1978: A Literary Giant Who Began His Military Service

Chapter 131 Nanjing's Response!!!
The director of the film "Nanjing Photo Studio" is Shen Ao.

He's a relatively new director who's only emerged in recent years, having made only a handful of films.

One is "The Beneficiary," the one where Liu Yan plays a female anchor who gets scammed out of money.

One is "All or Nothing," a 2023 film that did well at the box office and reflected the fight against Southeast Asian scams. Of course, Wang Chuanjun was criticized a lot at the time because of the "iPartment" incident.

To be honest, both sides have their points. He himself wants to change his image, but the responses to him are rather abstract.

The better TV series is "New Life," a suspense drama starring Jing Boran, and it's quite good.

These two films and TV series are actually quite decent, with some depth and decent plots, enough to justify their box office and viewership ratings! The other works aren't bad either!

As for the film "Nanjing Photo Studio" released this year, it can be considered his first creation of a revolutionary work! It is a tribute film to the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.

The screenwriter is also quite capable; he's Zhang Ke, who has worked on films such as *My People, My Country*, *The Sacrifice*, *The Revolutionaries*, and *The Volunteers*. However, *The Sacrifice* might have been affected by the director's choices, haha…

Of course, when mentioning "Nanjing Photo Studio," many people will also bring up Lu Chuan's "Nanjing! Nanjing!"

Movies of the same genre will naturally be compared...

Some say Lu Chuan made "Nanjing! Nanjing!" to learn emotional expression from "My Chief and My Regiment"? But it doesn't feel right; Lu Chuan can't compare to Lan Xiaolong. Lan Xiaolong's film depicts the fear and yearning for victory of China's forefathers—a truly realistic portrayal.

In contrast, Lu Chuan went on to film the struggles of the Japanese, resulting in a hodgepodge that drew a lot of criticism and earned him the nickname "Taro".

Both films were made by Jews who filmed concentration camps from the perspective of Germans, but "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" is told from the child's point of view. Because the child is not the aggressor, you can certainly say that the child is innocent, but can you say that the Japanese soldiers are innocent?
"Nanjing Photo Studio" is much more natural in its expression. It doesn't deliberately dissect the enemy, but truly opens the film from a Chinese perspective.

The story takes place in December 1937, when Nanjing fell to the Japanese army under artillery fire. The once prosperous city of Nanjing was swallowed up by the shadow of burning, killing, and looting, and the entire city became a living hell.

Postman Su Liuchang (Achang) hides in "Jixiang Photo Studio" while on the run. In order to survive, he lies that he is an apprentice at the photo studio and is temporarily taken in by the boss Jin Chengzong.

By this time, the photo studio had become an isolated island in the chaos of the world. Jin Chengzong, along with his wife Zhao Yifang, daughter Jin Wanyi, and young son, hid in the cellar for refuge. Lin Yuxiu, an actress with a dream of making movies, also came here. Song Cunyi, a policeman who claimed to have "escaped without firing a single shot," also quietly hid in a corner.

The peace was soon shattered when Wang Guanghai, a Japanese translator, arrived with negatives from Japanese photographer Ito Hideo, threatening everyone's lives to force Achang to develop the photos for the Japanese.

In the darkroom, under the red light of the developing solution, one brutal scene after another gradually emerged: the grotesque group photo of Japanese soldiers after the "hundred-man killing contest," the piles of compatriots' remains on the riverbank, and the "victory" photo of Japanese soldiers showing off their atrocities in front of the city gate. Every negative was an irrefutable piece of evidence of the massacre.

Ironically, while the Japanese army stamped the photos of the atrocities with red "Not Permitted" in an attempt to cover up the truth, they also forced Achang and Yuxiu to pretend to be husband and wife and take false photos as evidence of "Sino-Japanese friendship." The baby's cries coming from off-camera and the forced smiles on camera completely shattered everyone's illusion of "surviving."

Kim Seung-jong emerged from the cellar, looked at the photos soaked in blood and tears, and uttered the words that would change everyone's fate: "Living a few more days is not survival, it's complicity."

This sentence ignited everyone's determination to protect the truth, and a "war to protect evidence" at the cost of lives was quietly launched. Every night, Achang secretly learned the art of developing photographs from Jin Chengzong, and under the guise of developing photos for the Japanese army, he secretly exposed an extra set of negatives; Yuxiu used her identity as an actress to maneuver among the Japanese army, secretly gathering information and passing on intelligence; Song Cunyi unexpectedly saw the image of his younger brother's murder in the photograph, and his former cowardice was replaced by grief and indignation, and he resolved to take revenge with his life.

In the darkroom, the group secretly copied the negatives, carefully hiding the evidence in camera parts and clothing linings, agreeing that "whoever survives will hand over the truth."

As the Japanese army tightened its control over the city, the chances of transmitting the film became increasingly slim.

By a stroke of luck, the group obtained two passes to leave the city, and the seven faced a life-or-death decision. Some remained silent, some shed tears, but in the end, they unanimously decided that Yuxiu would take the film negatives and the youngest son of the Jin family to break through, while Jin Chengzong and his wife, along with Song Cunyi, would stay behind to cover their retreat.

Before leaving, Kim Seung-jong took out his camera and took a special "family photo" for everyone.

