Finding Kukan

I remember her saying "I won the Academy Award."

DEL TORO: In 1942, Li Ling-Ai was a dancer, theater director, and producer of an acclaimed documentary about China suffering in World War II.

LI LING-AI: That was my theme, "Kukan"-- heroic courage under bitter suffering.

DEL TORO: "Kukan" won the Academy Award, and then the film, like Li Ling-Ai herself, disappeared for decades.

"Finding Kukan," on "America ReFramed."

♪ PEOPLE: Four, three, two, one!

♪ (cheering) (projector starts) ♪ ROBIN LUNG: Way back in the 1940s, this one woman made an impact on a media industry that's still dominated by men.

Her name was Li Ling-Ai.

I remember her sitting in the middle of her living room with her cigarette holder, and she said, "I won the Academy Award for 'Kukan.'"

♪ LUNG: She was a pioneer filmmaker.

Why hadn't I heard of her before?

♪ ♪ In 1993, a television crew interviewed Li Ling-Ai in New York City.

She was 85 years old.

INTERVIEWER: All right, okay.

All right, pick it up at, "In such and such a year, "I finished my film and Ripley saw it."

LI LING-AI: All right.

Then we finished the film after many hardships.

It was just at the war, Second World War.

She was involved in a major storytelling of China for the world.

LI LING-AI: And then it was shown on Broadway.

There was a 200-feet picture on the Paramount Theater.

A Chinese stretching up to Heaven, "Kukan!"

Heroic courage under bitter suffering.

That was my theme-- "Kukan."

Heroic courage under bitter suffering.

♪ CARTER: "Kukan" is the only documentary that's won an Academy Award for which we have no print.

No video copy, no film print.

LUNG: It took me half a lifetime to discover Li Ling-Ai, and now a huge part of her story is missing.

♪ ♪ So much history is disappearing from my grandparents' and even my parents' generation.

I'm lucky to find anyone who remembers Li Ling-Ai.

IRMGARD HORMANN: She was just such an active person, and then she was a drama queen.

(laughs) We all know what drama queens are.

She was just always acting and drawing people to her because of her personality.

♪ LI LING-AI: Confucius said long ago that you cannot change the world by a big idea, but you can change it one by one.

And I'm going to change it one by one, because the other side of me Chinese.

♪ WING YUNG EMERY: Is this Li Ling-Ai?

LUNG: Yes, that's her.

And she made the movie?

LUNG: Well, she was involved with this cameraman in making the movie.

EMERY: I see.

LUNG: I'm not-- that's one of the mysteries.

I'm trying to figure out what she did for the film.

Li Ling-Ai did not receive the Academy Award for "Kukan."

The Oscar went to "Kukan's" cameraman and writer, Rey Scott, a freelance photojournalist.

Li Ling-Ai is only credited as a technical adviser, and there's nothing written about her in the film history books.

♪ I first heard about the film "Kukan" when I was reading "Life is For a Long Time," which is her Hawaiian memoirs.

She always smelled like... (sniffs): Like mothballs in her apartment.

That's Auntie, right there.

♪ (reading): "Japan bombed Shanghai in 1937.

Third sister Li Ling-Ai decided..." LI LING-AI (dramatized): ...Decided that the story of the people of China must be told.

With the American photographer Rey Scott, she planned the story and sent him directly to Nanking.

Li Ling-Ai called her story "Kukan: Heroic Courage Under Bitter Suffering-- The Battle Cry of the People of China."

♪ "Kukan" was unusual because it focused on the war in Asia.

In 1940 into 1941, most Americans were focused on the war in Europe.

For many people, "Kukan" was the first time they saw any image from war-torn China.

(crowd talking) At that time, China was on the verge of being completely put under by the Japanese juggernaut.

LI LING-AI: I began to dream of this China that my father told me about, the China that I studied and discussed with people, the China that I had seen when I got back to visit the relatives.

LUNG: What I'm trying to find out is what her exact role was in the making of the film and if she deserved more credit than she got for the film.

KWOK: I see.

I don't know whether she had anything to do with the inception of the film.

This is something that you will have to find out.

(whirring) LI LING-AI: I wanted to help the China Relief-- nobody helped China those days-- to get money for medical supplies.

And I went back to Hawaii, and I took a flying course, fly two-seater plane.

If I need to fly medical supplies someday, I would be able to volunteer my services.

