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‘I wanted those 828 men not to be forgotten’: the Chinese documentary raising wartime ghosts

The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru – rejected earlier this week as China’s official Oscars contender – recounts a terrible and forgotten tragedy. Director Fang Li explains why, 80 years on, the story still arouses fierce passions

Fang, a businessman turned film director, first learned about the incident when he overheard a fisher on Dongji island, part of the Zhoushan archipelago that more than 80 years ago was the site of the rescue mission, mention the existence of a sunken ship from the second world war in the nearby waters. At one point, Fang enlisted the help of a private detective in Tokyo to track down the children of Kyoda Shigeru, the captain of the Lisbon Maru, who in 1947 was convicted of war crimes for his role in the incident. In the letter, Xi said that the Lisbon Maru incident was “a historical episode epitomising the profound friendship forged between the people of our two countries,” according to a statement from the Chinese embassy.

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