Dead to Rights (film)
| Dead to Rights | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Traditional Chinese | 南京照相館 |
| Simplified Chinese | 南京照相馆 |
| Literal meaning | Nanjing Photo Studio |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Nánjīng zhàoxiàng guǎn |
| Directed by | Shen Ao |
| Written by |
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| Produced by | Fu Ruoqing |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Cao Yu |
| Edited by | Zhang Yifan |
| Music by | Peng Fei |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | China Film Group |
Release date |
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Running time | 137 minutes[1] |
| Country | China |
| Language | Mandarin |
| Box office | US$320.1 million[2] |
Dead to Rights (Chinese: 南京照相馆) is a 2025 Chinese historical drama film directed by Shen Ao.[3] It stars Liu Haoran, Wang Chuanjun, Gao Ye, Wang Xiao, Zhou You, Yang Enyou, and Daichi Harashima. Set during the Nanjing Massacre, the film follows a group of civilians who seek refuge in a photo studio amidst the chaos of war, and bravely risk their lives to expose the atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese Army. The film was released on July 25, 2025.[4]
Plot
In the midst of the Japanese occupation of Nanjing during the Second Sino-Japanese War, widespread atrocities unfold as invading forces massacre civilians, commit rapes, and loot the city. After the initial assault, the Japanese use quisling translator Wang Guanghai to help them control the city by giving him passports out of Nanking for his family. Although married, he is having an affair with an opera actress, Lin Yuxiu, who tries to survive by performing shows for the Japanese military. He stays in an effort to try to get an extra passport for Lin.
Japanese military photographer Itō Hideo is assigned to document the massacre for propaganda. When a superior orders him to execute a civilian to prove his loyalty, Itō discovers the man, postman Ah Chang, carrying photographs and questions if he is a photo developer. Ah Chang lies to save his life and leads Itō to a nearby photo studio. Through Wang as interpreter, Itō gives Ah Chang one day to develop his film rolls.
After Itō and Wang depart, Ah Chang encounters the studio owner, Jin Chengzong, and his family hiding inside. Jin convinces Ah Chang to help develop the photos to avoid drawing suspicion and a search. Ah Chang initially flees toward the city exits but returns after witnessing soldiers executing escapees.
After Jin and Ah Chang develop the photos, Itō returns and tests Ah Chang by taking random negatives in the studio and telling him to develop them in front of him. After satisfactorily completing most of the process, Itō opens the dark room door. When Ah Chang protests saying that the photos would be ruined, Itō replies that they're all of Chinese pigs and weren't needed.
As Ah Chang starts to win Itō's approval and trust, he is offered a passport for doing the work. Wang interjects, replying that Ah Chang has a wife, who he claims to be Lin, in order to secure two passports. Itō agrees and Wang brings over Lin to the studio to live with Ah Chang as his wife to strengthen the ruse. Lin, who was humiliated earlier when the Japanese attempted to make her sing while stripping naked, was then saved by a soldier who had been hiding from the Japanese. Lin smuggles the soldier, Song Cunyi, into the studio as well. When Ah Chang is suspicious of Lin who questions if there's a family living in the studio, Lin proves her loyalty to China by opening her boxes to reveal a smuggled Song. They all decide to try to work together to survive, the family and Song hiding in the basement, Ah Chang developing the photos slowly and poorly to maintain his position and Lin gathering supplies and food.
The initial rolls yield staged propaganda of Japanese-Chinese harmony, but deeper processing uncovers negatives of war crimes: executions, burnings, mutilations, and assaults. The group secretly duplicates and hides these. Itō, initially seeming humane, exposes his sadism by joining the violence and collecting photos as souvenirs. Tensions mount amid forced labor, traumas, and Wang's opportunistic threats.