Well, this reporter called me, Rey Scott from "Honolulu Advertiser."

And he was a master photographer.

He came from a very good St. Louis family, the Scott family.

(typewriter keys clacking) REY SCOTT (dramatized): Rey Scott, Honolulu.

I figured that the only real way to live was to travel and let your camera pay your way.

I'd just gotten an assignment from the Associated Press to go to Spain as the Civil War was starting, when I received a wire that my father was ill.

I left as soon as I could get a boat, but arrived home just two hours after he'd died.

When all of Dad's affairs had been settled, I shoved off for Honolulu and arrived there with just nine dollars in my kick.

(camera shutter clicking) LI LING-AI: I said, "Wait until I finish "my lesson at the airfield.

"Then I will drive out to your Advertiser office "on my way home and see you, give you an interview."

By the time I got there, it was night, you know, about 8:00 or something.

(ticker tape clicking) (bomb exploding) JOURNALIST (dramatized): "New York World-Telegram."

As they talked, news of the bombing of Shanghai came over the wires.

The dispatch said, "Shanghai is a living hell tonight.

Thousands of people lie dead in the streets now."

LI LING-AI (dramatized): I know there's more to the story than that.

If you went, you could get it.

Don't waste your time here on this stuff.

Go where the real story is.

There's a boat sailing Friday.

I dare you to take it.

LI LING-AI: Then, at 4:00 in the morning, I took him to see my father.

My father's a busy doctor.

I said, "Father, I think maybe "I should go ahead and make a film, "because this boy is a photographer, "and I need a photographer.

"And maybe he won't give up the job, maybe he will, but anyway we need a good one."

When I offered a job and he said no, I said to him, "I may be yellow outside, but you're yellow inside."

You know, and that spurred him on to go, gave up his job.

♪ LUNG: Rey travels to China with the help of Li Ling-Ai.

But why would she invest so much money and trust in him?

Who was Rey Scott, anyway?

My search leads to the autobiography of famous film director John Huston.

After making "Kukan," Rey Scott served in World War II with Huston, and was a hard-drinking Army buddy of his.

Rey even asked Huston to be the best man at his wedding.

But I can't figure out who Rey married or if he had children.

I can't find his obituary.

Finally, I find a database put together by volunteer cemetery photographers.

Thanks to them, I discover that Rey Scott had four sons.

(ringing) LUNG: So is it a good time to talk, or should I wait till you're in a... MARK SCOTT (on phone): This is as good as any.

I've got a little better connection.

If this works for you, it's okay.

LUNG: I wanted to ask you quickly, have you seen the film?

MARK SCOTT: Yes.

LUNG: So do you have a full copy of it?

MARK SCOTT: Maybe.

LUNG: Because I actually haven't seen the film.

MARK SCOTT: There might be a whole copy around somewhere.

LUNG: That's great to know.

MARK SCOTT: At least one exists, let's put it that way.

♪ MICHELLE SCOTT: I really only have a few memories of him, which is sad to me, especially now.

♪ I did feel a little frustrated, I guess you could say, just because, why hadn't my dad told me about this amazing part of our history?

ANNE SCOTT: When I describe my father-in-law to people, I say, "Oh, yeah, he's kind of like an Indiana Jones kind of guy!"

Just really adventurous and wanting to take on the world.

You knew about the film, but you also knew about some of the trauma that he had experienced during the war, and somehow, you didn't go there.

I can never remember being around, say, the dining table and having "Kukan" be a topic of conversation.

You know, I... it just never came up.

MICHELLE SCOTT: Is it straight?

♪ We had these really old reels in the basement that were eroding away.

And I had no idea what they were.

LUNG: It turns out that Michelle's father has had a copy of "Kukan" this whole time.

(phone ringing) LUNG (on phone): Hi, Ray.

Hey, Robin.

LUNG: How's "Kukan"?

Getting ready to pack it up and ship it.

RAYMOND SCOTT: It was surprising to learn that this is the last copy of it.

LUNG (on phone): We're going to be very excited to see it.

RAYMOND SCOTT: I've got my fingers crossed.

CARTER: All right, it's a little rusty.

Oh, there's vinegar, that's not good.

I can smell it already.

JOE LINDNER: This print was in poor condition, and we needed to act now.

All the fanciest digital tools for restoration don't mean anything if we don't even have an image to start with.

