Dead to Rights

Set in December 1937, during the early years of World War II, Dead to Rights unfolds in the besieged Chinese capital of Nanjing, where the Japanese invasion has plunged the city into chaos. Amid the devastation, A Chang (Liu Haoran), a young postman, misses the last evacuation and is forced to hide among the occupiers. Mistaken for an apprentice at a photo studio seized by the Japanese army, he assumes the role to survive.

Inside the darkroom, A Chang learns to develop film for a Japanese military photographer (Daichi Harashima) while concealing his identity. Beneath the floorboards, the studio’s owner and his family remain in hiding, joined by others with nowhere else to go. As the days pass, the small group forms a fragile bond sustained by silence, fear, and the faintest glimmer of hope. When A Chang discovers that the photographs he develops reveal the unseen violence consuming the city, he must choose between safety and conscience.

Click here to watch the trailer.

Dead to Rights, China’s official entry for the 98th Academy Awards, will debut at the Asian World Film Festival 2025 on November 18, 2025.