A question rising from the deep: In a divided world, can human decency still endure?
By Voice in Between
Editor’s Note: A rescue at sea, carried out by Zhoushan fishermen, transcends time and borders. Dongji Island compels us to ask: when the world once again teeters on division, can we still hold fast to the bottom line of human compassion?
A Forgotten Chapter of War
In the summer of 2025, the Chinese film Dongji Island (Dongji Rescue) premiered in North America. It revisits a little-known episode from World War II—the sinking of the Lisbon Maru in 1942. A Japanese transport ship carrying more than 1,800 British prisoners of war was torpedoed off the coast of Zhejiang. Thousands were left struggling in the freezing waters. Against all odds, local fishermen from the Zhoushan archipelago set out in their fragile wooden boats, risking their own lives to pull strangers—foreign soldiers, no less—from the sea.
Directed by Guan Hu and Fei Zhenxiang, and starring Zhu Yilong, Wu Lei, and Ni Ni, Dongji Island forgoes grand battlefield spectacles and instead turns its lens to the humblest of figures. Shot in IMAX, with waves crashing across the screen, the film is not just a technical feat but also a meditation on humanity and moral courage.
The Brilliance of Ordinary People
Unlike conventional war films that center on generals or statesmen, Dongji Island gives its stage to fishermen—people without power, without weapons, barely able to sustain their own lives. Yet in that moment of peril, they made the simplest, and most courageous, choice: to save.
The film draws a stark contrast: the massive prison ship as a symbol of war’s machinery, and the fragile fishing boats as fragile vessels of conscience. Through this imagery, the directors show us that while war destroys, compassion endures.
This is not a tale of victory or defeat, nor of nationalism or conquest. It is a story of humanitarianism, of reaching across boundaries. In this way, the film opens a new path within the war genre—one where the light of ordinary people refracts into a broader hope for humankind.
Relevance Today: From History to the Present
What makes Dongji Island compelling is not only its revival of a forgotten wartime rescue, but also the questions it poses to our present. It serves as a mirror, forcing audiences to confront: can we still uphold the most basic tenets of decency?
1. In an age of division and conflict, is help still possible?
The Zhoushan fishermen did not save “their own.” They saved enemy soldiers—foreigners caught in war. In the bloody logic of the 1940s, this was an act that defied expectation, yet it revealed the most fundamental form of human kindness.
Today, our world is again marked by division: great-power rivalries, regional wars, ethnic conflict. Dongji Island asks us: even in the darkest waters, do we still have the courage to reach out a hand?
2. Between national interest and personal humanity
War often demands that the individual submit to national interest. Yet in the film, the fishermen’s reasoning is disarmingly simple: “If someone is drowning, we save them.”
This “naïve” decision, grounded not in calculation but in conscience, is precisely what drives civilization forward. It is a reminder that history is not only moved by strategies and treaties, but by ordinary choices born of decency. How do we preserve this bottom line of humanity amid the pressures of state and ideology?
3. In a stalled age of globalization, does cross-cultural empathy remain?
For much of the 20th century, globalization promised connection. But in recent years, nationalism and protectionism have surged, and cross-cultural understanding has grown scarce.
Against this backdrop, Dongji Island offers a powerful counter-narrative: Chinese fishermen saving British prisoners of war. It is both rooted in Chinese traditions of righteousness and expressive of universal humanitarianism. Yet the question lingers: in today’s fractured world, can such stories still be understood and embraced across cultures?
Questions for the Future
Thus, Dongji Island is not simply a recollection of the past—it is an inquiry into the future. As the credits roll, audiences are left to wrestle with urgent questions:
– When societies are driven by division and interest, can we still uphold a common minimum of humanity?
– When international relations grow tense, can we still believe in cross-cultural goodwill?
– When ordinary people face the currents of history, will we still choose to act?
In raising these questions, the film transcends the boundaries of a war story to become a moral provocation for our own time.
Conclusion: From Zhoushan to the World
Dongji Island is not without flaws. But its significance lies not in box office numbers, but in the values it illuminates. It revives the unseen, giving voice to ordinary men who, in a moment of history, chose compassion over fear.
This is not only the story of Zhoushan fishermen, nor only a story of China. It is a story for the world. It reminds us that no matter how times change, someone, somewhere, will still choose to safeguard kindness. And it is precisely these seemingly small choices that shape the future of civilization.
As the screen fades to black, we may finally realize: what deserves to be remembered is not how war destroys, but how people hold fast to decency.
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