So we have to get the image and the sound off those pieces of very fragile film first, and we have to do it without totally destroying it, because the materials are so fragile.

That's what I was afraid of-- great.

CARTER: You can really do some amazing things with film that's pretty far gone.

So the academy is certainly going to make a big splash to show the film when we do complete our work.

So what did she tell you about the movie?

Did she say anything about how she was involved in it at all?

To my knowledge, the conversations I had with her, she was the moving factor in it.

In fact, I don't think it would have ever been produced without her.

She tried to improve the image of Chinese in America, not letting anything stop her: safety or other people, what they thought about Chinese.

LI LING-AI: I'm going to reach the people.

I want to reach the colleges.

'Cause I'm tired and sick of being called "Chin Chin Chinaman."

(song begins) MAN: ♪ Chin chin Chinaman ♪ Muchee muchee sad, Me afraid, allo trade ♪ ♪ Velly, velly bad ♪ No-ee joke, brokee broke ♪ Makee shuttee shop ♪ Chin chin Chinaman Chop chop chop ♪ (gong rings) ♪ LUNG: Li Ling-Ai faced anti-Chinese racism that was legal.

The Chinese Exclusion Act lasted from 1882 until 1943.

It was designed to keep Chinese out of America and deny them citizenship.

Under the law, almost 400,000 Chinese travelers were interrogated.

Women traveling alone faced more suspicion.

They were often detained and even deported.

OFFICER (dramatized): U.S. Department of Labor, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Ellis Island, New York, in the matter of Gladys Ling-Ai Li.

(pen scratching) State your age, date and place of birth.

LI LING-AI (dramatized): Age 28, born May 19, 1908, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

OFFICER (dramatized): You are of the Chinese race?

LI LING-AI (dramatized): Yes.

OFFICER (dramatized): You are a citizen of the United States?

LI LING-AI (dramatized): Yes.

OFFICER (dramatized): What is your father's name?

LI LING-AI (dramatized): Khai Fai Li.

He is a doctor of medicine at Honolulu.

OFFICER (dramatized): What is your mother's name?

LI LING-AI (dramatized): Tai Heong Kong.

She's a doctor of medicine at the same address as my father.

OFFICER (dramatized): How old were you when you first left Honolulu, and where did you go?

LI LING-AI (dramatized): I was 23 years old.

I went to China.

OFFICER (dramatized): State your occupation and present address.

LI LING-AI (dramatized): I'm a play director and writer of plays.

I live at the Plaza Hotel.

♪ JUDY WU: For the second generation, they were born in the United States, but they weren't completely accepted as American.

So I can see someone like Li Ling-Ai having this sense of longing in some ways, of being both American and Chinese.

So that during the 1930s, when Japan invades China, it really allows her to have a political platform to express both her loyalty and her commitment to both China and the U.S. LI LING-AI: I know exactly what I am, and I let it flow.

The two sides of me are very handy-- the American side and the Chinese side.

'Cause the Chinese side, monkey no see, no hear, no talk.

But boy, you keep on producing it.

LUNG: I know almost nothing about my Chinese roots.

I'm a fourth-generation American.

So I'm just as fascinated by why Li Ling-Ai made "Kukan" as how she did it.

♪ DESOTO BROWN: When we look now at the history of the film "Kukan," the lantern slides that are in Bishop Museum are the first steps towards what would become that documentary film.

Ling-Ai most likely had motivation to send Rey Scott to China during that time period because her sister Betty was in Nanking.

She was a medical doctor.

And it was a great opportunity to get a story, as well as, if her sister was in danger-- if Betty's in danger, to get her out.

BROWN: Rey gets to China, gets connected with Dr. Betty Li, And from there, he takes these pictures documenting what's going on as the city of Nanking is being attacked by Japanese forces.

PORTIA LI: My grandmother Betty, she did help save a lot of soldiers.

And I remember my father telling me she was not home much during the war, because she was amputating a lot of the victims.

LUNG: Li Ling-Ai said she was always worried about her sister Betty, who remained in China for the rest of the war-- nine long years.

Betty's son Andrew was a young boy at the time.

Now he's 81 years old and living in southern California.

ANDREW LI: How come you're interested in this old stuff?

LUNG: It's unheard of to have a Chinese woman involved in a production at that time... ANDREW LI: At that time, yeah, yeah.

