Oscar-Contending Doc ‘The Sinking Of The Lisbon Maru’ Tells Incredible WWII Story Of Villainy And Heroism

deadline.com:

One of the most extraordinary stories from World War II, paradoxically, is one of the least known: the sinking of the Lisbon Maru.

This was the scene, in the ocean waters around a remote island off the Chinese coast: “On October 2, 1942, the Lisbon Maru, a Japanese freighter carrying 1,816 British prisoners of war, was torpedoed in the East China Sea by an unwitting American submarine.

As the ship sank, Japanese forces battened down the British POWs in the holds, leaving them to die. Some prisoners broke free at the last moment; 384 were rescued by local Chinese fishermen from the island Zhoushan, while 828 perished.” The wreck of the Lisbon Maru and the story behind its sinking might never have been known beyond family members of the dead and survivors, were it not for Fang Li.

The Chinese geophysicist, marine technologist, robot designer, and filmmaker challenged himself to locate the sunken vessel and resurface the tale of villainy and heroism behind it. “I heard this story 10 years ago when I was shooting a feature film on the island [of Zhoushan] with a young director, popular writer in China, and he and I were sitting on an upper deck on a yacht.