Nov 18, 2025 4:00pm PT

‘Dead to Rights’ Review: A Gripping Survival Story Set During the Nanjing Massacre

China’s entry for the Oscars' international feature category is a pulsating drama and a sobering reminder of human rights tragedies in armed conflicts.

Human decency in the midst of inhumane atrocity is the powerful emotional drive of China’s international Oscar entry, “Dead to Rights,” a stirring drama set during the 1937 Nanjing Massacre in the Second Sino-Japanese War. Centered on a postman who poses as a photo developer to survive the Japanese occupation while secretly hiding a group of terrified citizens,Shen Ao’s handsomely produced follow-up to his 2023 hit “No More Bets” expertly balances intensely claustrophobic drama with spectacular depictions of the fall of Nanjing and its shocking aftermath.

Though a little melodramatic in the final stretch and containing several scenes that some viewers may find hard to watch, China’s third-biggest domestic hit of the year thus far serves as a potent reminder of a chapter in human history that must never be forgotten and sadly continues to have parallels today. It is also a stimulating examination of how photographs shot during wartime can become weapons for justice long after gunshots have stopped.

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A long-standing source of diplomatic discomfort between China and Japan, the Nanjing Massacre has been the subject of numerous Chinese features over the past four decades. An authorized adaptation of Luo Guanqun’s “Massacre in Nanjing” (1987), “Dead to Rights” follows in the footsteps of Wu Zinui’s “Nanjing 1937” (1995), Lu Chuan’s “City of Life and Death” (2009) and “The Flowers of War,” directed by Zhang Yimou and submitted as China’s international Oscar entry in 2011.

Shen and co-writers Xu Luyang and Zhang Ke (“The Volunteers: To the War”) have based their story on the real-life figure of Luo Jin, a teenage apprentice at Huadong Photo Studio who secretly developed and concealed photographs of atrocities committed by the Japanese Imperial Army. These photos were later discovered and used as critical evidence at the 1946 Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal.

The spirit of Luo Jin inhabits the central character of A-Chang (Liu Haoran of “Decoded” and the “Detective Chinatown” franchise), a postal worker whose kind nature prevents him from escaping during the city’s capitulation. A likable young man whom audiences will quickly warm to, A-Chang takes refuge in a photo studio where he was saved from execution by claiming to be the shop’s apprentice. Suddenly useful to the invading forces, A-Chang is assigned to work for Hideo Ito (Daichi Harashima), a Japanese army photographer ordered to document happy moments of “Japanese and Chinese friendship.” Reporting to sadistic commander Maj. Kuroshima (Shinji Azuma), Ito also takes pictures of atrocities that are strictly forbidden for distribution and intended exclusively for the satisfaction and “glory” of military brass.

With the help of Wang Guanghai (Wang Chuan-jun), a compromised local working as an interpreter and “friend” of the Japanese in the belief he’ll prosper under occupation, A-Chang is permitted to live, provided he develops Ito’s negatives by the following day. What nobody knows at this point is that studio owner Jin Chengzong (Wang Xiao) is hiding in a secret room under the floorboards with his wife, Zhao Yifang (Wang Zhener), young daughter Jin Wanyi (Yang Enyou) and an infant son.

With no choice but to acquire professional skills overnight, A-Chang is given a crash course by the kindly Jin. In the first of many memorable scenes set in Jin’s darkroom, the master and his accidental apprentice watch in horror as photographic paper in chemical baths slowly reveal the butchery captured by Ito’s lens. Thus far a survival drama, “Dead to Rights” now takes on an extra thriller dimension as the duo decide they must, at whatever cost, find a way to copy and eventually smuggle these images to a place where they can be used as evidence.

Suspense and moral complexity intensify with the arrival of Lin Yuxiu (Gao Ye), the mistress of Wang Guanghai. An opera singer and aspiring movie star who has narrowly avoided being raped by Japanese soldiers, Lin has also smuggled her rescuer, policeman Song (Zhou You), into the hiding place. Compelling and convincing drama ensues as this cross-section of Chinese society responds to living in a permanent state of extreme fear, while knowing that only two or three of them at best have even a remote chance of escape. While much of this is bleak, it remains gripping as group dynamics shift and characters change under intense pressure. Most notable are the believable transformations in Wang Guanghai, whose willingness to close his eyes to everything but self-preservation begins to crack, and Lin Yuxiu, who proves to be much more than the flighty diva she seems at first.

Performances are excellent across the board, but the standout is Harashima (the son of Chinese and Japanese parents) for his delicately understated portrayal of a non-combatant soldier documenting appalling crimes against humanity. The question of whether Ito truly embraces his work or is simply surviving within a brutal system is one that lingers for a good measure of the runtime thanks to Harashima’s finely controlled acting under Shen’s precise direction.

The only real let-down is some clunky melodrama in the final passages. There’s nothing wrong with characters expressing love for their country but the high-spirited messaging about “our beautiful motherland” feels tonally inconsistent with the tense and gritty realism that began “Dead to Rights.” Still, this is a minor concern in a film that has already done enough to impress and elicit strong emotional reactions from audiences everywhere.

Large scale action set-pieces are carefully woven into what’s predominantly an intimate human drama unfolding in cramped indoor spaces. Having shown the massive scope of Nanjing’s fall in the stunning opening, Shen and editors Jiang Zhen and Huo Zhiqiang opt for relatively short, high-impact outdoors sequences thereafter. Strong but never exploitative or lingering, these moments include the mass slaughter of innocent civilians on the banks of the Yangtze river and an almost unbearably tense passage involving a crying baby on a crowded street.

The most difficult, but essential, scenes involve Japanese troops storming the international safety zone to commit rape and terrify staff working alongside Minnie Vautrin (Apryl Mei Reagan), the revered American missionary and educator who saved countless lives in Nanjing. Suggestion is masterfully employed elsewhere, with half-glimpsed images on the edge of cinematogrpaher Wang Tianxing’s probing camera and superbly layered sound design creating a sustained atmosphere of dread and leaving no doubt that this place at this moment in time is truly hell on Earth.

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