SZ-made film brings Dongjiang Column's story to the big screen

A Shenzhen-made film honoring the wartime contributions of local soldiers will premiere nationwide tomorrow, coinciding with the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931–45) and the World Anti-Fascist War.

A poster for "Against All Odds."  Shenzhen Film Studio

Co-produced by Shenzhen Film Studio and co-presented by the Publicity Department of the CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee, “Against All Odds” stars Han Geng, Mitchell Hoog, Chen Yongsheng, and Wang Danni. Inspired by true events, the film recounts how the Dongjiang Column — an anti-Japanese guerrilla force led by the CPC — rescued an Allied pilot stranded behind enemy lines and highlights the deep friendship forged between Chinese and American forces during the global fight against fascism.

On Dec. 25, 1941, Hong Kong, then a British colony, fell to the Japanese invaders. During the ensuing three years and eight months of occupation, the Hong Kong Kowloon Independence Brigade of the Dongjiang Column remained the only fully organized resistance force that fought continuously until victory. Operating in isolation between Japanese troops and their puppet forces, the brigade attacked enemy outposts, ambushed supply convoys, and rescued dozens of Allied airmen — including members of the U.S. Flying Tigers — and other international allies. The film is centered on the legendary rescue of a downed American pilot.

The Dongjiang Column Memorial Museum in Dapeng, Shenzhen, commemorates the anti-Japanese guerrilla force’s wartime efforts. File photo

Shenzhen was one of the birthplaces of the Dongjiang Column. In 1938, Zeng Sheng and Wang Zuoyao raised anti-Japanese guerrilla units in Pingshan, which were later merged into the Dongjiang Column, whose headquarters were established in Tuyang Village, Dapeng. Across Shenzhen and neighboring areas, the Column fought more than 1,400 battles against Japanese and puppet forces, inflicting over 6,000 enemy casualties and rescuing more than 800 patriotic intellectuals and democratic figures.

During World War II, the Dongjiang Column rescued at least 89 foreigners out of enemy control, including British officers and soldiers, and also provided the U.S. military with intelligence information on airports and docks in Hong Kong and the defense of the Japanese troops.

The former Dongjiang Column headquarters and a memorial museum in Shenzhen have been designated red heritage sites, preserving the Column’s legacy and serving as venues for patriotic education.

To authentically recreate wartime Hong Kong in 1944, the production team built full-scale replicas of Hung Hom and Wan Chai streetscapes in Pingshan District and shot inside the sea-eroded caves of Dapeng New Area. The film features high-intensity sequences of air raids, explosions, and urban combat to evoke the era’s peril and heroism.