{"id":292651,"date":"2025-11-19T06:18:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T06:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/292651\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T06:18:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T06:18:16","slug":"chinas-oscar-entry-is-set-amid-nanjing-massacre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/292651\/","title":{"rendered":"China’s Oscar Entry Is Set Amid Nanjing Massacre"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tHuman decency in the midst of inhumane atrocity is the powerful emotional drive of China\u2019s international Oscar entry, \u201cDead to Rights<\/a>,\u201d 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<\/a>\u2019s handsomely produced follow-up to his 2023 hit \u201cNo More Bets\u201d expertly balances intensely claustrophobic drama with spectacular depictions of the fall of Nanjing and its shocking aftermath.<\/p>\n

\n\tThough a little melodramatic in the final stretch and containing several scenes that some viewers may find hard to watch, China\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tA 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\u2019s \u201cMassacre in Nanjing\u201d (1987), \u201cDead to Rights\u201d follows in the footsteps of Wu Zinui\u2019s \u201cNanjing 1937\u201d (1995), Lu Chuan\u2019s \u201cCity of Life and Death\u201d (2009) and \u201cThe Flowers of War,\u201d directed by Zhang Yimou and submitted as China\u2019s international Oscar entry in 2011. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tShen and co-writers Xu Luyang and Zhang Ke (\u201cThe Volunteers: To the War\u201d) 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe spirit of Luo Jin inhabits the central character of A-Chang (Liu Haoran of \u201cDecoded\u201d and the \u201cDetective Chinatown\u201d franchise), a postal worker whose kind nature prevents him from escaping during the city\u2019s 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\u2019s 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 \u00a0\u201cJapanese and Chinese friendship.\u201d 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 \u201cglory\u201d of military brass.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith the help of Wang Guanghai (Wang Chuan-jun), a compromised local working as an interpreter and \u201cfriend\u201d of the Japanese in the belief he\u2019ll prosper under occupation, A-Chang is permitted to live, provided he develops Ito\u2019s 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. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWith 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\u2019s darkroom, the master and his accidental apprentice watch in horror as photographic paper in chemical baths slowly reveal the butchery captured by Ito\u2019s lens. Thus far a survival drama, \u201cDead to Rights\u201d 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. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSuspense 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. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tPerformances 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\u2019s finely controlled acting under Shen\u2019s precise direction. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe only real let-down is some clunky melodrama in the final passages. There\u2019s nothing wrong with characters expressing love for their country but the high-spirited messaging about \u201cour beautiful motherland\u201d feels tonally inconsistent with the tense and gritty realism that began \u201cDead to Rights.\u201d Still, this is a minor concern in a film that has already done enough to impress and elicit strong emotional reactions from audiences everywhere.<\/p>\n

\n\tLarge scale action set-pieces are carefully woven into what\u2019s predominantly an intimate human drama unfolding in cramped indoor spaces. Having shown the massive scope of Nanjing\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe 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\u2019s 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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Human decency in the midst of inhumane atrocity is the powerful emotional drive of China\u2019s international Oscar entry,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[84451,49,48,132177,75,337,132178],"class_list":["post-292651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-best-international-feature-film","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dead-to-rights","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-shen-ao"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}