Documentary brings China's 14-year resistance war to life with restored footage

Han Jinna, one of directors of "Mountains and Rivers Bearing Witness," speaks in an interview with China.org.cn in Beijing, Aug. 11, 2025. [Photo/China.org.cn]

The documentary covers the period from Japan's invasion of northeast China in 1931 until its surrender in 1945. The project specifically avoided dramatized re-enactments, which are often used when archival material is limited.

This decision pushed the team to enhance its digital restoration efforts and adopt computer-generated imagery animation to fill narrative gaps. The studio has a dedicated film restoration team specializing in handling celluloid — the highly flammable, delicate nitrate-based film stock used in the early and mid-20th century.

"We have a film restoration team that employs digitalization and manual frame-by-frame repair methods to enhance the clarity and improve the quality," Han revealed. "There is a dramatic difference in the quality before and after restoration."

Beyond its own archives, the production incorporated never-before-seen footage from Soviet film director Roman Karmen, who documented the war in China from 1938 to 1939. "The All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company provided these archival materials to us," Han said. "This marks the first time these visual records have been seen."

To convey the human experience of the war, the filmmakers wove first-person accounts from diaries, memoirs and oral histories throughout the documentary. "We integrated the experiences of these individuals into the film using first-person narration, enhancing both its credibility and emotional impact," Han explained.