As the occupation drags on and Japanese forces face broader setbacks, orders intensify to eliminate hiding spots. Frustrated by the poor quality of the photos, and growing suspect of the intentions of Ah Chang, Itō secures a Japanese photo developer to start developing the photos. Recognizing the threat, Song kills the newcomer during an outing, martyring himself. Blamed, Wang confronts Lin, urging silence for their escape.
Itō then figures out how to develop photos himself, and is tasked with disposing of Ah Chang. However, he can't bring himself to shoot Ah Chang, and instead gives him the two passports that he promised for his work. The group decide to cast lots to decide who should take the passports which are modifiable, and Jin's wife and daughter end up winning the passports. When they leave however, they find that Itō had told the Japanese guards that whoever used those passports were to be shot on sight, and the guards end up killing and raping both the mother and daughter.
Wang storms the studio, demanding Lin leave, just as Itō and his superior arrive, suspicious of the unused passports. When the superior attempts to rape Lin, Wang resists and is shot by Itō. Ah Chang attacks Itō, Jin kills the superior, and Jin blinds Itō with acid. Discovering Wang's family passports, they assign them to Jin, Lin, and Jin's infant son. Itō revives and attacks; Ah Chang burns his negatives as a distraction, allowing the others to flee.
At the gate, the baby's cry exposes them. Jin sacrifices himself so Lin and the child reach the Nanjing Safety Zone. There, it's revealed the group had sewn duplicates of the atrocity negatives into their clothes, ensuring their survival. The photos are disseminated to global journalists, sparking international condemnation.
Post-war, the Nanjing Massacre's architects are sentenced to death at tribunals. Lin, raising Jin's son, photographs their executions in the style of Japanese atrocity images. The spirits of Ah Chang, Wang, Song, Jin, and other victims observe, their story preserved.
Cast
- Liu Haoran as Su Liuchang ("Ah Chang")
- Wang Chuanjun as Wang Guanghai
- Gao Ye as Lin Yuxiu
- Wang Xiao as Jin Chengzong
- Zhou You as Song Cunyi
- Yang Enyou as Jin Wanyi
- Daichi Harashima as Hideo Itō
- Wang Zhen'er as Zhao Yifang
Background
The photography studio depicted in the film is based on the Huadong Photo Studio, historically located near today's Guyilang area in Nanjing. Luo Jin, an apprentice at the studio, discovered negatives containing images of atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers when developing film sent by Japanese officers in early 1938.[5] Risking his life, Luo developed these negatives and compiled them into an album. Due to hardship, Luo later joined a communications training team affiliated with Wang Jingwei's collaborationist government's guard brigade stationed at Pilu Temple, where he hid the album in a restroom. In 1941, the album was discovered and secretly preserved by Wu Liankai, who was undergoing training at the same temple.[6]
In 1946, after Japan's surrender, Wu Liankai, who by then had changed his name to Wu Xuan, learned that the Nanjing Provisional Senate was gathering evidence for the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal to prosecute war criminals. He submitted the hidden photo album, which became crucial evidence for the conviction of Hisao Tani, one of the principal perpetrators of the Nanjing Massacre. The album is currently preserved at the Second Historical Archives of China.[7]
Production
In 2023, director Shen Ao, inspired by a discussion with Zhang Ke (screenwriter of the film The Volunteers: To the War) and revisiting Nanjing Film Studio's 1987 production Massacre in Nanjing, decided it was essential to "retell this story in our times". Shen then contacted Nanjing Film Studio, the rights holder of Massacre in Nanjing, and acquired the adaptation rights, initiating extensive research into the historical event of "smuggling photographic evidence out of Nanjing" to form the foundation of the new film.[8][9][10] While his previous film, No More Bets (2023), was still fresh in public memory, Shen immediately assembled his creative team to start production on Dead to Rights.[8]
Release
Dead to Rights was jointly produced by China Film Group and several other studios. Initially scheduled for release on August 2, 2025, the date was later moved up to July 25, with nationwide previews conducted on July 19–20. By July 20, earnings from previews and advance ticket sales exceeded ¥30 million. After its official release, the film's single-day box office surpassed ¥100 million on July 26.[11] By 8 p.m. on July 28, four days into its official release, the film's total box office had surpassed ¥500 million.[8][10]
References
- "Dead to Rights (18)". British Board of Film Classification. 23 August 2025. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
- "Dead To Rights (南京照相馆) (2025)". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved August 21, 2025.
