Dead to Rights (film): Difference between revisions

 

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==Release==

==Release==

[[File:Dead to Rights (2025) Movie Poster.jpg|thumb|Dead to Rights (2025) premiered in [[Singapore]] on 28 August 2025]]

”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 [[Renminbi|¥]]30 million. After its official release, the film’s single-day box office surpassed ¥100 million on July 26.<ref>{{cite web|title=《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|url=https://m.gmw.cn/2025-07/27/content_1304093952.htm|work=江苏新闻|date=July 27, 2025|access-date=July 31, 2025|archive-date=August 5, 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250805095859/https://m.gmw.cn/2025-07/27/content_1304093952.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> By 8 p.m. on July 28, four days into its official release, the film’s total box office had surpassed ¥500 million.<ref name=”interview” /><ref name=”hit” />

”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 [[Renminbi|¥]]30 million. After its official release, the film’s single-day box office surpassed ¥100 million on July 26.<ref>{{cite web|title=《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|url=https://m.gmw.cn/2025-07/27/content_1304093952.htm|work=江苏新闻|date=July 27, 2025|access-date=July 31, 2025|archive-date=August 5, 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250805095859/https://m.gmw.cn/2025-07/27/content_1304093952.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> By 8 p.m. on July 28, four days into its official release, the film’s total box office had surpassed ¥500 million.<ref name=”interview” /><ref name=”hit” />

2025 film directed by Shen Ao

Dead to Rights (Chinese: 南京照相馆; lit. ‘Nanjing Photographic Studio’) is a 2025 Chinese historical drama film directed by Shen Ao.^[3] It stars Liu Haoran, Wang Chuanjun, Gao Ye [zh], Wang Xiao [zh], Zhou You [zh], Yang Enyou [zh], and Daichi Harashima [zh]. Set during the Nanjing Massacre, the film follows a group of civilians who seek refuge in a photographic studio amidst the chaos of war, and bravely risk their lives to expose the atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese Army.

Dead to Rights was released on July 25, 2025.^[4] It went on to make US$381 million at the box office, making it the third-highest-grossing Chinese film of 2025. It was selected as the Chinese entry for Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards.^[5]

During the occupation of Nanjing in the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese army commit widespread atrocities including massacres, rapes, and looting. They make quisling interpreter Wang Guanghai help them control the city for passports out of Nanjing for his family. Though married, he has an affair with opera actress Lin Yuxiu, who performs for the Japanese military to survive. Wang stays to get Lin an extra passport.

Japanese military photographer Hideo Itō is assigned to document the massacre for propaganda. When retainer Kuroshima orders him to execute a civilian to prove loyalty, Itō discovers postman Ah Chang, asking if he is a photo developer. Chang lies to save himself, leading Itō to a nearby photographic studio. Itō gives Chang one day to develop his film rolls with Wang interpreting.

Chang encounters the studio’s owner, Jin Chengzong and his family hiding inside, who convinces Chang to help develop the photos to avoid suspicion. Chang initially runs to the city exits but returns after witnessing soldiers killing escapees. After Jin and Chang develop the photos, Itō challenges Chang to develop negatives with him. He opens the development room door to Chang’s dismay, remarking said photos were unnecessary being of “Chinese pigs”.

As Chang wins Itō’s trust, he earns another passport. Wang claims Lin as Chang’s wife in order to secure two passports. Itō agrees, and Wang brings Lin to the studio to live together with Chang, strengthening the ruse. Lin, was saved from the Japanese—who made her sing while stripping naked—by a hiding soldier, Song Cunyi. She proves her loyalty to China by revealing a smuggled Song to visit Jin. The group decide to cooperate, with Chang developing negatives to maintain his facade and Lin supporting them. The developed films reveal staged propaganda of Japanese-Chinese harmony, but evidence of atrocities are gradually uncovered. The atrocity images are secretly duplicated and hidden, despite Itō collecting them as souvenirs.

Itō secures a Japanese photographic studio to start developing the photos, frustrated by their poor quality. Song martyrs himself killing a newcomer in an outing. Scapegoated, Wang makes Lin maintain silence for their escape. Itō, tasked with killing Chang, figures how to develop photos himself. Unwilling to face Chang personally, Itō instead gives him the promised passports. Chang’s group vote for Jin’s wife Zhao Yifang and daughter Wanyi to obtain the passport, resulting in their deaths as Itō told border guards to shoot whoever carrying those passports on sight.

Wang demands Lin to leave the studio as Itō and Kuroshima arrive, suspicious of the unused passports; Itō shoots a resisting Wang as Kuroshima attempts to rape Lin. Jin kills Kuroshima, blinding Itō with acid. He finds Wang’s family’s passports, assigning them to himself, Lin, and Jin’s infant son. Chang burns several negatives as a distraction allowing the others to flee, though Itō kills him as the fire burns down the studio.

At the gate, Jin’s son’s cries expose them. Jin sacrifices himself so Lin and his son reach the Nanjing Safety Zone. They survive with atrocity duplicates sewn into their clothes, while the Chinese resident pictures were fabricated as being taken by Itō. The photos are disseminated globally, sparking international condemnation. Humiliated, Itō commits seppuku and his death is framed heroically by another soldier.

Post-war, the massacre’s perpetrators were executed. Lin, raising Jin’s son, documents the executions based on the atrocity images as the their allies’ and other victims’ spirits observe. The end credits shows footage of historical sites in modern-day Nanjing. A hand passes pictures taken in said locations during the massacre.

• Liu Haoran as Su Liuchang (“Ah Chang”), a postman taking refuge in a photography studio during the Nanjing Massacre.
• Wang Chuanjun as Wang Guanghai, a collaborating interpreter trying to secure passports out of Nanjing for him and his affair Lin Yuxiu.
• Gao Ye [zh] as Lin Yuxiu, a woman who Wang Guanghai has an affair with and claims as his wife.
• Wang Xiao [zh] as Jin Chengzong, the owner of the photography studio that Ah Chang and Wang take refuge in.
• Zhou You [zh] as Song Cunyi, a Chinese soldier who saved Lin Yuxiu from the Japanese army which she smuggled into the photography studio.
• Yang Enyou [zh] as Jin Wanyi, Chengzong’s daughter with Zhao Yifang.
• Daichi Harashima [zh] (原島 大地) as Hideo Itō (伊藤秀夫), an Imperial Japanese Army photographer and soldier sent to obtain images for propaganda.
• Wang Zhen’er [zh] as Zhao Yifang, Chengzong’s wife.

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.^[6] 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 [zh], 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.^[7]

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.^[8]

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.^[9][10][11] 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.^[9]

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.^[12] By 8 p.m. on July 28, four days into its official release, the film’s total box office had surpassed ¥500 million.^[9][11]

The film was released in the US and Canada on August 15.^[13]