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jimu news chief reporter rong yu

how far can a documentary film that took in over 2 million at the box office take three days to go after its release?

maybe get nominated for an oscar.

on september 28, it was announced that the documentary film "the sinking of the lisbon maru" directed by the famous producer and director fang li will compete for the best international film at the 97th academy awards on behalf of mainland china. this "unpopular" movie, which relied on word-of-mouth to achieve a counterattack, gave itself a strong sigh of relief.

"the sinking of the lisbon maru" is the highest-rated domestic movie on douban this year. the film tells the audience a shocking history in the 1940s that has been almost forgotten by the world, and reveals the truth about the shipwreck that occurred in the waters of china's zhoushan islands more than 80 years ago.

in 1942, the ship "lisbon maru" was requisitioned by the japanese army and escorted more than 1,800 british prisoners of war back to japan from hong kong, china. while passing through the waters of the zhoushan islands in zhejiang, the "lisbon maru", which did not have a prisoner-of-war transport sign, was hit by a u.s. submarine. at the critical moment of life and death, hundreds of chinese zhoushan fishermen risked their lives and drove 46 fishing boats to save the lives of 384 british prisoners of war from the sea.

in 2014, the famous film producer fang li and his friend han han went to dongji island in zhoushan, zhejiang province to shoot han han's directorial debut "unexpectedly". at that time, fang li accidentally learned about the past of the "lisbon maru" from local fishermen, and a "seed" was planted in his heart.

in 2016, fang li, who had never forgotten this matter, returned to his old profession as a "scientist" and led a team to go to sea to search for the sunken ship "lisbon maru". the following year, he successfully located the sunken ship and also found several people who had personally experienced the "lisbon maru". "the person involved in the sinking of the ship. fang li told himself that since he had found human witnesses and physical evidence, this period of history must be well recorded. he decided to invest his own money in filming "the sinking of the lisbon maru".

during the filming process, fang li suffered a heavy blow from a broken financial chain. he gritted his teeth and sold his house, maxed out several credit cards, and finally met the audience in 2024 with the documentary film "the sinking of the lisbon maru".

at the shanghai international film festival in june this year, "the sinking of the lisbon maru" had its national premiere and received rave reviews. fang li's filming experience was also described as "an idealist's bankruptcy."

fang li once admitted to the media at the time that he knew that filming "the sinking of the lisbon maru" would 100% lose money, but this was what he had to do, "i am a chinese, this is a chinese story, and it happened in our country." country, i want to take the audience to find every untold story of the 'lisbon pill'."

"the sinking of the lisbon maru" was released nationwide, but it was not favored by the film market. it was also predicted by big data that it would only sell a few million at the box office. however, as countless viewers who have watched the movie spontaneously help promote and cheer for it, the film continues to counterattack in the market. it has now received 32 million box office and received a super high rating of 9.3 points on the douban platform.

for the audience's love, fang li also posted a message on his personal social account to express his gratitude, "the rescue support of 'tap water' friends is an effective salvage." previously, some netizens commented on "the sinking of the lisbon maru", "this story should be the whole world can see that this movie should be nominated for an oscar." unexpectedly, this wish came true.

famous film critic tan fei said in an interview with jimu news that the news that "the sinking of the lisbon maru" will represent mainland china's "olympic bid" is exciting. "this year there were so many feature films with huge investments and many stars, but in the end they chose i chose this documentary film that makes history not to be forgotten to compete for the oscar for best international film. i think it is no longer important whether it can be nominated in the end. the key is that this choice itself shows that "the sinking of the lisbon maru" represents chinese film creation. this is a great encouragement to creators and those who will make documentaries in the future.”

(image source: official public information of the film)

(source: jimu news)

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