Lead actor Guo Xiaodong plays a Communist Party spy in Mission Impossible, a 30-episode series, which premiered on Beijing Satellite Channel in February. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A nearly 80-year-long conflict between Chinese shipping magnate Chen Shuntong and a Japanese company has inspired a hit TV series, the first of its kind to make it to the small screen.

Mission Impossible, a 30-episode series, premiered on Beijing Satellite Channel in February. It was recently revealed at a press conference that the story was partly adapted from the Ningbo-born Chen's lawsuit against a Japanese firm for a compensation of $300 million, the largest financial compensation for a wartime case for a Chinese individual.

It all began in 1936 when Chen leased two cargo ships to the Japanese company Daido Shipping Co Ltd. The contract stated that the two freighters should be returned after 12 months.

But with the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in 1937, Chen was unable to get his vessels back. The two ships sank in accidents several years later.

Chen failed to get any money before his death in 1949. It was his grandsons who eventually received the compensation after Shanghai Maritime Court ordered the detention of a Japanese bulker at a port in Zhejiang province in 2014.