooting, strafing, and breaking through on the battlefield.
so we decided to use virtual camera technology to make the characters move without the camera moving, so that the warships, fishing boats and seawater in the animation can move. this is the effect that the audience sees in the cinema, because our purpose is not to let the audience watch the performance of the characters, but to restore the scene and atmosphere at that time to the greatest extent.
after solving the problem of character movements, we also faced the challenge of unifying the overall visual style. although the characters, warships, fishing boats, sea water and sky are all carefully made with computer special effects, in order to present the heavy feeling of prints, we spent a lot of time to make the cg assets look old, add the texture of hand-painted strokes, and achieve a unified visual style.
wenhui daily: many people who have read the reports before may think that searching for sunken ships and historical witnesses are the most difficult parts, but now it seems that is just the beginning. why did you spend so much time and energy on the animation part? what function does the animation carry in the film?
fang li: if there is no animation, there is no point in making it into a big-screen movie. we can just make it into a documentary or feature film to be broadcast on tv. animation is responsible for the historical restoration part, restoring the deck outside the cabin, the cramped space, how the torpedo hit the hull, how the ladder broke, etc. we want the audience to be able to experience the atmosphere of the historical war in an immersive way, feel how the prisoners of war were cruelly tortured, and how they were imprisoned in a dark, narrow, hellish space. otherwise, the audience will have to imagine the scene while listening to the voice-over, and the effect will be discounted.
works about daily life can leave blanks, but this period of history is too far away from today's audiences to leave blanks. more importantly, if the film does not restore and present that scene, does not restore and present the atrocities of the japanese army, does not restore and present the extremely desperate situation that the prisoners of war were in at the time, does not restore and present more than 1,000 prisoners of war in a cabin, and after the water flooded in, they could not escape, so they sank into the water holding hands and singing... if all of this is not restored and presented, how can today's and even future audiences understand the righteousness behind the heroic act of our fishermen who braved the hail of bullets and paddled sampans to rescue 384 prisoners of war?
this is something that only images and technology can do.
wenhui daily: when the name "fang li" is mentioned, many people may immediately think of "a hundred birds paying homage to the phoenix" eight years ago. many media have labeled you as "a filmmaker begging for screenings". from the current situation, the audience response to "the sinking of the lisbon maru" is very good, but there are few screenings. did you foresee this when you started making this film? film is an art for the masses, and everyone who sends his work to the cinema must hope that his film can be seen by more people. how do you think that the film may face the situation of high reputation and low box office again?
fang li: movies have dual attributes: cultural and artistic, and entertainment and commercial. just like fast food and private dishes, there are people who need both. which one you prefer is the ambition and choice of every creator and every production team. i also made my own choice. movies are indeed for the masses, but the masses are divided into today's masses and future masses. as for the movie "the sinking of the lisbon maru", my ambition is more to preserve this history for the future masses through images. as i said in many interviews before, making this movie is a race against time, because there are fewer and fewer witnesses of history, and the future masses will be further and further away from this history.
of course, if time goes back 30 or 40 years, i may not think so, because i am young and feel that i still have plenty of time. the closer my life is to the countdown, the more i feel that i should do something for future children. i am very grateful to the filmmakers of each generation, because movies are the most three-dimensional, and they use movies to preserve history for us. when you open the images, the past era comes to mind. so i always tell our production team and creative team: can we leave something for future generations?
since the release of the film, i have been particularly pleased by the feedback from the audience, which shows that i share the same inner feelings with everyone, and can resonate with them and pass them on to future generations. these allied prisoners of war, in the last moments of their lives, missed their hometowns and their loved ones; the second lieutenant took off his only lifebuoy and gave it to a soldier; the officer asked his comrade-in-arms to tell his wife before he died: please tell her that i have tried my best to reunite with her. not to mention the chinese fishermen who risked their lives to save them, and after saving them, donated their only food and clothes to them. what a moving brilliance of humanity! this is what we want to convey to the audience most in this film.
so the lack of screenings doesn't bother me. what really matters to me is that if our voice is too small, a piece of history that has just been salvaged will probably be forgotten. how many people in the world will be able to hear this story again? especially since this is a story that happened in china, and it is a touching feat caused by an inhumane massacre. if we don't pay attention to it, who else will?
i often say that this is like a relay race. 20 years ago, british historian tony banham wrote a book called "the sinking of the lisbon maru: britain's forgotten wartime tragedy" based on years of research. when he knew that i was going to make this film, he shared the contents of the book with me free of charge, just like passing the baton to me. i ran forward again, and continued to dig deep into the human stories in the book based on the war part, and then presented it in a visual way. the third baton, i want to pass it to the audience, the audience of this generation, and the audience of the next generation. i hope that we can speak out together so that this story that happened in china and was almost submerged for 82 years can be heard by the world.
(source: wenhui daily)
