Charge of the light brigade

Almost a year since concluding the shooting of Light Chaser Rescue, director Zhang Tong still clearly remembers the behind-the-scenes details of an episode featuring the search and rescue of survivors of a devastating magnitude 6.0 earthquake.

Consisting of a total of 40 episodes, the online series, currently running on the streaming sites Tencent Video and Mango TV, is inspired by real-life stories and interviews with more than 100 civilian rescuers from more than 10 provinces and municipalities.

The aforementioned episode recounts the story of a team from the fictional, titular rescue organization discovering three people — a primary school principal, a female teacher and a young student — trapped in the rubble of a collapsed school.

Zhang recalls that he conceived a scenario where the rescuers cautiously dig down from the top, painstakingly removing the rubble to save the trapped people. However, the director was told it would be an "erroneous practice" that may inflict further distress on survivors.

The advice was given by several team heads from Blue Sky Rescue, China's largest nonprofit civil rescue organization, who were invited to work with the crew to ensure the scenes and rescue techniques match reality.

"When we were shooting the drama, they sat with me behind the monitors, providing a lot of useful and professional suggestions," recalls Zhang.

As digging from the top may cause a new collapse, the script was revised, eventually showing several rescuers crawling through a crack to reach the survivors, as well as inserting support beams to create more space for the trapped people, and carefully transporting them out with the assistance of a doctor.

Starring actor Luo Yunxi as an elite lawyer, and actress Wu Qian as a surgeon, the TV series begins with their first encounter in an unusual situation: The two protagonists become inadvertently involved in the rescue of an injured family after a highway car crash. With deeper understanding of each other, they become more interested in civilian emergency response work, growing to become experienced volunteers devoted to putting their life on the line to rescue others.

Currently, the online series is also being distributed overseas and has proved popular with foreign viewers, exemplified by its rating of 8.0 points out of 10 on MyDramaList, a fan-aggregated review site for Asian dramas and movies.

The project was inspired by the moment when producer Jiang Xiabo read a friend's WeChat update, which expressed an appreciation to Blue Sky Rescue volunteers for their help in finding a lost elderly relative.

"Before that, I hadn't heard much about the civilian rescue organization, so I was curious to know more about their stories and started to contact them for interviews in 2017," recalls Jiang.

Traveling to multiple provinces, including Jiangxi, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Jiang and her fellow creators heard heartwarming stories from operatives of Blue Sky Rescue, which currently has around 200,000 registered members across the country.

"Most volunteers told us that they decided to join the rescue organization after they witnessed or received selfless and timely help themselves at disaster-hit sites," says Jiang.

During the interviews, Jiang was impressed to hear of rescuers receiving special gifts from those expressing their appreciation.

For example, one rescue team's captain said he was stunned to find a whole pig, slaughtered and presented on the ground outside the door of his office. Another rescue team leader felt moved when he was recognized in a queue waiting to buy steamed buns.

The interviews also helped Jiang and her fellow creators to obtain safety and first-aid tips, ranging from how to help a drowning person to the must-have gadgets for a trip into the wild.

Some of this knowledge is featured in short spin-off videos of the series, with each episode casting one actor or actress to perform in the role of a teacher explaining how to deal with emergencies like gas leaks and landslides.

The drama was mostly shot in Hengdian, Zhejiang province, and Suzhou, Jiangsu province, between July 5 and Oct 17 last year, with a total of 400 special-effects scenes tailored to showcase a variety of disasters and accidents and the race against time to save people's lives.

Su Li, one of the chief producers, recalls that one of the top challenges was shooting a snowy mountain rescue in the scorching and humid summer on a soundstage, when the local temperature reached more than 40 C.

"Our actors needed to put on thick winter clothes, performing their battle against the extreme cold whilst conducting a rescue mission. It was quite difficult to finish all the stunts," recalls Su.

In recent years, China has produced some influential rescue-themed films and TV dramas such as director Dante Lam's The Rescue. Su says this series has endeavored to seek a breakthrough with a greater focus on post-disaster mental health.

"What we care about most is not the disasters, but those who survive them. The drama aims to discuss how to better take care of the survivors to help them handle the psychological trauma," says Su.

Depicting the show as a tribute to the unsung heroes who volunteer to help others, Su adds that most of the civilian rescuers have full-time jobs, so they have sacrificed a great deal of family time for the public good.

"We hope the series can convey the spirit of positive, brave, upward and selfless dedication to young people, and make more viewers realize the devotion of China's civilian rescuers," he concludes.