LUNG: And so I need to find details about how she did it.

ANDREW LI: Yeah, yeah, yeah-- was that true or BS?

LUNG: Was what true?

ANDREW LI: A lot of BS?

LUNG: That she was involved in making the movie?

ANDREW LI: Yeah, right.

LUNG: You think it was BS?

ANDREW LI: You know, maybe, maybe take somebody advantage and then use it, use as her name or something.

Maybe time was... in her time, you know...

LUNG: Why do you think she would BS that?

ANDREW LI: I don't know.

She talked too much, you know?

Talk, talk talk.

LUNG: I show Andrew documents that back up at least some of Ling-Ai's stories.

But he still doesn't remember being with Rey Scott in Nanking, and he knows nothing about the making of "Kukan."

But there are some things he can't forget.

After the plane raided the city, I followed the crowds to see what's happening.

I kind of remember all the flesh, hanging on the telephone pole and telephone wire.

I kind of remember that.

You could smell blood, you know?

Yeah.

But that's daily life, I guess, huh?

You smell, smell death.

♪ CHRISTOPHER JESPERSEN: The United States is getting reports of tremendous brutality: rapes, mass murder of tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of Chinese during this time period.

DANKE LI: One of the worst atrocity was the rape of Nanjing.

You know, the Japanese soldiers not only killed, according to the Chinese statistics, over 300,000 Chinese, but the female Chinese they encountered were raped and killed brutally.

BROWN: And I think that that gives Li Ling-Ai also the feeling of, "We've got to do more "to get the rest of the world to understand what's happening there."

(phone ringing) Now, how did you first meet Li Ling-Ai?

ELINOR GRIEST (on phone): In New York.

She was a member of the Overseas Press Club.

LUNG: Did she talk about the making of that movie with you?

GRIEST: Well, she said she was never able to get a copy of the film because the State Department had it, and they said they lost it, so I never saw it.

LUNG: "Kukan" was not a government film.

So why would the U.S. State Department have a copy of it?

And if they did, how did they lose it?

On a hunch, I search for "Kukan" in the National Archives database.

And it actually turns up!

The motion picture division of the National Archives has the first 35 minutes of the 85-minute film.

It's been in cold storage for decades.

(gong sounds) ♪ FILM NARRATOR: Scott knew China.

He had covered the war from the time invasion first struck the Shanghai front.

So Scott went back to China, this time with a motion picture camera, a camera destined to get the China story.

♪ ♪ LUNG: I can finally see the China that Li Ling-Ai wanted Americans to see.

LI LING-AI (dramatized): Li Ling-Ai, "Washington Post."

China is becoming more and more Americanized daily.

The country is a grand chop suey.

It's both modern and old-fashioned.

The ideal of peace is the secret behind China.

Through countless centuries, the Chinese have been trained in the ways of peace, and they are fighting today to maintain that ideal.

(planes roaring) (bombs explode) REY SCOTT (dramatized): When the Japanese planes came, I thought they were going to machine-gun us.

I tell you, I was never so scared in all my life.

And if those pictures are blurred, it's because my hands were shaking.

Rey Scott, "Boston Daily Globe."

♪ LUNG: When I see a shot of Li Ling-Ai in "Kukan," I feel like I've struck gold.

If Li Ling-Ai went to China with Rey Scott and faced the dangers of war right alongside him, she deserved a part of that Academy Award.

Then I make another discovery.

One of Li Ling-Ai's nieces packed away her papers.

They'd been in storage for years.

I spend weeks combing through photographs, letters, and articles.

But I find nothing that places Li Ling-Ai in China with Rey Scott.

Was she hiding something?

(reader whirrs) LI LING-AI: I was married.

But I was a... what do you call... A vessel of a man, you know?

(laughs) You know, the old-fashioned Chinese style?

I had avoided that before in China, and darn it, pressure of society, I fell into it.

♪ LI LING-AI (dramatized): I was supposed to work only for his comfort and contribute only to his family, and be subservient to their honor and demands.

And so I decided to divorce him after he got another girl pregnant.

But people in Hawaii kept telling my sisters that I was a flirt, et cetera, et cetera.

I didn't bother to explain.

So I had to make up my mind about my life and what to do with it.

Because I was working for an idea.

I said to Rey, "Take pictures of the real people fighting for China's freedom."