The road out of the city was fraught with danger, as Japanese patrols searched everywhere. Kim Seung-jong, with his wife and daughter, tried to attract the Japanese attention at the alley entrance, but his young son suddenly cried, giving away their location. Facing the Japanese guns, Kim Seung-jong shouted, "The photos are more important than my life!" He raised his camera and lunged at the Japanese soldiers, using his body to shield Yu-xiu and the film from the bullets.

To cover Yuxiu's evacuation, Song Cunyi secretly sneaked under a Japanese military vehicle, smashed a Japanese officer to death with a stone from the city wall, and then died a heroic death, completing his transformation from a deserter to a martyr.

Witnessing the brutality of the Japanese army and the sacrifices of many, Wang Guanghai was deeply shocked and ultimately chose to defect, clearing the final obstacle for Yuxiu. Yuxiu, holding the Jin family's orphan and tightly protecting the negatives sewn into her clothes, finally crossed the blockade after many hardships and handed these irrefutable pieces of evidence to the righteous.

After the victory in the War of Resistance against Japan, these negatives, soaked in blood and tears, became crucial evidence in the trial of Japanese war criminals, bringing the aggressors who had committed heinous crimes to justice. Yu-hsiu, a survivor, picked up her camera and captured the moment the war criminals were brought to justice.

……

Actually, there are some people on the internet who are very good at whitewashing: there are only two kinds of anti-war films, one kind makes you want to go to war after watching them, and the other kind makes you hate war after watching them!
Absolutely! You know everything about me!
This group of people, switching between being rational and objective, and being traitors, one minute they're enlightened, the next they're anti-China—they're really ruining the social environment.

So "Nanjing Photo Studio" was a film from that period, and there was also "731" which shattered the patriotic sentiment, resulting in quite a few criticisms and satires of "Nanjing Photo Studio".

To put it bluntly, why do military writers write military novels? The core purpose is clear: the most important thing is to comprehensively promote the iron-willed spirit and sense of mission of the armed forces, so that the public can see the soldiers' perseverance and dedication; thereby attracting young people with aspirations to join the army and ensuring the supply of recruits; and more importantly, to ignite the soldiers' passion to go to the front line and let them charge forward with their beliefs.

Ultimately, the goal is to awaken the national sentiment and patriotism in everyone's hearts—as long as this emotion doesn't go to extremes and is rooted in love for one's country, it is a perfectly normal and precious spiritual force.

This positively guided sentiment is the core driving force for joining the army and serving the country, enabling more people to step forward to protect their homeland and rush to the front lines to defend their home.

Zhou Xu's "Nanjing Photo Studio" precisely captures this point. It uses stories as a vehicle to ignite the emotions in the hearts of the masses and conveys the belief in the nation and the country through a highly infectious narrative. In essence, it is a successful propaganda practice.

With its genuine emotional resonance, this work quickly went viral upon its release, sparking heated discussions among many viewers and bringing Zhou Xu countless accolades from all walks of life.

In addition, Zhou Xu was already a highly influential writer in society.

Therefore, "Nanjing Photo Studio" became a sensation, with sales exceeding 500,000 copies in just the first half month!
The response from the Yangtze River Delta region (Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai) was the most enthusiastic.

Not only because Harvest was already the most famous magazine in the Yangtze River Delta region, but also because they were located near Nanjing, the center of this story, making them the most easily swayed by emotions.

On Nanjing Street, near the teahouse.

During their leisure time, a group of students were discussing this here.

"Have you guys seen 'Nanjing Photo Studio'?" the boy asked loudly to his classmates, his eyes still brimming with the excitement of having just finished watching it.

"I have to see it! I always rush to buy Zhou Xu's works as soon as they're released; I can't bear to wait!" someone immediately chimed in, their tone full of approval.

Another student added, "This novel continues the path of 'The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,' telling the story of the Nanjing Massacre from the perspective of ordinary people. The sense of immersion is so strong!"

"It's so touching! Aren't we the descendants of those survivors?" someone murmured, their voice filled with a deep sense of resonance.

Suddenly, a student slammed his fist on the table and shouted angrily, "That bastard Tang Shengzhi! Soldiers are supposed to protect their country, but he just abandoned hundreds of thousands of people and ran away. It's utterly despicable!"

"Comrade Zhou Xu's writing on this point is absolutely brilliant! Traitors never wear the word 'traitor' on their faces, much less admit to being traitors!" someone echoed.

In fact, most of the traitors in China are like the characters played by Chen Peisi, wearing an Imperial Army hat and speaking in a comical way as "Taijun" (Japanese lord).

Indeed, many anti-Japanese war films use this image to satirize traitors, but this is actually wrong. Films should strive for realism!

Traitors don't wear their traitorous traits on their faces; they are more sophisticated egoists. To put it bluntly, many so-called clear-headed people and extreme egoists in life may actually be traitors.

"Those despicable Japanese! They murdered 300,000 of our compatriots!" A sigh filled with grief and indignation.

“We must not only remember the blood and flesh of these 300,000 compatriots, but also learn a lesson—why did 300,000 people offer no resistance?” Someone clenched their fist. “Chinese people must have courage! Just as Mr. Lu Xun said, we cannot foolishly wait for the enemy to load their guns; when it’s time to stand up, we must be willing to risk everything!”

"Resist traitors, remember history!!!"

"Remember history!!"

(End of this chapter)