Rescue at Dongji (2025) Review

Plot: When the Japanese troopship, Lisbon Maru, is torpedoed off the coast of Dongji Island, the lives of over 300 British soldiers onboard are threatened. Their only hope is a small group of defiant fishermen who will do anything to save them.

Review: For the first half of Rescue at Dongji, I was wondering why IMDb had it classed under an action movie as it really was more of a war drama. There is very little in the way of action, but then the final hour is when it kicks off and becomes surprisingly epic and emotionally charged.

It’s inspired by the real-life rescue of British soldiers in 1942, while also being a story of two brothers who live on the island of Dongji and the Japanese occupy the other side. They agree to ignore each other, but when a ship is attacked and starts sinking with British soldiers on board, the brothers (played by Yilong Zhu and Lei Wu) can’t decide whether to try and save them. If they do it will endanger everyone in the island, but what is the cost of doing the right thing?

Like I said, the first half is all about characters and setting up the story; it definitely takes a little long to get where it needs to and you could have removed a few minutes just for pacing.

The second half gets bloody with some gruesome kills with a side order of vengeance; there are impressive visual effects as the ship sinks and the rescue continues and we are never sure who will make it out alive. There are a few fight scenes and shoot-outs, but this is definitely more of a war movie than an action picture, but it’s still slickly made and the finale is rousing stuff.

The score is one of the highlights at times sounding like Avatar with heroic choirs.

Overall, Rescue at Dongji takes too long for the action to kick in but it’s worth the wait with the final hour filled with heroism, sacrifice and bloodshed.