In October 1942, an unmarked Japanese ship was targeted and torpedoed by an American submarine who didn't know that the ship was transporting British POWs. What followed was fight for survival as the men in the sinking ship tried to escape, the Japanese tried to keep them in and the Chinese fisherman on the nearby Donji Island tried to save as many people as possible even though it could cost them their lives.
The story of the sinking & rescue was told last year in a film called THE DONJI RESCUE which was changed to THE RESCUE AT DONJI for VOD release in the US. The earlier film haunted me so much that when this film crossed my inbox I had to see it.
Not to put dance around the matter Fang Li's film is a masterpiece. Its a film that crosses time and moves us with the story of what happened back in 1942, while making us misty with the realization that effects of war bleed off the battlefield and down generations.
What I love about the film is that Li manages to juggle multiple story lines and never lose them. We have Li's quest to find out what really happened in 1942 as well as his effort to find the wreck of the ship. We have the events of the sinking. Most importantly we have the stories of the families of them men on the ship and of the fishermen who stepped up to do the right thing. Some of the men didn't survive and some did, but their experiences effected the lives of their children and grandchildren. I was moved multiple times over.
In all my years of watching war related documentaries I've never seen a film that covered so much and did so so perfectly. Truthfully this is the first time where you realize that war doesn't just effect the lives of the people involved in the conflict, but everyone that comes after. It was a point that really hit home when the film ended and everyone was saying their goodbyes.
I can not really explain how good this film is. I might be able to do that down the road, once I've seen it a few more times.
Until then do yourself a favor and see this film when it hits VOD on June 30.
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