Recently, 15 tourists with special status from the UK landed on Dongji Island. They are the descendants of the survivors of the "Lisbon Maru shipwreck incident".
There are both white-haired old people and underage children among them.
This time they came to the island from thousands of miles away to remember their ancestors and to express their gratitude to the descendants of the fishermen on the island on behalf of their ancestors.
An event from the past that had been sealed in dust for 82 years has come to light.
Recently, the documentary film "The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru" was screened at the Shanghai International Film Festival. The old British lady, who is a descendant of the survivors, had red eyes after watching the film.
"This is my first time in China. It has always been my wish to go to Dongji Island to see the shipwreck ruins. This time I can fulfill my wish." Du official announcement revealed the two starring roles of Zhu Yilong and Wu Lei, and released the first concept poster.
The production team claims that this is the most difficult water movie to make in the history of Chinese film, "making one movie is worth three movies."
What these two films focus on is the story that took place in the waters of China's East Pole Island in 1942. The simple island fishermen gathered everyone's strength and braved the hail of Japanese bullets to rescue the victims of the Allied forces.
The origin of the story began with an "old story" casually told by a captain.
As early as 10 years ago when preparing for the movie "", Fang Li as the producer and director Han Han came to the vicinity of Dongji Island to select the location for the movie.
While chatting, the captain told them a story.
In the story, there is a huge ship sinking, and there are simple fishermen risking their lives to rescue their Allied friends. Especially the scene of hundreds of small boats rushing to save people and traveling back and forth between sea and land is impressive.
Inspired by this story, Han Han wrote "When a ship sinks to the bottom of the sea, when a person becomes a mystery" when he wrote the lyrics for the movie song "The End of Time", sung by Deng Ziqi .
It was not until 10 years later that Fang Li solved the mystery. The ship turned out to be the "Lisbon Maru".
Regarding the captain’s story, Fang Li was even more determined to get to the bottom of it. He decided to follow the clues of the story and restore the truth of this dusty history.
Therefore, Fang Li led his team and spent 8 years in production. He visited the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, Australia, as well as Hong Kong and Zhoushan, China, to find a large amount of information for detailed historical research.
Especially in order to find survivors and descendants in the UK, Fang Li made posters in China and spent 250,000 pounds of his own money to advertise in the three major newspapers in the UK.
The copywriting reads "A sunken ship, 1816 untold stories, 828 forgotten people, where are you".
Fang Li once wanted to name the movie "828 People Not Forgotten", but as the newspaper brought more and more interviewees, he found that the number of survivors who were rescued that year was far more than that. , and changed the name back.
This documentary, which combines on-site interviews, precious historical images and animations that restore the event, was finally screened at this year's Shanghai Film Festival, revealing the historical truth that has been sealed for 82 years.
In August last year, the film was screened in London, England. At the end of the film, the audience stood up and applauded for a long time. Some people excitedly shouted "Thank you", and Fang Li and the creative team hugged each other and cried.
This movie should be available to fans soon.
The movie "Eastern Island" starts shooting today. Producer Liang Jing officially announced that Zhu Yilong is the male lead. Special thanks to him and Wu Lei.
The director and his team had already spent 4 years in preparation, overcoming many technical and script problems.
is to better show the wonders of the sea and the touching national blood on the big screen.
It is reported that Zhu Yilong and Wu Lei will play a pair of fishermen brothers in the film. In the film, they are the first fishermen to participate in rescuing the victims.
It is under their leadership that more and more people across the island are participating in the rescue.
In order to play good fishermen, the two leading actors have entered the group for special training in advance and received special training in apnea and diving.
Moreover, their breath-holding time can reach 4 and a half minutes. This is still in a moving state. If they are static, they can last longer.
The poster has a tough style. The shore and the sea are like two worlds. The giant ship is about to capsize, and international friends are in a desperate situation of hell.
Ordinary Chinese fishermen faced this shocking catastrophe and Japanese artillery fire. Should they save them or not? What price will be paid to save people?
The filming scene of the movie is "half on the sea and half on the bottom of the sea". It is necessary to show the huge shipwreck of the sinking of the giant ship, and also to show the bloody scene of "a hundred battles" to rescue the Allied forces.
The scheduling of hundreds of foreign extras on site and the addition of post-production special effects to the real rescue scene in the sea are unprecedented challenges for the entire Chinese-language film.
In order to present the grand scenes of the sea, the giant ship and Dongji Island, and to truly restore the atmosphere and environmental style of the times, the crew conducted physical island scene shooting at the original site of the incident.
referred to historical materials to truly reproduce the fishing village architecture during World War II, and restored the entire hull design of the Lisbon Maru with a 1:1 model, and produced multiple different hull shapes to meet the filming needs.
Ocean visual effects production technology is extremely complex, and there are only a handful of teams around the world that can meet the requirements. The crew of "Eastern Island" rose to the challenge.
The post-production work of the movie will also be very difficult. As the chief producer of the film, Liang Jing said, "The post-production of this film is very difficult, and the production cycle will take at least one year."
On September 25, 1942, at Sham Shui Po Pier in Hong Kong, 1,816 British prisoners were organized to board the Lisbon Maru and set off from Hong Kong to Japan.
The ship is about 116 meters long, 18 meters wide, and has a crew of 77 people. It was originally a large passenger ship that was requisitioned by the Japanese invaders and converted into military use.
The Japanese invaders violated the Geneva Convention and should have hung relevant flags or signs on the ship to remind the warring parties not to attack the ship. However, the Japanese army did not make relevant arrangements on the Lisbon Maru.
On the evening of September 30, 1942, the submarine "Perch" of the 81st Division of the US Fleet discovered the ship and attacked it. Before the ship sank, Japan took the lead in placing its own soldiers and civilians on the ship, leaving a large number of British people to die.
During the capsizing process of the ship, the Japanese army did not take effective rescue measures to treat these prisoners of war. They once closed the hatch and refused to let these prisoners of war save themselves. The ship became a hell on earth for the prisoners of war.
Chinese fishermen witnessed this tragic situation and based on the simple belief that "saving a life is better than building a seven-level pagoda", they called on the fishermen of the two islands to participate in the rescue.
They braved the fierce winds and the Japanese bullets, dispatched dozens of fishing boats, and rescued more than 20 times. According to incomplete statistics, they rescued a total of about 384 British prisoners.
During the rescue process, the British prisoners of war also showed good gentlemanly demeanor. No one competed for position. They helped each other and cooperated with the Chinese fishermen to complete the rescue in an orderly manner.
summary
At the end of the movie " Dunkirk " directed by Nolan, which was released in 2017, in order to rescue the British and French Allied Forces from retreating, the British Navy and the public spontaneously organized a fleet to rescue.
Among them were fishing boats, passenger ships, yachts and small civilian ships. This rescue preserved precious vitality for the Allies and also paved the way for the final Allied victory.
The "Lisbon Maru shipwreck incident" that also occurred during World War II was as significant as the "Dunkirk evacuation" to a certain extent.
The cross-border rescue involving Chinese fishermen’s voluntary organizations is equally great and extraordinary, and their story of risking their lives to save lives should not be forgotten.
"When a ship sinks to the bottom of the sea, when a person becomes a mystery" , it's time for the story in the lyrics to surface.
"The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru" should be released in theaters within the year, and "Eastern Island" will probably meet movie fans in 2026. For this period of history worth remembering, I look forward to the release of the two movies.(Written by Mu Weizhou)
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