- "南京照相馆". Maoyan. Retrieved July 31, 2025.
- "觀影說劇／「南京照相館」最新畫面曝光描寫戰爭裡的掙扎". World Journal. July 6, 2025. Retrieved July 31, 2025.
- "三个关键词，读懂《南京照相馆》里更多隐藏故事". 交汇点新闻. July 22, 2025. Retrieved July 31, 2025.
- "【人民的力量】十六：两名青年誓死守护南京大屠杀铁证，电影《南京照相馆》正是他们的故事！". Yangtse Evening Post. July 23, 2025. Retrieved July 31, 2025.
- "他偶然间发现的秘密，让拒不认罪的南京大屠杀主犯俯首认罪". 江苏新闻广播. December 7, 2017. Retrieved July 31, 2025.
- "专访《南京照相馆》导演申奥：不必血腥当噱头，吾辈自强是对历史最好的回应". Shangguan News. July 28, 2025. Retrieved August 1, 2025.
- "《南京照相馆》导演申奥:自强不息是对历史最好的回应". Global Times. July 28, 2025. Retrieved August 1, 2025.
- "《南京照相馆》热映 以冷静叙事定格历史真相". 舜网-济南时报. July 29, 2025. Retrieved August 1, 2025.
- "《南京照相馆》单日票房过亿！热度口碑一路走高，超 700万人走进影院观影". 江苏新闻. July 27, 2025. Retrieved July 31, 2025.
External links
Dead To Rights (NC16)
(Clockwise from top left) Gao Ye, Wang Xiao and child actress Yang Enyou in Dead To Rights.
PHOTO: SHAW ORGANISATION
137 minutes, opens on Aug 28
★★★☆☆
The story:
Some 300,000 (?) Chinese were killed and raped during the 1937 Nanjing Massacre.
Chinese auteur Lu Chuan’s City Of Life And Death (2009) was a humanist masterpiece that experienced the horrors through both a Japanese sergeant and a Chinese officer.
Dead To Rights conversely distils a nation’s trauma into the survival ordeals of A-Chang and the half-dozen hiding in his claustrophobic basement: the family of the studio owner (Wang Xiao), the opera diva mistress (Gao Ye) of a morally conflicted translator (Wang Chuanjun) and a wounded soldier (Zhou You). The chamber drama from writer-director Ao Shen (No More Bets, 2023) is partisan in focus.
And it cannot help but turn jingoistic as the ensemble evolves from self-preservation to self-sacrifice, inspired by their love for their “beautiful motherland”.
The melodrama is unnecessary because this detailed historical re-enactment, which has grossed 2.7 billion yuan (S$483 million) domestically, already has much to stir popular sentiment, not least its release on the 80th anniversary of the end of the war.
The actors, including Daichi Harashima as a Japanese army photographer, are persuasive, and there are chilling scenes of arson, torture and dead bodies.
The story of A-Chang risking his life to smuggle out images of the savagery, thereby exposing to the world Japan’s crimes against humanity, is even based on actual events.
In the age of deepfakes, this movie is most potent for remembering photography’s capacity to bear witness to and preserve the truth.
Hot take: One of history’s darkest chapters is memorialised with film-making craft and politburo-pleasing nationalism.
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Review
Dead to Rights 南京照相馆 Review: Shen Ao’s Bleak and Moving Nanjing Massacre-Set Anti-War Drama
August 28, 2025Casey
Shen Ao’s much-anticipated follow-up to No More Bets sees the co-writer and director going back in time in Dead to Rights. More specifically, the bleak period of the Nanjing Massacre during the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. But instead of recounting the true events through the eyes of a soldier, Shen Ao sets his sights on how the Chinese civilians play their significant parts in turning things around.
