Gezhi Town

Name: Gezhi Town
Director: Sheng Kong
Genre: Drama, War
Released: Dec 6, 2025
Cast: Zhan Xiao, Yuchang Peng, Yiran Zhou, Xinming Yang, Alan Aruna

Netflix

2h 1m
- Drama
- War

Release Date: Dec 6, 2025

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.

Release Details

Original Release | Dec 6, 2025

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Director & Top Cast

Sheng Kong
Director

Zhan Xiao
Actor

Yuchang Peng
Actor

Yiran Zhou
Actor

Xinming Yang
Actor

Alan Aruna
Actor

Yunchen Gan

Actor

Siyu Zhou

Actor

Yan Zhidu

Actor

Zheng Yin

Actor

Feng Zu

Actor

Fan Liao

Actor

Juncong Xu

Actor

Tenma Shibuya

Actor

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.