China, Dead to Rights, drama, Gao Ye, Liu Haoran, movies, Nanjing Massacre, reviews, Shen Ao, Shini Azuma, Wang Chuanjun, Wang Xiao, Wang Zhen'er
August 19, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Shen Ao
Mandarin and Japanese with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in 1937, primarily in Nanjing, China, the dramatic film “Dead to Rights” (based on true events) features a predominantly Asian cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: During the Nanjing Massacre, a postal worker hides a family of four and an opera singer in a photo studio, as he is forced to develop the film of a sadistic Japanese military photographer, who is documenting the murders of Chinese people.
Culture Audience: “Dead to Rights” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and are interested in history-based dramas that can be emotionally wrenching.
“Dead to Rights” is a harrowing and impactful depiction of the Nanjing Massacre in 1937. This historical drama doesn’t give political lectures but instead takes an unflinching look at how heroic compassion can exist amid evil and inhumane atrocities. Sensitive viewers should be warned: “Dead to Rights” can get very explicit about the horrors of homicidal military invasions. There are scenes in the movie that can be too upsetting for some viewers.
Directed by Shen Ao, “Dead to Rights” doesn’t waste a lot of time with a buildup and long backstories of the main characters. The in real life, the Nanjing Massacre killed about 200,000 Chinese people from December 1937 to March 1938. The movie begins sometime in December 1937, when the massacre began during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese Imperial Army is invading Nanjing. And all hell is breaking loose.
Su Liuchang, nicknamed A-Chang (played by Liu Haoran), is a postal worker in his mid-to-late 20s. In the beginning of the movie, A-Chang is trying to escape some of the bombings and shootings by joining some of his co-workers in the back of cart vehicle that is leaving the city. Just as he is about to get on the cart, a man frantically stops him and asks A-Chang to see if a letter from the man’s daughter has arrived at the post office. The man explains that he hasn’t heard from his daughter in a while and is desperate to know if she might still be alive.
This opening scene shows immediately that A-Chang is a compassionate person because instead of ignoring or dismissing this stranger, A-Chang goes into the post office to look for the letter. It’s a stroke of luck because as A-Chang goes into the post office, he sees the cart vehicle that he was supposed to be on is bombed. The bomb kills everyone in the vehicle. A-Chang decides it will be safer to hide somewhere instead of being out in the open on the streets. He decides to hide in what seems to be an abandoned photo studio.
Meanwhile, Major Kuroshima (played by Shini Azuma) from the Japanese Imperial Army assigns Lieutenant Ito Hideo (played by Daichi Harashima) to be the official photographer to take photos and film the torture and murders of the Chinese people who are being captured. Nanjing is supposed to have cameras that will be more photo-sensitive to light. And that’s how Lieutenant Ito ends up in Nanjing.
In Nanjing, Wang Guanghai (played by Wang Chuanjun) is a Chinese citizen who is working as an interpreter for the Japanese military. Guanghai believes his interpreter position will allow him special treatment and will give him immunity from being murdered. He plans to use this perceived privilege to his advantage because he wants to get a visa to leave China safely. This visa can only be approved by the invading Japanese government.
Guanghai is married (his wife is never seen in the movie), and he has been having an affair with an opera singer named Lin Yuxiu (played by Gao Ye), who is outspoken and independent. Guanghai also hopes to get a visa for Yuxiu so they can start a new life together. But as time goes on, Guanghai proves to be very selfish and callous. He doesn’t hesitate to betray his fellow Chinese citizens and “look the other way” when he sees heinous acts committed against them.
Through a series of circumstances, Lieutenant Ito finds A-Chang, who pretends to work at the photo studio. Lieutenant Ito has come to the studio to get film developed. A-Chang also meets Guanghai and pretends to be helpful to Guanghai, in order to stay alive.
What Lieutant Ito doesn’t know is that inside the studio, there are five people who are hiding from the Japanese invaders: Yuxiu, who fled there after almost being raped by Japanese soldiers; Jin Chengzong (played by Wang Xiao), the kind-hearted owner of the studio; Chengzong’s loyal wife Zhao Yifang (played by Wang Zhen’er); the couple’s intuitive adolescent daughter Jin Wanyi (played by Yang Enyou); and the couple’s infant son. The rest of “Dead to Rights” shows the terrifying and courageous ways that they all try to stay alive.
The principal cast’s performances in the movie are top-notch and completely gripping. The movie’s pacing doesn’t let up on any of the tension. There is nothing in the movie that is not believable, which makes “Dead to Rights” a hard film to watch when it depicts some of the disgusting and cruel things that happen during this massacre, including the murders of children. “Dead to Rights” is an intentionally uncomfortable reminder that although “Dead to Rights” is a story about a massacre that took place in the past and shouldn’t be forgotten, these tragedies are still happening in communities that are being torn apart by war.
Niu Vision Media released “Dead to Rights” in select U.S. cinemas on August 15, 2025.