Rescue at Dongji

"Any Chinese can be a hero."

2025 2h 14m ZH

🙌

8.3

BANGER

★8.3TMDB · 68

DramaHistoryWar

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Inspired by the real life rescue of over 300 British soldiers in 1942, Dongji Rescue is a rousing, action-packed story of heroism on the high seas. When the Japanese warship Lisbon Maru is torpedoed off the coast of Dongji Island, the lives of over 300 British POWs on board are at risk of being claimed by the sea. Their only hope is a small group of defiant Chinese fisherman who will do anything to rescue and protect them from their captors.

“Any Chinese can be a hero.”

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Cast

Zhu Yilong
A Bi
Leo Wu
A Dang
Ni Ni
A Hua
Yang Haoyu
Li Yuanxing
Chen Minghao
Mr. Chen
Ni Dahong
Boss Wu
William Franklyn-Miller
Thomas Newman
Li Jiuxiao
Qian Jin

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Guan Hu
Writers: Dong Runnian, Chen Shu, Zhang Ji
Languages: Mandarin
Countries: China

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Mid-budget at $80M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 63% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released last year.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Guan Hu, shot by Gao Weizhe. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Atli Örvarsson. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Zhu Yilong and Leo Wu and Ni Ni carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Any Chinese can be a hero.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt32634271 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Guan Hu directs. Gao Weizhe behind the camera. Atli Örvarsson scores. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in China. Dialogue in Mandarin.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Mid-budget at $80M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.
2Earned back only 63% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
3Released last year.
4Directed by Guan Hu, shot by Gao Weizhe. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Atli Örvarsson. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Zhu Yilong and Leo Wu and Ni Ni carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Any Chinese can be a hero.".
8IMDB entry: tt32634271 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Only 68 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Gao Weizhe
Original score: Atli Örvarsson
VFX supervisor: Tim Crosbie
Runtime: 134 min · 2h 14m
Status: Released
Budget: $80,000,000
Box office: $50,155,648
Return: 63% of budget
Original language: ZH
IMDB: Rescue at Dongji (2025)

Also by

Guan Hu

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2025-08-29
★ 7/10
If you saw Fang Li’s documentary from 2023 on the sinking of the “Lisbon Maru” then you’ll know it was a freighter travelling from Hong Kong to Japan carrying over a thousand British POWs. It was torpedoed by an US submarine and to say the treatment of the prisoners by their captors was inhumane would be the mother of all understatements! What this dramatisation does is shift the emphasis more onto the brutality of the occupying forces on a nearby Chinese island. There, the local population were controlled by a small garrison and prohibited from taking their fishing boats out to sea. There are two brothers, reputedly with pirate blood, who ignored this ban though and it was on one such trip that “Bi” (Yilong Zhu) and “Dang” (Lei Wu) discover the malnourished and emaciated “Newton” (William Franklyn-Miller) floating on the water. One thinks they should leave well alone, the other wants to rescue the man and after some scuffling and legerdemain, “Newton” finds himself on the island and the focus of a search by the forces now under the command of a particularly savage young lieutenant. Meantime, the stricken ship is slowly sinking and as the islanders can see the smoke and hear the explosions, they determine to set sail against the overwhelming firepower lined up against them, and try to save the people in the water being routinely slaughtered by machine-gun fire. There is a fair amount of CGI here and it’s not great, but the substance of the story quite successfully manages to mix the actual history with the courageousness of the fishermen and a little magical fantasy - these two brothers have positively Atlantean diving skills and can hold their breaths and fight the currents formidably - and is consistently paced throughout. The calculating violence and savagery of their enemies is well illustrated here and the two sibling characterisations are engagingly presented as their journey takes them, and the feisty “Hua” (Ni Ni) out to sea and into the teeth of a slaughter. The philosophy of the dramatisation reminded me at times of a bit of “Bridge over the River Kwai” meets “Tenko”; epitomised the oppression faced by a community that probably hadn’t changed much in generations and that was in no way equipped to deal with the rifle-armed squad of bullies who took control of their island for no real reason beyond that they could, and that that population was beneath their contempt. It’s a bit long, and clearly has a degree of modern-day jingoism to it’s style and presentation, but it keeps an important-to-remember story alive, and works well enough.

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