Honoring their memories

Li, a scriptwriter educated in the United Kingdom, adds: "Actually most of the veterans who had experienced a war are often unwilling to revisit that dark chapter of their lives, and most of them rarely talk about the past to their grandchildren.

"But we hope this film will not only spark interest in history among younger people, but also encourage them to spend a bit more time with their grandparents, to hear their stories of when they were young and passionate about their dreams," he says.

However, just as most theatrically released documentaries struggle for limited screenings due to the preference of cinema managers for showing more lucrative commercial blockbusters, Remembering 1950 has faced a similar dilemma－its screening occupancy had fallen to 1.0 percent as of Wednesday, according to the live tracker Beacon.

"Unlike most projects with a similar theme, which employ a grand scope, the documentary revisits the past with a restrained tone through the perspectives of individuals, thus making it distinctive and more powerful to stir in-depth thoughts. It deserves to have more screenings to help youngsters take a more profound outlook of our history," one Sina Weibo user posted on the microblogging platform.

As a tribute to these veterans and their compatriots, Song says crew members have decided to donate their earnings from the first two days of box-office receipts, totaling 227,000 yuan ($35,230), to a charity organization founded in 2016 that helps veterans of the Chinese People's Volunteers.

"We can understand the financial stress for the cinema operators, but we hope they can give us more screenings to enable more people to watch the film, which will make it possible for us to help more veterans," says Song.