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‘The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru’ Review: Little-Known Pacific War Tragedy Deserves Better Than This Lumbering Doc
Fang Li’s attempt to chronicle 1942 incident aboard a Japanese freighter carrying British POWs never quite figures out what story it’s trying to tell.
The chaos that followed — wherein members of the Japanese army shot any prisoner aiming to swim to safety while a slew of fishing boats helped in their rescue — resulted in more than 800 of those British soldiers dying. He even stages a gotcha segment where he interviews bystanders on the streets in the U.K. and asks them about whether they know about the Lisbon Maru, a scene that feels better suited to a late-night skit than a framing device for a history-driven documentary (especially one so focused on the cruelty exacted by the Japanese military against a slew of British POWs). World War 2 buffs will no doubt find plenty to admire in this assemblage — may even be encouraged to seek out the many sources Li cites on screen — but as a nonfiction film, “The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru” lacks the rigor its subject matter deserves.
Or read this on Variety