And so, in his crazy, nice American way, he did.

♪ LI LING-AI: And I did help Rey sell a picture of a Chinese coolie sitting on a curb eating his rice, and the whole city burning in the back.

And he's eating his rice.

That's the story of China I want!

Life goes on regardless.

Sold it to one of the people here for...

I think it was $250.

That was to furnish film.

HALL: Rey Scott and Li Ling-Ai had everything going against them.

Neither of them had filmmaking experience.

Neither of them had connections in the film industry.

JENNY CHO: Li Ling-Ai's lack of experience in filmmaking probably helped her.

Because she was fueled by passion and drive to get that story out there, she probably didn't realize at the time how much of a risk and how huge of an undertaking it would be to create a documentary film shot on location in China during the war.

LI LING-AI (dramatized): I did everything to keep the precious film going overseas to Scott.

I even hawked the family jewels.

I was so desperate, I had to.

(typewriter keys clacking) REY SCOTT (dramatized): July 14, 1939, Honolulu.

Dear Glad, Am rushed as hell.

Got passport okay.

Am leaving in an hour or so on the Canada.

Paid your jewelry interest up until January, so don't worry about that any longer.

Send that film to me care of American Consulate, Hong Kong.

Write me there, too.

Good luck to you, honey.

I hope you've gotten your job and things worked out the way you wanted.

Now be good and write that book.

Love, Rey.

There was nothing personal between her and Scott, right?

♪ She didn't say anything about any romantic involvement, but I wouldn't doubt it.

She had a lot of boyfriends.

LUNG: Were they Chinese or Caucasian?

HU: Caucasians, usually.

There was rumors in the family of a girlfriend in New York.

And it might have been an Oriental girlfriend in New York.

So you don't think they were lovers?

LUNG: I'm not sure.

I was hoping to find some letters from her.

We found no letters.

At the time, to become involved with a Chinese just wasn't done.

CHO: It was illegal in California.

The anti-miscegenation law, from 1850 to 1948, banned the marriage between a white person and an Asian.

So I could see why Rey Scott and Li Ling-Ai would want to keep any kind of relationship of that sort quiet.

Come on-- come on, boy.

Come on, come on, come on-- atta boy, atta boy!

Atta boy.

LUNG: But both of them pose for the press when Rey Scott brings back a baby panda named Li Ling-Ai.

♪ JESPERSEN: It's going to be part of the same phenomenon that's happening, the excitement and craze for things Chinese, the interest in what's happening in China, the sympathy.

And pandas, of course, are a symbol of China.

They're terribly cute.

Everybody likes a panda bear.

LUNG: Rey's color films of China bring more serious attention to the country.

In 1939, Rey uses them to campaign for U.S. intervention in China, and he screens them all across America.

LUNG: I can't figure out how much time Li Ling-Ai and Rey Scott spend together on the road.

In 1940, when Rey returns to China, Li Ling-Ai relocates permanently to New York City.

♪ CHO: So Li Ling-Ai's move to New York coincided with all of this activism and these social events on behalf of United China Relief.

JESPERSEN: So United China Relief was created in February of 1941 with the idea of bringing attention to what was happening in China, raising money for the Chinese people, and then distributing that money.

CHO: All of these events raising money and awareness for China needed a poster child.

And Li Ling-Ai, being Chinese, being very attractive, talented, well-spoken, having great Chinese clothes-- she was perfect.

♪ LI LING-AI (dramatized): I'm not kidding myself.

They may think I'm only suited for a bunch of crazy people like artists and writers, but I'm living.

The road to the compound may be safe and secure, but that belongs to the old order.

Give me the new.

I want to feel the open wind in my face.

I want the chance to play the long shot.

LI LING-AI: I came to New York.

Now, that's a situation.

Every Chinese then think I'm no-good woman.

Every American thinks I'm easy mark.

And here I came to challenge the writing field.

♪ So I was very poor.

I lived in the Lincoln Arcade with a small room the size of a closet, practically, and with a basin.

But nobody had a toilet.

So I had to use the public toilet.

So I am an expert in standing up, you see?

All right?

(laughs) Mentally and otherwise, okay?

LUNG: It's been almost three years since I located the Scott family's print.

And I've learned about many women like Li Ling-Ai, who've paved the way for me as a filmmaker.

I owe it to them to get "Kukan" restored and make sure she's recognized and remembered for it.

