“Why do you keep searching for a ship?” In a scene from The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru, a 2023 Chinese documentary film rated 8.4/10 on IMDb that investigates the sinking of the “Lisbon Maru”, a Japanese troopship carrying prisoners of war in World War II, a child looked into the camera and asked curiously.
It is also a question the audience of this hit documentary has been pondering.
FANG Li, director and producer of the documentary, brought it for a special screening at Fudan on October 27 and shared what happened behind the scenes of this film which took the crew nearly seven years to complete.
In 2014, while filming another movie The Continent on Dongji Island in the East China Sea, Fang happened to hear the story of a nearby sunken ship from World War II: When this Japanese troopship was accidentally sunk by a torpedo from an American submarine in 1942, the British prisoners of war onboard escaped by jumping into the sea, but the Japanese army started shooting relentlessly. At this critical moment, around 200 Chinese fishermen nearby arrived in sampans and saved 384 of them, providing them with food, clothing and shelter.
“I am highly sensitive and insatiably curious,” said Fang. He attributed his personal qualities as the catalyst that led him to envision the creation of this documentary.
To unveil this previously little-known historical event, Fang and the crew embarked on an eight-year odyssey. Their global travels were driven by a relentless pursuit of historical truth, as they amassed a wealth of archival materials for the documentary.
Through publishing notices in newspapers, they had intimate dialogues with a diverse array of sources, including historians, Chinese fishermen, and both the survivors of the shipwreck and their progeny, weaving together a rich tapestry of firsthand accounts and expert insights.
“We were constantly in tears when we heard so many heart-wrenching stories and endless tales of sorrow and waits,” Fang recalled. These feelings reinforced their determination to complete the documentary. In Fang’s view, genuine emotions are more precious than the box office, especially in an era where short videos and smartphones take the prominent position. “I’m surprised and glad that so many people appreciated our effort and were moved by the film.”
Some people have questioned the relevance of the film to China, suggesting that it tells a story of the British and doesn’t have much to do with China. In response to this, Fang explained that he wished to convey a Chinese perspective and especially the perspective of those Chinese fishermen. “Some of us need to step forward as a narrator, or it would be likely just the British telling the story,” he said.
What Fang truly wants to tell are the stories of countless individuals and families who have been influenced by the sinking of the Lisbon Maru, because behind the ups and downs of their lives lies a war that no one wished for.
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Presented by Fudan University Media Center
Writer: LIU Siyu, WANG Jingyang
Editor: WANG Mengqi, LI Yijie
