Gezhi Town

2h 1m
- Drama
- War

Release Date: Dec 6, 2025

8.6

It is 1944. Mo Dexian is a craftsman who fled the fall of Nanjing with his family and found a quiet life in the mountain town of Gezhi. Then a small Japanese reconnaissance squad stumbles into the town and begins killing. Mo Dexian is not a soldier. Neither is anyone else in Gezhi. But they are cornered…and they slowly rise.

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Director & Top Cast

Sheng Kong
Director

Zhan Xiao
Mo Dexian

Yuchang Peng
Xiao Yan

Yiran Zhou
Xià Chéng

Xinming Yang
Great Grandfather

Alan Aruna
Ma Guofu

Yunchen Gan

Mei Defu

Siyu Zhou

Kang Lingbao

Yan Zhidu

Mo Dengxian

Zheng Yin

Okawara

Feng Zu

Deputy Regimental Commander of the Tiang Defense Army

Fan Liao

Shan Tong

Juncong Xu

Caption

Tenma Shibuya

General (Cameo)

Other Details

Country of Origin: China

Language: Chinese,Mandarin

Summaries

Plot Summary

Gezhi Town is a 2025 Chinese war drama directed by Kong Sheng, written by Lan Xiaolong, and produced by Hou Hongliang — marking Daylight Entertainment's first venture into theatrical film after over a decade producing acclaimed television. Xiao Zhan plays Mo Dexian, a craftsman and reluctant leader who organises the town's civilian resistance. Peng Yuchang plays Xiao Yan, an artillery officer sheltering in Gezhi with a small group of straggler soldiers and a disabled Solothurn anti-aircraft cannon. Zhou Yiran plays Xia Cheng, another key figure in the makeshift defense. Xinming Yang plays the Great Grandfather, the town's eldest resident. Set almost entirely within the mountain town of Gezhi and the surrounding highlands of Yichang, Hubei Province — chosen for its Three Gorges terrain — the film focuses on ordinary people improvising a defense against a formal military force, using wit and collective will rather than conventional weapons. Unlike much Chinese war cinema, it takes a civilian perspective and incorporates dark humour. The project was a decade in development. It was released in China on December 6, 2025, to an extraordinary audience reception — presales exceeded 100 million yuan and it grossed 170 million yuan in its opening weekend. It received a US limited theatrical release on December 25, 2025, and is available internationally on Netflix. In Mandarin Chinese with subtitles. Best suited for fans of wartime cinema told from the ground up, particularly those drawn to Chinese historical stories and ensemble-driven survival drama.

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Fun Facts

Gezhi Town (2025) is a Chinese war drama set during the Second Sino-Japanese War, where craftsman Mo Dexian (Xiao Zhan) leads his remote village in a desperate, ingenuity-driven defense against invading Japanese soldiers. The story blends dark humor with survival tension as ordinary villagers rally to protect their homeland when war disrupts their peaceful lives.

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