A.J.

ROHNER: We've got five different sections of the "Kukan" version you found.

So this is reel two, part two.

LUNG: Oh, reel two, part two.

So this is the most important part.

ROHNER: And this is-- this is...

LUNG: This is the bombing of Chungking.

ROHNER: This is the one that's in the best shape of all of them.

LUNG: "Kukan" became famous for the big bombing scene at the end.

The only other copy of this scene is on a VHS tape that Rey Scott made over 25 years ago.

(projector whirrs) REY SCOTT (dramatized): August 24, 1940.

Plenty of h-e-l-l has been popping up over this war-time capital.

Just a couple of days ago, 360 bombers participated in raids on Chungking on two consecutive days.

(bombs exploding) (plane engines roaring) (exploding) Soon I could see fires starting, small flames, then roaring masses.

It was horrible.

But there was nothing I could do but keep on grinding and taking pictures.

KWOK: In Mandarin, it's Píláo hongzhà, fatigue bombing.

They would bomb just at your meal time, recurrent cycles, so the population has no time to rest.

And my own father was-- had lived through that.

(flames roaring, water running) I think the bombing of Chongqing might have had something to do with the naming of the film: "Kukan."

"Kukan" really means bitterly persevering.

In other words, persevering against all odds.

Post-bombing, it's really tragic to come out.

You see human limbs and toes and fingers stuck to the walls or to telephone wires.

So it's in that kind of a beleaguered situation that the idea of kukan, "Let's stick to it, overcome it," became the title of that film you are working on.

♪ JOURNALIST (dramatized): Mr. Scott has 10,000 feet of colored war films, including the August 19 and 20 bombing of Chungking.

He has been requested by the State Department to show his films in Washington.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT (dramatized): Washington, January 2, 1941.

Last night, we saw some very remarkable colored moving pictures taken in China by Mr. Rey Scott.

LI LING-AI: Mrs. Roosevelt heard about it, and she invited me to the White House to show the president the picture.

I said, "Rey, will you come?

You're the photographer."

I went, and then I made Rey talk.

But came a part I could not resist talking.

And then came the Gobi Desert, where all the different races in the middle of China-- Chinese with red, red hair.

Rey had shot the picture 'cause it...

It stunned him, too, you see?

He never saw this China before.

He never saw the suffering before, until I told him.

REY SCOTT (dramatized): At the end of 20 minutes, the operator turned off the film.

Mr. Roosevelt ordered the showing resumed.

And when I'd shown all the film I had, he kept me for 35 minutes more, asking me questions.

He amazed me with his accurate knowledge of the war.

LUNG: Eleanor Roosevelt doesn't mention Li Ling-Ai in her newspaper column.

If the president's secretary didn't write Rey and Ling-Ai's names in the White House calendar that night, I might have doubted her story, just like many others did.

A collection of letters I find at Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library help corroborate Ling-Ai's account of how she found "Kukan's" distributor, Adventure Films.

LI LING-AI: So I said to Rey to take the film there to have it edited.

Then they showed it.

Behold, they began to claim they made it.

See, it was my story, my work, but I didn't fight-- I was very young.

I didn't tell my father.

He'd say, "Come home."

But Rey was the photographer, and I gave a big, big thing about his name and everything else because that's the only decent thing for me to do.

JESPERSEN: I do think the way Hollywood operated in the 1930s would have created difficulties for Ling-Ai to get a film made.

I think she would have needed the backing of either somebody better known, most likely a man, somebody who had some experience or connections.

WU: I can easily see how she gets overlooked.

She's someone who helped facilitates the making of the movie, but she doesn't really deserve true credit, according to the people who want to take the credit from her.

She's there to provide cultural authenticity, she's there to provide cultural inspiration, but she's really not seen as a culture producer, someone who's an artist in her own right.

Whoa!

Look at that.

Oh, here it is-- "Sold Jewelry to Aid in Chinese Movie."

"Li Ling-Ai sold her imperial jade pieces of jewelry "to finance the much-discussed picture "of war-ravaged China, 'Kukan.'

"Rey Scott said yesterday "that if it were not for Li Ling-Ai, he would never have made the picture."

CHO: She produced that film.

If you look at the duties of a producer, a producer finds the subject material, hires the talent, secures the funding, supervises pre-production, production, post-production, the release, and the publicity.

