Gezhi Town

A small mountain town called Gezhi during the Japanese occupation. What is left in it are refugees and soldiers separated from their units. When a Japanese reconnaissance detachment attacks, these people have to defend the place. They have neither weapons nor training; what they have is a machinist, and the defence is built out of his head and out of whatever the workshop can make. What is coming at them is a trained, organised force. Kong Sheng directs, with Xiao Zhan and Peng Yuchang. It tells the war not from the front but from the side of people who never intended to fight. Heroism here comes not from training but from using whatever happens to be at hand.