On Oct. 1, 1942, a Japanese freighter carrying over 1,800 British POWs captured through the Battle of Hong Kong was torpedoed by an American sub. The chaos that adopted — whereby members of the Japanese military shot any prisoner aiming to swim to security whereas a slew of fishing boats helped of their rescue — resulted in additional than 800 of these British troopers dying. Tracing that little-known occasion and the huge grief it left behind within the UK, Fang Li’s “The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru” however appears like a boring historical past lesson that’s truncated by its many ambitions.

Li is entrance and heart in his documentary. The skilled geophysicist-turned-filmmaker has spent a lot of his life exploring the world underwater. That’s how he’d first realized concerning the Lisbon Maru, whose stays had been believed to nonetheless be on the backside of the ocean, by no means having been discovered nor studied — nor, because it occurs, precisely positioned.

Pushed by a want to discover that sunken vessel, he opens “The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru” with a drive to exhume its historical past in an analogous vein. Right here was a relic and a historical past in want of additional examination. The movie takes it upon itself to inform that historical past (with the help of attractive painterly, hand-drawn animation). However it additionally desires to trace Li’s seek for the vessel, in addition to any survivors they will discover (solely two nonetheless lived whereas the doc was being shot; they’ve since handed), in addition to their descendants. 

This Chinese language doc desires to be each an oral historical past of the occasion at hand and a document of the grief of those that misplaced household there — all framed by Li’s personal pet marine exploration endeavor. And at shut to 2 hours, these numerous strands push movie and filmmaker alike in typically opposing (when not outright overlapping) instructions, resulting in useless repetition that blunts the very goal of Li’s undertaking. That is an excavation of historical past however Li spends maybe an excessive amount of time strolling us via how the excavation occurred moderately than letting his outcomes (like the numerous teary-eyed interviews he has with descendants of the survivors) communicate for themselves. There’s a relentless and constant want for self-congratulation that dampens the analysis on show right here.

A key drawback with “The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru” is a structural one. All through the movie, Li insists on the primary worth his documentary has: It’s telling a narrative few folks know, one which’s seldom been informed, not to mention documented. But time and time once more, his personal sources contradict such a press release. He interviews Tony Banham, a historian who wrote a whole e-book that shares a title along with his documentary (printed again in 2006). He makes use of recorded testimonials by a number of the survivors of the Lisbon Maru who’ve since died, that had been compiled as oral histories of that pivotal occasion. He even phases a gotcha phase the place he interviews bystanders on the streets within the U.Okay. and asks them about whether or not they know concerning the Lisbon Maru, a scene that feels higher suited to a late-night skit than a framing machine for a history-driven documentary (particularly one so targeted on the cruelty exacted by the Japanese navy in opposition to a slew of British POWs).

There are two highly effective and intriguing documentaries lurking inside Li’s movie: These recorded first-person testimonials are harrowing to hearken to, and Li’s option to dramatize the troopers’ more and more hopeless plight aboard the freighter with easy animated tableaus is extremely efficient. It permits the main focus to stay on the immediacy of their experiences, threading collectively complementary accounts from lots of the survivors. (It’s the sheer variety of these English-language testimonials that little doubt led to the movie’s rejection as China’s submission for the perfect worldwide function Oscar this 12 months.) 

Likewise, the deal with the grief felt by these households of these troopers who by no means returned house, facilities the story on the generational trauma warfare unwittingly creates. However in shuttling backwards and forwards between the 2 — after a protracted first half that spends a lot of its runtime not telling us the story, however recounting how Li and his crew discovered the witnesses wanted to inform it — the documentary frequently blunts its influence. 

In essence, here’s a fascinating little bit of historical past concerning the Pacific Battle that’s muddled by Li’s want to make the very building of his documentary the framework of mentioned historical past. Like many documentarians earlier than him who imagine their very own journey is as deserving as that of the historical past they’re telling, he facilities himself in a story that, by his personal admission, is a lot larger and extra far-reaching than one would initially assume. World Battle 2 buffs will little doubt discover a lot to admire on this assemblage — could even be inspired to hunt out the numerous sources Li cites on display — however as a nonfiction movie, “The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru” lacks the rigor its subject material deserves.