Documentary tells story of Titanic's Chinese survivors

Good to see this Asian element featured. And, of course it wasnt "women and children" first, it was "rich women and children" first, then "rich men" or military types, then, if extremely lucky or extremely enterprising one or two poor people might have gotten onto a life boat. Just one example is the scores of Irish poor who were actually locked into the lowest quarters AFTER the ship hit the iceberg and the Captain knew the ship had to be abandoned. They never had a hope of survival. Hollywood and before it the old Ealing-type film in the 1950's/60's were both entertaining but didn't deal with such unsettling things. Hopefullly this movie might venture somewhere towards such elements?

.Just one example is the scores of Irish poor who were actually locked into the lowest quarters AFTER the ship hit the iceberg and the Captain knew the ship had to be abandoned.

Irish, Chinese... to be poor meant to be treated poorly. And still it is the least fortunate who have the worst visited upon them.

Looks like an interesting documentary. The story of the Lusitania is another fascinating one, different circumstances regarding its sinking, though.

Oh, so the latest trend is Asians now? LOL

Seem interesting enough to see, I hope the execution is on par with the originality of the story being told. Too many times documentaries end up taking too much liberties with the true story or fail to deliver it in an interesting way.

Just a coincidence, but I saw a "10 mistakes about the Titanic" documentary the other day and it was actually quite good. Apparently Titanic sunk faster because concerned passengers opened port holes for a look, and these ended up under water. The area of them is estimated to be as large as the gashes in the hull. The ship also had a large crumple zone at the front and would likely have survived had it simply crashed into the iceberg. As with the piece above, despite all the histories and movies, there are still stories to be told.

Let's not kid ourselves, if the Titanic had been full of poor people we probably would know very little about it.

Out of the 2,200 passengers, 1000 were travelling third class, down below.

When Ireland becomes a global force, then we'll see how Irish people and other non-rich people were treated

Well, we kind of did in the James Cameron flick, back 20 years or so. If you allow for dramatic license, the best "true life" story about how poor Irish were treated in the US in the 19th century, would be One Man's Hero which told the story about the San Patricio's in Mexico. By today's standards, the film is a bit pedestrian but shines a light on a forgotten part of history. There's also Scorsese's Gangs of New York... which deals with the Irish immigrants and the Nativists.

But yes, it looks interesting and I think there's plenty of interest in such obvious and not so obvious historical docs.

Smaller, independent stories are sometimes more compelling that the spectacle of big budget blockbusters. This is a Briton’s vision and no indication it is financed and/or kowtowing to political any country’s agenda. Will give it a watch.

If it's an impartial telling of facts that really did occur, then more power to them. Revealing new aspects of factually-documented but as-yet untold historical occurrences is always a good thing. Just don't pretend the people or the time you're focusing on "should've" thought and been just like "us", the "perfect" Woke know-it-all civilization of the present. Because 100 years from now, you can guarantee that the Woke living then will be laughing their heads off at your own contemporary contradictions, biases and other stupidity in the very same way!

Reveal, But Keep It Real, hey?

I would like to hear this story.

Well said, @Hito Bito 9:36am

“If it's an impartial telling of facts that really did occur, then more power to them. Revealing new aspects of factually-documented but as-yet untold historical occurrences is always a good thing.... “Reveal, But Keep It Real”, hey?

Hate to say this, but it will only be shown in China as it portrays the people in a flattering light.

Sorry @snowymountainhell: if this film was intended for a Chinese audience then the Japanese survivor was left out of the story intentionally. That is if the director wanted his film shown in China.

Nice turn with the phrasing @zichi 9:39am. @ToastedH 9:26am touched on that too: Feeding the rich by exploiting the poor.

Both cultures, Irish and Chinese were exploited building the Transcontinental railways in the 1860’s. After the California gold rush ended in 1855, little other work for them to do. Their reward:

“ The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited Chinese laborers from the United States, slamming the door on their "American Dream". The men arrived in New York with the other survivors but were shipped out of the country less than 24 hours later.” -

Another admittedly, shameful part of US history. Let’s tell these kinds of tales and hope people today understand: it’s not to re-invigorate or memorialize past hatred of people, but to acknowledge it was wrong and get ‘humanity’ to begin moving forward.

Sorry @DirkT 9:24am, ‘some’ will always feel left out or, ‘not equally represented’, despite a ‘specific topic’ or, time period of many films. For example, even the daily @film‘critic’ 9:18a, frequently “lol’s” at many other concepts despite their own accurate representation in the successful “Troll 2”. Perhaps Japanese producers will be inspired by this film and the Japanese survivor will have their own story told?

As we said earlier, “Smaller, independent stories are sometimes more compelling...no indication it is financed and/or ‘kowtowing’ to any country’s political agenda.” -

I would like to hear this story.

Easily arranged:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masabumi_Hosono

https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/masabumi-hosono.html

Also, impressed with the candidness of the director and the researcher with their own admissions regarding their ‘past viewpoints’ of races and cultures.

“Steven said we should do the “Chinese Titanic story” with “the Chinese guys who were on the Titanic" [and] "I thought he was joking because “it was just one of those things that we would laugh about.” -

Often, some scenes have to be cut for time and are not necessarily, racially biased. It’s the studios and producers that push certain agenda, thinking it will affect the bottom line of a film’s box office receipts.

“James Cameron, who won ‘97 Oscars as best director & best picture for "Titanic", was fully supportive of the documentary and allowed Jones to show a scene which was not included in the cinema version of the blockbuster.“ -

No need to condemn them or ‘cancel’ them. All acknowledged ‘the history and policies of the time’ and ‘the past attitudes for what they were then’ and, are now, moving forward to tell a tale about ‘a story from the past’.

There was a Japanese on board the Titanic who survived as well. Given that they were all Asians, I suspect they bunked together and knew each other. Why wasn't he featured in the film? Racism on the part of the director? Or was the pandering to the Chinese audience? Most likely the later ...

The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited Chinese laborers from the United States, slamming the door on their "American Dream".

Not directly related, but the drama, Warrior, by Cinemax is set just before that Act came into place and illustrates (with liberties) how Chinese were treated then.

I'm sick of the Titanic.