movie review|"the sinking of the lisbon maru": an expression of the common values of all mankind
2024-09-30
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chao news client xiang yu
coldness is a common quality in documentaries, but the documentary "the sinking of the lisbon maru" directed by fang li made people cry.
the film tells the story of a shipwreck 82 years ago: in october 1942, the japanese transport ship "lisbon maru" carrying 1,816 allied prisoners of war was traveling from hong kong to japan and was hit by a us submarine while passing through the waters of zhoushan, zhejiang, china. when the ship was about to sink, allied prisoners of war struggled to open the cabin that had been sealed by the japanese army. zhoushan fishermen braved a hail of bullets from the japanese army to rescue the soldiers who fell into the water.
the film has two clues: one clue explores history, restores history, and deciphers the background, causes, and process of the shipwreck through detailed information; the other clue searches for surviving soldiers and relatives of the victims, and presents it through the narration of the parties or relatives of the victims. the catastrophic impact of shipwrecks on individual lives. the two clues together form a capital human character. the film's care for people and valuing of life enable the film to find the best balance between chronicling and writing about people. as director fang li said, "it is not about history, but about people's stories. history is only a very small part of the movie, accounting for less than 20%. it is more about people's fate and experiences. a big war is about family, family, love, friendship, and the glory of human nature. it is the history of people, not just the history of war.”
in the film, these captured allied soldiers are not just artillerymen, signalmen or mechanics, but also sons, older brothers, younger brothers, husbands, fathers... for their descendants - many of whom have never met - in other words, they are a source of long-term, permanent grief and trauma. and some people may even experience this kind of grief and trauma many years later. as the ending song sings: war not only happens on the battlefield, but also in children's nightmares. the film tells a short story: a british soldier wrote a brief letter to his young brother on the ship, asking him to take good care of his mother. when he grew up, his younger brother always carried this letter with him, which was equivalent to his last words, and stayed with this belated sadness for the rest of his life. these short stories make us deeply feel that every name appearing in the long subtitles at the end of the film is a living life, and their tragedy is the tragedy of hundreds of families and generations. in this sense, what the film salvaged is not only the sunken history, but also the silent and lingering sadness. let the tragedy and sadness of these individual lives that have been ignored by the grand history be seen. this humanistic ethics gives "the sinking of the lisbon maru" a huge emotional power.
prior to this, our country had filmed a movie "eastern rescue" that showed this theme. the focus of the narrative was the rescue of fishermen on dongji island in zhoushan. in contrast, "the sinking of the lisbon maru" focuses on allied soldiers and their descendants, focusing on the tragedy of life caused by the war. it is the emphasis on the dignity of life, a common value for all mankind, that makes "the sinking of the lisbon maru" transcend national and ideological discourses and convey the universal feelings of contemporary chinese people.
about the author: xiang yu, professor at zhejiang university of communication.
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