Li Ling-Ai did all of those things on "Kukan."

LI LING-AI: These others all claimed they made it!

I didn't know what to do, I didn't say anything.

I thought, "All right, that's my life, "and I will survive.

I will survive."

♪ LUNG: In order to get "Kukan" into theaters, Li Ling-Ai gives up control of her own film.

But she perseveres, and she continues to promote it.

(microfilm reader whirs) LI LING-AI (dramatized): We thought the picture would run about a week when it went on Broadway.

It's been going strong for two months now, and it's still going!

JOURNALIST (dramatized): San Francisco.

At long last, a documentary film about China has come to town which doesn't seek to shock the spectator.

JOURNALIST (dramatized): "Kukan" is no posed and re-enacted Hollywood war film, but the actual living description...

JOURNALIST (dramatized): With a clear, clipped Yankee accent, Miss Li Ling-Ai brought tears to the eyes of her listeners with her account of China's magnificent struggle.

MICHELLE SCOTT: Some of the photographs... ♪ LUNG: "Kukan" is promoted as Rey Scott's film, and most of the press for "Kukan" is about Rey's daring deeds in China.

Rey's interviews are treated as hard news, while Ling-Ai's stories are relegated to the women's section of the papers.

Still, she thinks of all kinds of ways to publicize "Kukan."

She gets a famous stylist to create a "Kukan" hairdo, poses for an animal lovers' magazine.

But the Associated Press gave her national coverage when she told them that the Chinese invented the striptease.

LUNG: In my mind, she's, like, supposed to be battling the prejudicial images of Chinese, and she's totally irresponsible.

Well, that's another one of Gladys's stories.

To her, the Chinese invented everything, of course.

But she loved that.

She loved to, like, tweak a slightly scandalous reaction from her family and her local people.

And that's what she enjoyed a lot-- not being proper and conventional.

LUNG: I wanted Li Ling-Ai to be the kind of heroine that no one could deny.

But I can't find proof that she was in China with Rey Scott during the filming of "Kukan."

In a letter, Rey infers that he filmed Li Ling-Ai in Los Angeles before he started filming in China.

So I have to conclude that an editor just spliced Li Ling-Ai's image into the film.

It's a huge disappointment to me.

Rey risked his life in China, while she stayed safely in America.

(air raid sirens blare) REY SCOTT (dramatized): November 16, 1941.

War between the United States and Japan is possible within the next 30 days.

President Roosevelt's order withdrawing Marines from China is a definite tip-off that trouble is near in the Far East.

(air raid sirens continue) (airplanes roar overhead) (bombs explode) ♪ Once the war started, suddenly you're cut off.

You can't travel anymore.

You can't travel across the Pacific.

Until the war's over, you're stuck, in many places, where you are.

So Li Ling-Ai and Rey Scott are in New York.

That of itself would have been a terrible trauma.

"Oh, my God, what's happened?"

Li Ling-Ai is thinking, "What's happened to my family at home?"

♪ CHARLOTTE (dramatized): Dearest Ling-Ai, My thoughts have been with you constantly since that fateful morning.

I've been thinking of your family and know just how you feel.

Knowing you as I know you, I'm sure you're doing plenty of work and not sitting still.

♪ ♪ LUNG: In February 1942, the academy honors the documentary category for the first time.

But neither Rey Scott nor Li Ling-Ai attend the ceremony.

Rey receives a special award for his extraordinary achievement in producing "Kukan."

A couple of months later, he signs a contract that gives United Artists complete control of "Kukan" for three years.

Then he joins the United States Army as a combat cameraman.

RAYMOND SCOTT: I know he was involved with the campaign in the Aleutians, and he was at Anzio in Italy.

He was shooting film, and guys were dropping right and left, I mean, just getting killed right and left while he was standing there and shooting this film.

I think he had some tough experiences there.

LUNG: Rey returns from the war exhausted and shell-shocked.

Alcoholism, months in a mental hospital, and a suicide attempt.

♪ By the time he pulls his life back together again, it's the 1950s.

Adventure Films has gone out of business, and the owner is deceased.

Rey has to sue the estate to get prints of "Kukan" out of storage.

So what happened between Rey Scott and Li Ling-Ai after the war?

The only clue I can find is Li Ling-Ai's phone number written in Rey Scott's 1980s address book.

Maybe he tried to call her.

