Chinese film 731, on Japan’s WWII germ warfare unit, sets box-office record in China

BEIJING – Chinese film 731, which depicts Japanese germ warfare during World War II, set a first-day box-office record among the war films released in China in 2025.

The film, also known as Evil Unbound, dramatises the Japanese military research base Unit 731 in north-eastern China that was notorious for live human experiments.

731 took in more than 345 million yuan (S$62 million) when it premiered on Sept 18, according to ticketing platform Maoyan. The film has since grossed more than 1.1 billion yuan as at Sept 21.

Sept 18 coincided with the 94th anniversary of the Mukden Incident in 1931, which marked the start of Japan’s invasion of Manchuria in China’s north-east, and which Beijing sees as the start of World War II.

The depiction in 731 risks inflaming tensions between China and Japan, as Beijing seeks to highlight Tokyo’s wartime actions and what it calls a lack of accountability.

According to Chinese media, Unit 731 conducted tests from the mid-1930s to 1945 on an estimated 3,000 Chinese, Korean, Russian and Mongolian prisoners to develop germ weapons, including anthrax and bubonic plague bombs. None survived the experiments.

Japan’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the film and on Unit 731’s activities.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, asked in Parliament earlier in 2025 about Unit 731’s actions, said the means to verify the facts had been “lost with history”, Japanese media reported.

“The film focuses on the wartime atrocities of Japan’s Unit 731, exposing long-concealed truths in certain countries and serving as part of China’s efforts to promote historical justice and strengthen its voice on the global stage,” the state-run Global Times wrote, citing film researcher Zhang Peng, an associate professor at Nanjing Normal University.

731 follows the tribulations of fictional Chinese prisoner Wang Yongzhang, played by Chinese actor Jiang Wu and depicted as an anti-Japanese hero leading prisoners to escape. Several graphic scenes of torture are shown as Wang uncovers the various laboratories and a crematorium.

The movie is set to be released in several countries, including the United States, Australia, South Korea and Malaysia. It will open in Singapore cinemas on Sept 25. It will not be screened in Japan.

The Japanese embassy in China on Sept 11 issued a security advisory cautioning Japanese nationals to be “vigilant against anti-Japanese sentiment” due to related films, drama and events held in conjunction with the World War II anniversary.

China has released at least four World War II films in 2025 as it marked 80 years since the end of the war, as well as hosting a lavish military parade.

The movies retelling the war events include Dead To Rights, on the Nanjing Massacre between 1937 and 1938, and Dongji Rescue, on the sinking of Japanese cargo liner Lisbon Maru in 1942. REUTERS