The film is an epic dramatisation of a mysterious explosion sinking the Ukishima Maru, while it was on a trip to repatriate Koreans in the wake of World War II.

The film supports the Korean view that the explosion was deliberately set off by the ship's Japanese crew.

[1] Souls Protest was imported to South Korea by Narai Film, a Seoul-based film trader, and was approved for release after five minutes of footage was cut which showed jubilant Koreans crediting Kim Il Sung with liberating Korea from Japanese colonial rule.

One survivor of the incident, Lee Chul-woo, said of the film: "I didn't like the propaganda stuff about Kim Il Sung...

But the scene about the explosion was so real, and it is laudable for North Korea to make a movie about this incident.