A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru” (2025).
Do you know about the Lisbon Maru? The documentary maker Fang Li asks passers-by on the streets of Britain and nobody has a clue. I would be among them. For even though I’m fairly well up on my historical knowledge of World War 2, this incredible story of courage and survival was completely new to me.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
“The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru” Plot:
The documentary uncovers the story of the “Lisbon Maru”, a Japanese cargo vessel that was stuffed full of British PoWs en route from Hong Kong to Japan. On 1st October 1942 the ship was torpedoed and sunk by the American submarine the USS Grouper.
Certification:
UK:Â 12A;Â US: NR. (From the BBFC web site: “Moderate violence, upsetting scenes, threat, infrequent strong language”.)
Talent:
Starring: Fang Li.
Directed by: Fang Li, Ming Fan, Lily Gong.
Running Time: 2h 3m.
“The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru” Summary:
Positives:
- Uncovering an untold story from the war.
- Dedicated documentary making, with hundreds of interviews from survivors, their families and the victim’s familiies.
- The events are dramatically brought to life through artwork.
Negatives:
- We only briefly get to see the Japanese side of the story.
Review of “The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru”:
A Remarkable story.
Part of the joy of this documentary is learning about a piece of history you had no comprehension of. The treatment of the PoWs by their Japanese captors was totally barbaric and how any of the British survived is an extraordinary tale of survival. Unfortunately, this film really does make you despise the Japanese…. I know there’s “forgiveness” and all that, but some of this story is almost unbelievably brutal.
It also makes your heart-warm for the part played in the saga by Chinese fishermen from a nearby island who not only saved countless British lives but also later put themselves at serious risk of death at the hands of the Japanese army.
The lasting effects passed down the generations.
The dedication of the documentary team is incredible, criss-crossing the world to interview not one, but (as it turns out) two actual near-centennial survivors of the event and then a surviving Chinese fisherman, still living on the same island. But the work extends into countless interviews with relatives of both the survivors and the victims (shown over the end-titles). A few of these are the spouses or immediate siblings of the victims, but the interviews also include sons, daughters and nieces/nephews. And the impact is the same across the board: emerging grief and free-flowing tears for a life lost at sea and a life story-arc not able to be completed. Nearly 85 years later, the damage is still there.
What made this particularly poignant is that in my Salisbury “Everyman” screening (I think this is only getting a very limited release), there were obviously two such groups of relatives of someone involved in the event.
A picture paints a thousand words.
Amplifying the effects of the words used by the interviewees, the film shows re-enactments of the key events through very professionally made paintings (I can’t see a credit for these on IMDB). They are dramatic and add greatly to your mental picture of what went on there.
The Japanese Perspective.
We get a great deal of the perspective of the British PoWs. We also get some perspective from the crew of the USS Grouper (the son of the guy who pressed the button!) and from the Chinese fishing community. Where I think the documentary could have upped the wattage is in the perspective of the Japanese side (not that that seems very defensible!).
I always remember visiting Hiroshima and in the museum there, the slant of the captions on the exhibits was very different from what British or American museums would have painted it. Similarly,I think that the Japanese slant on this story would have been really interesting. We do have a sequence where the children of the Japanese captain were interviewed. But they seemed rather lacking in knowledge of the whole event (“he never talked about it”) and rather dismissed the actions with a “he was only following orders” response. Some more context from Japanese war historians or others in the Japanese military would have added value.
Summary Thoughts on “The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru”
For me, a good documentary needs to either intrigue or inform and this definitely managed to inform. In unveiling some otherwise buried WW2 history and doing so in a touching and (given the advanced age of the participants) incredibly timely way, it’s a genuinely fascinating documentary. Recommended.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHdzJjM9bm0.
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