Dong Ji Dao

Before watching Dongji Rescue,I re-watched the documentary The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru-a movie I highly recommend. It deepened my appreciation for the film's historical weight and emotional stakes.

Walking out of the theater, I was left with a quiet, overwhelming feeling. This is a film that demands to be seen on the big screen. It's not a fleeting spectacle but a visceral, textured experience. The visual effects are stunning, immersing you in moments so intense they make your heart race and your fists clench. The pacing is relentless, with conflicts erupting one after another, each hitting like a gut punch. There were scenes where I found myself holding my breath, tears pricking at my eyes.

What truly anchored the film for me were its characters. The director's portrayal of the "pirate brothers"-Adang (played by Wu Lei) and Abi (Zhu Yilong)-is masterful. Their dynamic serves as a thread that weaves the harrowing true story of the Lisbon Maru sinking into the narrative. Both actors deliver raw, nuanced performances, embodying the fear, resolve, and quiet heroism of countless Dongji Island fishermen from that era.

But the film's strength lies in its ensemble. Every character feels alive-flawed, human, and unforgettable. You see their terror and hesitation, yet also their courage and defiance. The director captures the grit and glory of ordinary people pushed to extraordinary acts, refusing to reduce them to mere background figures.

Some have compared this to Nanjing! Nanjing!, but I see no need for such rivalry. Both films are powerful, worthy of theaters, and offer distinct lenses into history. To pit one against the other feels unnecessary.

Ultimately, Dongji Rescue succeeds in its simplest, most profound goal: ensuring this chapter of history is seen, felt, and remembered. For that alone, it's a triumph.

Dong Ji Dao is a film that condenses historical memory and the brilliance of humanity onto the big screen. It not only recreates the heroic maritime rescue by Zhoushan fishermen 83 years ago, but also truthfully presents the courage and kindness deeply rooted in their very bones. This is not merely a local memory - it is a story the whole world should witness.

The film's visual power is truly breathtaking. Whether it's the roaring waves of the sea, the sight of hundreds of fishing boats rushing to save lives, or the resistance that emerges after enduring oppression, each scene makes the audience feel as if they have traveled through time to personally experience those thrilling moments. This approach of revealing the truth through images makes the film not only an artistic expression but also a historical testimony.

Among the many moving characters, Zhu Yilong portrayal of A'Bi is undoubtedly the most stunning highlight of the film. Every scene featuring A'Bi is a moment of brilliance. Zhu Yilong performance is layered - combining the rugged courage of a warrior with the tender love and protection for his younger brother - moving audiences deeply.

Grateful that I managed to catch this movie while I'm in China for holiday. The overall presentation of the movie was great! The soundscape, the different scenes, the plot, the relationship and struggle between the different characters.

After the whole movie, I left the theatre with a heavy heart but at the same time, thankful that the fishermen on Dongji Island have lend a hand to the POW from British.

History shall never be forgotten and history shall never be amended.

Dongji Rescue is a well-crafted production with compelling performances, striking visuals and music, and a clear, engaging narrative. It serves as a cultural message from China to the international community, offering a perspective that differs from the more familiar Western narratives. By focusing on the compassion and solidarity shown by ordinary Chinese people, the film combines emotional impact with historical depth. It is a work I would definitely recommend, especially to international audiences, for both its artistic quality and historical significance.

If you saw Fang Li's documentary from 2023 on the sinking of the "Lisbon Maru" then you'll know it was a freighter travelling from Hong Kong to Japan carrying over a thousand British POWs. It was torpedoed by an US submarine and to say the treatment of the prisoners by their captors was inhumane would be the mother of all understatements! What this dramatisation does is shift the emphasis more onto the brutality of the occupying forces on a nearby Chinese island. There, the local population were controlled by a small garrison and prohibited from taking their fishing boats out to sea. There are two brothers, reputedly with pirate blood, who ignored this ban though and it was on one such trip that "Bi" (Yilong Zhu) and "Dang" (Lei Wu) discover the malnourished and emaciated "Newton" (William Franklyn-Miller) floating on the water. One thinks they should leave well alone, the other wants to rescue the man and after some scuffling and legerdemain, "Newton" finds himself on the island and the focus of a search by the forces now under the command of a particularly savage young lieutenant. Meantime, the stricken ship is slowly sinking and as the islanders can see the smoke and hear the explosions, they determine to set sail against the overwhelming firepower lined up against them, and try to save the people in the water being routinely slaughtered by machine-gun fire. There is a fair amount of CGI here and it's not great, but the substance of the story quite successfully manages to mix the actual history with the courageousness of the fishermen and a little magical fantasy - these two brothers have positively Atlantean diving skills and can hold their breaths and fight the currents formidably - and is consistently paced throughout. The calculating violence and savagery of their enemies is well illustrated here and the two sibling characterisations are engagingly presented as their journey takes them, and the feisty "Hua" (Ni Ni) out to sea and into the teeth of a slaughter. The philosophy of the dramatisation reminded me at times of a bit of "Bridge over the River Kwai" meets "Tenko"; epitomised the oppression faced by a community that probably hadn't changed much in generations and that was in no way equipped to deal with the rifle-armed squad of bullies who took control of their island for no real reason beyond that they could, and that that population was beneath their contempt. It's a bit long, and clearly has a degree of modern-day jingoism to it's style and presentation, but it keeps an important-to-remember story alive, and works well enough.