Let's salvage the "Lisbon Maru Sinking"

A week ago, after watching the documentary film "The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru", I couldn't get over the emotion for a long time. One day, I received a message from a friend, "Have you seen "The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru"? What do you think?" I immediately replied, "It's great! More people should see it!" "Then let me invite you to join a 'tap water group'!"

Wow! This group called "Global Rescue and Salvage for the Sinking of Lisbon Maru" has more than 200 members, which is a bit like a "World Martial Arts Conference", gathering "heroes" from all walks of life. There are cinema and theater staff directly related to the movie, people from relevant departments in Zhoushan, writers, consultants and business people, and more are media communication workers, some of whom work in traditional media like me, and some are KOLs and bloggers in various vertical fields, covering film reviews, education, parent-child and other tracks...

The initiator of the group is Ji Shisan, CEO of Guokr.com. Ji, who is from Zhoushan, cried several times when he watched the movie on September 9. It was the first time in more than 20 years that he cried uncontrollably in a movie theater. In the following days, he continued to recommend the movie on his personal social media platform and paid for a private screening for friends, but it was still not enough. After discussing with friends such as Wang Yami, he decided to set up a WeChat group to encourage more friends to "recommend" this worth-watching movie.

At that time, the movie was about to "sink". The Douban score of the movie was as high as 9.3 points, but the number of screenings in the early stage of its release was small, and the box office was dismal. According to the original plan, most cinemas will be closed after the Mid-Autumn Festival.

At the critical moment, the group members began to "donate money and labor". Entrepreneurs paid out of their own pockets to book theaters for employees, relatives and friends to watch the film; the person in charge of Lumiere Cinema decided to screen the film in 40 theaters across the country for a long time; bloggers in various vertical fields recommended the film to their fans through articles, videos, podcasts, etc., and parent-child celebrities also wrote a movie-watching guide: "What age children are suitable for watching "The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru"? After all, this promotion effect is a "one to many" box office contribution!

In the ten days after the group was established, the box office of "The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru" began to turn around, and the related topics were searched nearly 100 times. As of now, the cumulative box office has exceeded 26 million yuan. It is impossible to accurately measure the contribution of our "tap water group". However, I am always moved by this group, and the degree is no less than the touching brought by the movie itself.

Director Fang Li tried his best to avoid sensationalism in the film's narrative style, including the narration, and used unbiased facts to calmly and rationally narrate the entire process of the incident. At the same time, the great brilliance of human nature was extremely dazzling, which became one of the points that many "tap water" fans admired. Interestingly, this "tap water group" itself is full of similar tones: rational and restrained, full of respect for others, but sincerely wanting to help the film.

For example, the top group announcement states that "tap water" depends entirely on personal willingness and ability, and no one is forced. If you don't want to participate or think the group is too noisy, you can leave the group at any time; if you don't cry when watching the film, don't question yourself, everyone is moved in different ways; if you have various channel resources, you can contact the group owner and hand them over to the director team in the future. A few days later, Director Fang Li and his team joined the group one after another. In addition to uniformly sending applause and flower emojis, the group members did not have any extra courtesy greetings. Because everyone knows that the director team is currently busy with various roadshows and promotions, and they are too busy to do anything else, so all their thoughts are self-evident.

For example, strangers often have similar resources. Whenever this happens, everyone either discusses how to make the impact bigger, or humbly lets the more capable party do it, rather than rushing to take advantage of the movie's popularity to increase their own accounts. "As long as the movie is promoted, it doesn't matter who does it," is a common mantra.

In the film industry where traffic is paramount and marketing is king, Fang Li spent almost all his money to shoot a documentary film that does not pursue commercial profit. Similarly, in the current Internet environment where there are many noisy voices and it is easy to go off the track, it is rare to have a group that is gentle and calm, not morally kidnapped, not one-sided, not mixed with personal interests, and is completely brought together by the same values.

It can be said that this group of similar people found the stratosphere, or that they completed the third "rescue" around the Lisbon Maru. The first rescue was when fishermen from Zhoushan Island rescued British prisoners of war; the second "rescue" was when Fang Li spent 10 years to salvage this unknown historical truth that was about to sink; the third "rescue" was when fans from all over the world who didn't know each other used their meager power to let more people know about this film and this history.

The second layer of emotion that this group brings to me is that it seems to reveal a possibility of finding a way out in the current context of anxiety among almost everyone. In the words of anthropologist Xiang Biao, it is to "develop one's own rear area", to observe "nearby", to pay attention to specific things, and to do some records and improvements in the best way possible. The so-called "one step at a time" is true. From a more philosophical level, although the "atomized individual" is the general trend in a highly mobile modern society, people still have the need to connect with each other and realize themselves. Spontaneously do the best you can to promote an excellent movie that embodies the feelings of family and country and the brilliance of human nature. The warmth gained from it is enough to comfort every cold and powerless night.

Fang Li said this in a previous speech: "The length, width and thickness of our life are the quality of our life. In this process, we are all investors. Our investment is our life. We invest our life in our daily behavior, whether it is work or spare time... What kind of return do we get? Happiness, happiness, honor, accomplishment, excitement, these intangible rewards cannot be bought with money. You meet the right people, do what you like, and you are still alive in the world. This is the greatest success." I think this sentence is not only his inner motivation for making this movie, but also one of the motivations for the group members to actively participate and take over the third "rescue" baton.