가족 사진과 기억 의식(儀式) — ≪난징사진관 南京照相馆≫ 영화 읽기

초록

This paper analyzes the 2025 Chinese box-office hit, Dead to Rights (南京照相馆, Dir. Shen Ao 申奥), which was released in July 2025 in China and in August in the United States. In line with a series of large-scale celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Anti-Japanese War, the film reaffirms the commercial success of so‑called “main melody” blockbusters such as Wolf Warrior 2 (2017) and The Battle at Lake Changjin (2021). In China, Dead to Rights has been widely praised for its focus on ordinary people—such as a postman and a photographer—and for what critics call its “sensible aesthetics” in addressing national trauma. The film is an adaptation of the 1987 movie, Massacre in Nanjing (屠城血證), which is based on a true story from the 1937 Nanjing Massacre. Unlike Massacre in Nanjing, Dead to Rights shifts attention to the medium of photography and the intimate space of a local photo studio. It also positions itself as a sophisticated, self‑reflexive work on photography and cinema. This paper approaches the film as part of a ritual of memory in which the horror and collective mourning of historical violence are reframed through the motif of the family photo album. This ritual reinforces the boundaries between “us,” the Chinese, and “the other,” the Japanese, by accentuating visual and aural contrasts, thereby consolidating national solidarity.

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