“‘Nanjing Photo Studio’ Breaks Box‑Office Records, Reignites National Conversation on the Nanjing Massacre”

Directed and co‑written by Shen Ao, with contributions from screenwriters Xu Luyang and Zhang Ke, the film assembles a talent‑laden cast that includes Wang Chuanjun as Wang Guanghai, Gao Ye as Lin Xiuyu, Wang Xiao as Jin Chengzong, Zhou You as Song Cunyi, and Yang En’you as Jin Wanyi. Their performances have been praised for lending a human face to an event often rendered in statistics and distant reportage. The production deliberately avoids lurid battlefield spectacle, opting instead for a restrained visual language that lets the evidence itself – the grainy, black‑and‑white photographs – speak. This artistic choice has been hailed by critics as a model for handling sensitive historical material without resorting to gratuitous violence.

The film’s impact has reverberated far beyond the cinema. Within weeks of its release, “Nanjing Photo Studio” vaulted past the 2 billion RMB mark in ticket sales, becoming the first film after the 2025 Lunar New Year to cross that threshold, and eventually reported a staggering 20 billion RMB in total box‑office revenue. Its Douban rating of 8.6, based on more than 140 000 votes, signals a rare convergence of popular approval and critical endorsement. Audiences from Beijing to remote provinces described watching haveuded the movie for resurrecting forgotten stories of individuals like Luo Jin and Wu Xuan, who risked their lives to preserve photographic proof of wartime atrocities. The film’s emphasis on the importance of memory has been framed as a bulwark against “historical nihilism”—the denial or distortion of the Nanjing Massacre. Even Liu Haoran, the film’s star, has taken to public statements urging Chinese citizens to reject any attempts to sanitize the era, declaring that no Japanese invader of that time could be considered a "good person."

Beyond its domestic echo chamber, “Nanjing Photo Studio” is positioned as a piece of soft power that seeks to shape international understanding of World War II in East Asia. By foregrounding the personal anguish of ordinary civilians rather than grandiose battle sequences, the film invites foreign audiences to confront the human cost of the conflict. Its reliance on authentic wartime photographs supplies a evidentiary weight that many historians find compelling, potentially strengthening global recognition of the atrocities committed during the Nanjing Massacre.

The commercial success of “Nanjing Photo Studio” also signals a broader shift in China’s film industry, where historical dramas are increasingly leveraged as tools for education and nation‑building. The movie’s ability to blend profitability with a solemn, evidence‑based narrative demonstrates that box‑office appeal need not be sacrificed on the altar of artistic integrity. As the film continues to dominate summer box‑office charts, it is likely to inspire a wave of similarly restrained yet emotionally potent historical projects.

In a cultural landscape where memory and politics are tightly intertwined, the film’s triumph illustrates the power of cinema to catalyze public discourse, reaffirm collective identity, and confront uncomfortable truths. Whether praised for its heartfelt storytelling or critiqued for its political overtones, “Nanjing Photo Studio” has already etched itself into the national conversation, reminding a new generation that the past, captured in a single photograph, still holds the capacity to shape the present.