Among them is A Chang (Liu Haoran), a postal worker who finds himself caught in the middle of the war as the Imperial Japanese army invades Nanjing. His life is spared from execution after he decides to pretend to be a photo technician. The reason? One of the high-ranking Japanese officers, Hideo Ito (Daichi Harashima), happens to be the photographer responsible for taking selective pictures for propaganda purposes. And coincidentally, he lacks the practical knowledge of developing films, making A Chang an important person to help him do so.
The latter, who claims to be an employee working at the Jixiang Photo Studio, has to improvise on his part to avoid suspicion. Thankfully, he’s a quick learner, thanks to the guidance of the photo studio owner Jin Chengzong (Wang Xiao), who’s been hiding underneath with his family. Upon developing the photos in the dark room, they uncover images of horrifying details, including rape and war violence caused by the cruelty of the Japanese army. But such photos of atrocities cannot be released at all costs, and despite the strict orders coming from Ito’s superiors, they manage to find ways to secretly copy these images to be used as photographic evidence someday.
Shen Ao relies heavily on the power of suggestion associated with the Nanjing Massacre. Rapes are implied, while the violence against the Chinese soldiers and civilians is mostly depicted in a restrained manner. Viewers still get to witness the graphic horrors of a mass execution, and at one point, an uncomfortable scene revolving around an infant child. Here, Ao’s matter-of-fact, yet clinical direction portrays these moments of monstrosity with none of the gratuitous or exploitative visual style.
A war movie like this tends to get jingoistic to appease the Chinese censors, and while Dead to Rights can’t escape from such an obligatory inclusion, kudos to Ao for not overwhelming it to the point of ad nauseam. The movie is consistently engaging with all the emotional and dramatic resonance intact, as ordinary citizens like A Chang’s selfless sacrifice in helping others in need, while maintaining his composure when it comes to dealing with Ito.
While Haoran deserves credit for his earnest portrayal as A Chang, it was Daichi Harashima who excels the most as Hideo Ito. Beneath his seemingly lesser-evil portrayal of a Japanese officer and photographer, who claims he and A Chang are friends, lies a cloak of malevolence hidden deep within his facade. His gradual descent to unveiling his true colours is unnerving, but he does so without falling prey to chewing the scenery.
The movie also benefits from strong supporting roles, notably Wang Chuan-Jun as Wang Guanghai, whose vital translation skills give him the leverage of making a deal with the Japanese. But beyond his opportunistic trait, which seems to care for his own survival and his loved ones, he still sided with his fellow citizens on some occasions.
Technically speaking, Dead to Rights excels in its atmospheric cinematography along with the evocative sound design and Ao’s astute sense of buildup tension. The latter is especially true with the elaborate sequence revolving around the all-important passes to cross over the border safely. Ao is equally adept at blending stark metaphors, like how a camera can be as important as a rifle during the latter part of the movie. Whereas the rifle is mainly used as a threat and an execution for killing a person, the camera represents the contrasting weaponisation of a tool to capture and expose one’s hideous act to the world.
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Please don't watch this trailer unless you have... - Adrian Glamorgan | Facebook
Adrian Glamorgan
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Please don't watch this trailer unless you have to... it's harrowing, and that's just a minute or two of moments given to the trailer in "Dead to Rights" (2025)! I've just seen over two hours of this recent Chinese film about the Japanese Imperial Army's brutality in the destruction of Nanjing in 1937. Here is barbarism described - and recorded, by photographers, giving proof that back then armies were systematically killing civilians in great numbers, despite their official promises to the world. (Sound familiar?) It raises questions about the importance of journalism (including photojournalism) in capturing the truth of militarism's barbarity, and the importance of evidence when later - for there is a later - when these war crimes will be held to account.
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