The Sinking Of The Lisbon Maru

Bluesky

On the 1st of October 1942, a torpedo fired from a US Gato-class submarine near the islands of Qingbang and Miaozihu in the East China Sea struck Japanese cargo liner the Lisbon Maru, holing it beneath the waterline. What might have been considered a victory for the Allies was marred by the subsequent discovery that, despite not being marked as such, the Axis vessel was serving was a prisoner of war transport, carrying over 800 captured British soldiers from Hong Kong to Japan. Tragedy followed, mitigated only by the brave actions of ordinary Chinese fisherman. This documentary sets out to tell the story.

It’s an extraordinarily thorough film, with input from the last surviving individuals from each of the institutions and communities involved. Although there is simply too much story for every area to be fleshed out in detail, it’s plain that a huge amount of research has gone into it, and there’s an impressive quantity of archive footage included. Unusually for a Chinese film, it was a contender in the 2025 to 2025 awards race, and its failure to take any big prizes speaks only to the disadvantage faced by documentaries, which are generally only considered in a single category. This is not a film likely to be lost to history, however, as its in-depth contribution to the record will see it, in its turn, carefully guarded by archivists.

It can be challenging to get a modern audience to connect with events that are now largely outwith living memory. Here, directors Fang Li, Ming Fan and Lily Gong bring them to life through detail, mixing direct accounts of what happened with the remembered words of some of those who didn’t make it. The involvement of Japanese participants helps to clarify some of the things that Western audiences struggle most to get their heads around – the unthinking commitment to rules and hierarchy that had been drilled into people for generations, even to the point that some Japanese soldiers remained behind when the rest abandoned ship, knowing that they would likely drown as a result, in order to try to stop prisoners escaping.

Keeping the Japanese actions in mind – including the way that other Japanese ships fired on men in the water – helps one to appreciate the courage of the local Chinese fishermen who came to their aid, following a sailors’ code as old as time. These were peasants whose resources would have been even more strained than usual due to the war, but who also fed and sheltered survivors. Whilst they were limited in their ability to help beyond that, we learn of their ingenuity in keeping some from falling back into Japanese hands. Parts of this story have never been told before, and it’s all backed up by fresh footage from the locations where key events took place, again helping to give viewers a sense of looking directly at the past.

Tragic as it is, the film also feels like a thriller in places, and despite the volume of information involved it is never dry. It succeeds in taking a neglected chapter of wartime history and making it feel like part of the present moment. A surprisingly optimistic piece of work, it’s a moving tribute to all those who were lost.