CHONGQING/LOS ANGELES, June 26 (Xinhua) -- "Kukan," a long-lost World War II documentary which won an Oscar in 1942, has been restored and was screened this week at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, offering a rare glimpse into China's resistance against Japanese invasion and a reminder of the wartime bond that existed between China and the United States.

Filmed in the late 1930s by U.S. correspondent Rey Scott and funded by Chinese-American playwright Li Ling-Ai, "Kukan" was the first color documentary produced by U.S. nationals to chronicle China's wartime history, according to Liu Jingyu, a Chinese scholar who is an expert on the film.

As part of a five-day China-U.S. cultural exchange event, which concluded on Thursday, organizers also donated portions of the restored footage to the museum.

The broader event, "For the Friendship of the Chinese and American Peoples," featured exhibitions, cultural salons and discussions, youth exchanges, and city-promotion activities aimed at deepening cooperation between the two peoples in fields such as culture, film and academic research.

"'Kukan' is more than a documentary. It's a living epic of wartime resistance," said Guan Hong, head of the Chongqing International Culture Association, one of the event's organizers. "With an unflinching lens, it reveals to the world the bloodshed and struggle the Chinese people endured in pursuit of freedom and dignity."

In the summer of 1937, after hearing radio reports of Japan's bombings in China, Li Ling-Ai arranged for Scott to travel to China to document the war. With a 16-millimeter color camera, Scott filmed across Chongqing, Guizhou, Lanzhou and other regions, capturing the realities of China's resistance -- most notably, the relentless bombing of Chongqing, which was the country's provisional wartime capital.

The resulting film, "Kukan," meaning "bitter struggle" or "hard work" in Chinese, premiered in New York in 1941 and was watched by then U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Inspired by the documentary, some young U.S. citizens later joined the American Volunteer Group to help China fight the Japanese invaders.

Mark Scott, Rey Scott's son, spoke about the risks his father took while filming. "But he believed in the power of storytelling, in the importance of showing the world what was happening in China, and in the bonds that could be built through understanding and empathy," he said.

Long believed to have been lost after the war, the film was eventually brought back into the public eye through the joint efforts of Chinese and U.S. scholars and filmmakers.

Between 2014 and 2015, Zhou Yong, an expert on the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, recovered film fragments and documents related to "Kukan." His team went on to publish related academic work, release a Chinese-language version of the documentary, and produce an animated film, "Phoenix in Fire," to introduce the story to more audiences.

This year, Zhou's team partnered with several other organizations to carry out the systematic digital restoration of the surviving footage. Using both manual techniques and AI-powered tools, including noise reduction, frame interpolation and audio enhancement, they reassembled the film from three recovered segments.

"China deeply values this historic footage, which bears the shared memory of both nations," Guan said. "This restoration reflects China's strong commitment to preserving the historical record of the global fight against fascism."

The restoration and special screening coincide with the 80th anniversary of victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.

Li Zhiqiang, China's deputy consul general in Los Angeles, said at the cultural exchange event that the film's high-quality restoration is not only a meaningful effort to preserve cultural heritage, but also a vivid example of how China and the United States can enhance mutual understanding through cultural cooperation. ■