Dead to Rights

Dead to Rights (2025) is a Chinese war drama you can watch online on iFILM — 137 minutes set inside Japanese-occupied Nanjing in the winter of 1937.

A postman named Su Liuchan takes cover as a photo developer at a local studio. He processes film for Japanese officers by day. He hides Chinese soldiers and refugees inside the shop walls by night. Liu Haoran plays Su as a man running out of time and options: building a double life while quietly building a photographic record of what the soldiers are doing to the city around him. Director Shen Ao grounds the film in small, daily decisions — who to let in, who to lie to, how long a secret can hold — rather than sweeping battlefield set pieces.

At 137 minutes the film earns its length: the dread accumulates slowly, and the moral cost of each choice lands. Stream Dead to Rights (南京照相馆, 2025) online on iFILM.