Chinese director Guan Hu’s WWII tentpole Dongji Rescue, a sweeping historical action drama based on the true story of the sinking of the Lisbon Maru — one of the deadliest maritime disasters of the Pacific Theater — is heading to European cinemas. British specialty distributor Trinity CineAsia acquired all regional rights to the film and will release it in the U.K. and Ireland on Aug. 22, followed by other European markets from Aug. 29.
Dongji Rescue dramatizes the events surrounding the 1942 torpedoing of the Lisbon Maru, a Japanese ship covertly transporting 1,800 British POWs. After the vessel was mistakenly struck by an American submarine off China’s Dongji Island, more than 800 survivors were rescued by Chinese fishermen in an extraordinary act of wartime bravery.
Co-directed by Guan and actor-turned-filmmaker Fei Zhenxiang from an $80 million budget, Dongji Rescue has been hailed as one of the most technically ambitious projects ever mounted in China. Shot in Imax with over 40 percent of its runtime taking place underwater, the film employed advanced robotics, large-scale water tanks, and full-scale ship recreations, while authentically reconstructing WWII-era fishing village architecture on Dongji Island.
Wu Lei and Zhu Yilong in Dongji Rescue.
Trinity CineAsia previously released Guan’s acclaimed drama Black Dog, which won Cannes’ Un Certain Regard prize in 2024, as well as his big-budget war epic The Eight Hundred, which was China’s second-biggest film of 2020.
Dongji Rescue stars Zhu Yilong (Lost in the Stars), Wu Lei (Nirvana in Fire), Ni Ni (The Flowers of War), and British newcomer William Franklyn-Miller, who plays a British army medic hidden by villagers during the disaster’s aftermath. The film also features Michael Gaston, Ni Dahong, and Li Jiuxiao.
Trinity CineAsia will hold a UK premiere for Dongji Rescue on Aug. 15 — the 80th anniversary of V-J Day — at London’s Odeon Leicester Square, with the directors, producers and starring cast set to attend.
“Dongji Rescue is based on a true story which has particular relevance in the U.K., of course, as it involves British POWs in a desperate shipwreck, but also a specific resonance that can connect with everyone everywhere — a humanistic, intimate story on a large historic canvas, a la Dunkirk or Atonement, and we’re looking forward to audiences being wowed and moved to tears at the same time,” said Cedric Behrel, executive director of Trinity CineAsia.
William Franklyn Miller and Wu Lei in Dongji Rescue.
7th Art Pictures
Dongji Rescue is produced by 7th Art Pictures and supported by Enlight Pictures, Tao Piao Piao, and China Film Group. The film opens in China on August 8.
Added Liang Jing, producer and head of 7th Art Pictures: “We are delighted to collaborate with Trinity CineAsia — who previously distributed Black Dog and The Eight Hundred for us — to bring this touching story, buried in the dust of modern history, to global audiences — especially to the British audience, so that the descendants of British soldiers who survived that disaster know: we are still here, we still remember this story!”
Dongji Rescue‘s official story summary is as follows: “October 1942, most of China is living under the shadow of imperial Japan. Following the Fall of British Hong Kong in December 1941, many British service personnel were taken prisoner. The Lisbon Maru — a Japanese merchant ship covertly carrying around 1,800 British POWs in the Far East — is torpedoed by mistake off the coast of China’s Dongji Island by an American submarine, unaware of the lives hidden below deck. Guided by the code of the islanders — “those in peril at sea must be saved” — two young fishermen, brothers Abi (Zhu Yilong) and Adang (Wu Lei), risk everything to hide a British army medic (William Franklyn-Miller) in their village after being spotted drifting in the sea. A brutal manhunt by the Japanese forces to find the missing soldier ensues. As the ship begins to sink, and the truth about the POWs stranded at sea comes to the surface, the villagers set out on a perilous mission to rescue the British soldiers and reclaim their land.”
