Featuring a lot of underwater stunts filmed on a 9,000-square-meter sound-stage in Yangzhou (Jiangsu), Dongji Rescue is almost a feature-length dramatic remake of director Fang Li's documentary The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru, which garnered widespread acclaim last year.

Both films are inspired by the heroic actions of Chinese fishermen who, at the risk of their own lives, rescued 384 British prisoners of war from a sinking Japanese cargo ship during its voyage from Hong Kong to Japan in October 1942.

Actor Zhu Yilong, who plays a fisherman grieving the loss of his younger brother during the rescue, says that kindness is a fundamental trait of the Chinese people. And that is why China can rise again after every hardship, he adds.