But Li Ling-Ai never got a copy of "Kukan," and she probably didn't see it again after the 1940s.

FILM NARRATOR: Through long, cruel years of war, to the democratic, progressive new China worth fighting for... JESPERSEN: I don't think "Kukan" would have been hidden away.

I think it would have been set aside as an artifact from an earlier period that was no longer relevant after the Chinese Communists came to power.

HALL: So most likely, the prints were destroyed, which is not unusual, because what are you going to do with films that nobody wants anymore?

(fire crackling) You know, I don't think anyone in our family ever saw this film.

"Kukan," what is this, you know?

I never even see the movie.

"Kukan," yeah.

LUNG: If people can't see "Kukan," how will they appreciate who Li Ling-Ai really was?

After working for more than a year on the Scott family's print, the restoration lab sends me a shocking email.

Much of the print that they've been able to scan is cracked and faded.

There's hardly any color left!

What's worse, 20 minutes of "Kukan" is completely missing from the print!

(squeaking, whirring) The academy's efforts to preserve "Kukan" come to a screeching halt.

There will be no Hollywood re-premiere.

♪ I spend months afterwards feeling like a complete failure.

No one's going to pay attention to "Kukan" now, and Li Ling-Ai's story will disappear forever.

♪ I search for another print of "Kukan," every day, online, for weeks.

But nothing comes up.

All I can find are some letters that Li Ling-Ai wrote to a close friend in the 1950s.

She's in the middle of writing a book about her parents, and it's not going well.

LI LING-AI (dramatized): Dear Ethel, I'm in the middle of one of the toughest rewrite jobs in my manuscript, and I feel like throwing the whole manuscript in the incinerator.

And I am now wondering if I even know how to write English.

The gall of me to have even begun this project!

I am not an authority in anything, a great educator or emancipator, or wife of a big general.

So my work is certainly not important to anyone but myself.

However, as my little mother used to say, "God gave you a mouth.

It is not just for eating."

So if only one protégée feels one one-hundredth of what I do, it may be better than nothing.

LUNG: It's as if Li Ling-Ai reached out to me across the decades to say, "Don't give up."

The VHS copy of "Kukan" might now be the only full version of the film in existence.

♪ I wonder if anyone outside of Hollywood would be interested in it.

It's my first trip to China: a study tour of World War II history sites, and a chance to trace some of Rey Scott and Li Ling-Ai's footsteps.

(woman speaking Chinese over speaker) (people talking) ♪ ♪ WOMAN: Now, let's welcome Miss Robin Lung to give us an introduction.

ZHOU YONG: (applause) ♪ FILM NARRATOR: They watched the agonies of a blazing city, their city, where their homes are now rubble and ruin, where the small possessions of their simple lives are ashes.

ZHOU: ♪ So this is the original location of the American Embassy where Rey Scott filmed the bombing of Chongqing, the historic footage that was in "Kukan."

And I can't believe this building still exists.

I never, I never...

I never hoped to find the building still here.

I never thought we could find this.

ZHOU: Ni hao and aloha.

(applause) "Kukan" will be officially brought to China with the signing of this contract so that all China's citizens may watch and learn from it in the years to come.

(applause) (speaking Chinese) (speaking Chinese) LUNG: The event is covered by newspaper and television journalists from Chongqing and Beijing.

Suddenly there's a groundswell of interest in Rey Scott and Li Ling-Ai and the story of how they both produced "Kukan."

FILM NARRATOR: And here as custodians of our "Believe It or Not" sketchbook for tonight are Robert St. John and Li Ling-Ai.

Good evening, everybody.

Good evening, and welcome again to our "Believe It Or Not" television studio.

LI LING-AI: Ni hao ma.

ST. JOHN: What does that mean, Li Ling-Ai?

LI LING-AI: That's Chinese for "hello."

LUNG: Li Ling-Ai continued to push boundaries and promote China long after World War II ended.

The book she wrote about her parents was published in 1972.

Because of it, I know much more about her parents' lives than I do about hers.

And now, after seven years of constant searching, so many of my questions about Li Ling-Ai remain unanswered.

I'm a little reluctant to pass her story on.

Maybe I'm scared to let it go.

But I think about all the chapters in history that might be lost if not for one woman's voice.

And I remember what her mother used to say: "God gave you a mouth.

It is not just for eating."

♪ ♪ ♪