Brief Story Line
Story was set in the year 1942 where Japanese ship named Lisbon Maru carrying 1816 British Prisoners of War (POW) was shot down by US submarine in the waters of Zhousan islands. As the ship started to sink, the Japanese saved their own crews but left the POWs inside the hatches.
Meanwhile brothers Ah Bi (Zhu Yilong - Lost in the Stars, The Story of Minglan TV series etc) and Ah Dang (Leo Wu - Asura, Fight Break Spheres TV series etc) from Dongji island found one of the British survivors who was somehow stranded on the sea. Despite the disapproval of Ah Bi, Ah Dang still insisted to save him. However this would bring danger to the whole village including outcast Ah Hua (Ni Ni - Shock Wave 2, Love and Destiny TV series etc) who was close to Ah Bi, since the Japanese were adamant of not letting any of the POWs alive.
So what would happen to the POWs and Dongji villagers? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
When I read the synopsis and the title, I was under the impression that the film would be concentrating fully on the rescue mission. However it was different from what I imagined. The first half was more like a drama focusing on Ah Bi, Ah Dang and the British survivor Thomas Newman (William Franklyn-Miller - Medici TV series etc) complicated interaction. As the story progressed, the intensity felt stronger especially when the cruelty of the Japanese was shown graphically.
The movie grew more suspenseful when the danger became more imminent for the villagers and we really felt the tension & worried with the fate of everyone. There were plenty of emotional moments in the film and the final third was truly awesome as it showed the amazing rescue effort. So many scenes that made our emotions swiftly changed from worried, deeply saddened, relieved, angry, glad and so on. I knew that the film was based on actual events, but I admired the movie makers for being able to dramatize certain parts as it enhance the feelings we experienced.
Though the film showed the patriotic rescue efforts by the Chinese, but it was not a blatant propaganda movie like other Chinese productions. The Japanese extreme ruthlessness in here might have been exaggerated, however it was very effective to show the condition of the people involved. From what I read about this incident, a lot of things in the movie indeed happened, even the three main characters were based on real people. Before closing credits, there were some information of the occurrence shown. Too bad it was a bit too fast to capture all them, but at least we got to see brief interviews of several of the people who witnessed it and their descendants which brought some sadness to audience.
The movie was directed by Guan Hu (Mr. Six, The Eight Hundred etc) and Fei Zhenxiang (better known as Sun Wukong in the 2010 Journey to the West series). It was pretty well accepted by some critics and it looked like audience comments were quite positive. I am not too sure about its box office performance after the release in China back in August, but it did have a large budget which could be seen from its high production value (sadly it might be challenging to break even or bringing huge profit). From what I read, the preparation actually began from 2019 though the full scale replica of the ship was built in 2023, plus the creation of old modeled fishermen's boats.
The main cast did great job and convincing in their roles. They were able to show strong emotions in various moments. It was also helped by the pretty good performance of the support cast such as Chen Minghao (The Lonely Warrior TV series, Tiger Wolf Rabbit etc) as school teacher Mr. Cheng, Ni Dahong (1921, Love Never Ends etc) as Ah Hua's adoptive father Mr. Wu and several others. The film's duration was pretty long with 134 minutes which was understandable considering the amount of time to finish the whole story.
Overall it was an amazing film that showed the heroic rescue act by the Chinese fishermen based on true events. Despite some areas that have been dramatized, the main part of the history where the fishermen really did the humanity act of rescuing unknown people while risking their lives remain intact. Plus the story telling was just awesome. The only thing that I hope had been enhanced was the brightness cause at certain scenes, they were too dark to see them clearly. Other than those though, it was just great. So if you are interested in seeing the rescue act based on actual historical event, then you are welcome to see this in the cinema now while it's still available. Looking at the amount of studios playing the film, it might be difficult to see it beyond next week. Just ready yourself with some emotional moments that would bring tears like it did to me and especially my wife.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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