Recently included in the Asian World Film Festival Los Angeles 2025 is a film from the People’s Republic of China – Dead to Rights – A Chinese blockbuster that recounts the Nanking massacre in 1938 by the Japanese. There have been a number of movies about the Nanjing Massacre, a subject that continues to fuel friction between China and Japan, particularly after the recent revisionist policies of the latter. The first titles that come to mind are City of Life and Death and Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre. The latest entry in this category is Dead to Rights, a Chinese production directed by Ao Shen that has already achieved huge commercial success, surpassing 308 million dollars at the box office by August 14. Currently the film is screening in selected theatres in the United States. It is the official submission from the People’s Republic of China for the 2026 Oscars.
This is not a movie to be enjoyed. The blatant display of innumerable brutalities during the Rape of Nanking that were unfathomable strategically and ethically. Not a single body of water in the film isn’t red – all bloodied by the 300,000 Chinese killed because the Japanese considered them “swines.” Dead to Rights has a rather impartial and documentary narrative stance, but includes melodramatic passages and occasionally slips into patriotic exaggeration.
Some restraint is exercised in portraying the Japanese, preventing them from becoming entirely one-dimensional. Ultimately, Dead to Rights succeeds in both documenting the horror of the massacre and delivering a gripping, large-scale drama. This combination likely explains its commercial triumph and ensures that fans of historical epics will find much to appreciate.
The story is inspired by true events, with its central setting based on the Huadong Photo Studio, historically located near today’s Guyilang area in Nanjing. In early 1938, an apprentice named Luo Jin discovered negatives containing images of atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers while developing film sent by officers. Risking his life, he developed the images and compiled them into an album. Years later, facing hardship, Luo joined a communications training team under Wang Jingwei’s collaborationist government and hid the album inside a restroom at Pilu Temple. In 1941, the album was discovered and secretly preserved by Wu Liankai, who was training there at the time.
After Japan’s surrender in 1945, Wu, who had by then changed his name to Wu Xuan, learned that the Nanjing Provisional Senate was gathering evidence for the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal. He submitted the album, which became crucial in the conviction of Hisao Tani, one of the main perpetrators of the massacre. Today, the album is preserved at the Second Historical Archives of China.
Dead to Rights begins in 1937, as postal worker Su Liuchang fails to evacuate while delivering letters to residents and ends up stranded in the city as Japanese forces approach. At the same time, interpreter Wang Guanghai tries to secure survival for his family by complying with Japanese demands, hoping to obtain the much-coveted exit permits for his wife, children, mistress, and an actress named Lin Yuxiu.
Eventually, Su is discovered by Japanese soldiers. In a twist of luck, he is mistaken for an employee of the Jixiang Photo Studio by military photographer Hideo Ito, who finds a photo album in his bag. Since Japanese war photographer Ito does not know how to develop film, he forces Su to take him to the studio.
There, Su meets the studio owner Jin Chengzong, who is hiding with his wife, eldest daughter, and infant child under a trap door. With no alternative, Jin teaches Su to develop photos, while Ito pressures him to work quickly under strict orders from his superiors. To protect Japan’s international image, photographs of atrocities are strictly forbidden from release, even as Ito is required to take them.
Director Ao Shen balances historical fact with moments of melodrama, jingoistic overtones, and sequences of action and violence. One of the strongest aspects is the characterization. Su Liuchang stands as the unexpected hero, repeatedly sacrificing himself for others, though he is not a fighter but rather an ordinary man exploited by the occupiers. Liu Haoran portrays him with charisma, navigating several demanding scenes while maintaining a compelling screen presence.
Wang Guanghai, in contrast, embodies survival at all costs. His dependence on the Japanese army makes him morally ambiguous, both in his collaboration and in his personal life. Wang Chuanjun excels in showing a man torn between fear and self-preservation, a character who largely ignores the needs of his country in favor of his own and the people close to him.
Hideo Ito is another layered figure, a rookie photographer caught between his power over the Chinese and his own subjugation by brutal veterans. Daichi Harashima delivers a strong performance, capturing both the character’s initial uncertainty and his eventual descent into villainy, even if at times leaning toward caricature.
