The sinking of the Lisbon Maru, an extraordinary second world war story in which 384 British PoWs were saved from a bombed Japanese cargo liner by Chinese fishers, has recently been excavated in an exhaustive, emotional documentary. In Dongji Rescue, co-directed by Zhenxiang Fei and Guan Hu, this staggering tale gets a blockbuster makeover that involves Imax cameras and an $80m budget. The film opens with the stunning vista of the eponymous island, then under Japanese control. The seeds of discontent are there, as the local Chinese population are forbidden…
Tag: War films
The Battle at Water Gate Bridge review – gung-ho Chinese war epic takes on Uncle Sam
War is hell and so is a certain type of war movie: bloated, self-important and glassy-eyed with solemn patriotism. Directed by action veteran Tsui Hark, The Battle at Water Gate Bridge is the giant follow-up to China’s colossal military epic and domestic box-office smash, The Battle at Lake Changjin. It revives the tale of how, during the Korean war in the unimaginably cold winter of 1950, the Chinese army took on the US forces in Changjin county in North Korea and forced Uncle Sam to retreat towards the 38th parallel,…