Six: Chinese Survivors On Titanic: Restoring Six Names

Twenty four years ago, "Titanic" created a legend in the world film history with the classic segment of "you jump, I jump". Now "six people: Chinese survivors on the Titanic" (referred to as "six people") has given the world a new understanding of the story behind the Titanic.

In 2012, the 3D version of Titanic was re released, and the box office of mainland China was nearly 1 billion yuan, accounting for almost half of the overseas box office of this film.

Although the Chinese are familiar with the Titanic, few people know that there are eight compatriots in the third class cabin, and six survived. In mid April this year, the documentary "six men - Chinese survivors on Titanic" was released in China.

More than 1500 people were killed and more than 700 survived when the ship sank on its way from Southampton to New York in 1912. Six of the Chinese survivors were deported after arriving in New York Harbor. To restore this truth, British director Arthur Jones and lead researcher Steven schwankert led a team of researchers who spent four years searching for traces of six Chinese survivors around the world.

As early as before the release of "six people", some people questioned: is it worthwhile for so many people to spend so many years studying some people who can hardly find historical records? In my opinion, this is actually the core question that the director wants to answer when making this film.

With the clues about the six survivors emerging, the original doubts in the audience's mind will be dissipated a little bit - such persistence is of course valuable. When Fang Rongshan's son finally learned that his father had boarded the most famous ship in history under the name of Fang Lang, and survived, then there was the continuation of Fang's family; When Rowe's grandson learned that a hundred years later, people on the other side of the Atlantic would still be thinking of the generous help of the British seaman... The film had enough meaning for every individual connected with the story.

If only one wreck was known, it would be the Titanic, Swank said. Any modification or addition of a part of the story is a success.

Luo Tong, the producer of the film, thinks that we should not judge the producer by making money or not. She thinks that it is enough to put a group of people together and make one thing. One such experience in life is enough.

It is not so much a documentary that "patches" the history, but rather a study of deconstructing the "maritime commercial miracle" of the 20th century. It is not uncommon to see the changes of great times from the perspective of small people, but few of them take the process of "seeking" and "confirming" the identity of small people as the theme of the works. At the beginning of the film, we didn't even know the Chinese names, identities and places of origin of these six people. We saw that Ali Lam on the Titanic survivor list was first corrected as ah Lam, then "Yalin" and later "Lincai". The most moving point of the film is to make the nameless famous and retrieve their original names for the little people in history.

The film research team studied the escape experiences of the six survivors through the methods of archives review, 3D cabin simulation and oral verification of the witnesses and descendants, filling the blank of Titanic history writing.

However, we should also see that such "patching" has preconditions, that is, who tells the story and how to tell it. On the other hand, the object of this story is finally transferred to the Chinese survivors, which is bound to be due to the rise of national strength and the huge scale of China's film market.

The spread, creation and reappearance of the Titanic story may also reflect the exploration process of the global cultural practitioners to break through the historical limitations and break the inherent thinking set.

?