Tunnel War
1965 film about a small town which defends itself from the Japanese by use of a network of tunnels during the Second Sino-Japanese War
Tunnel War (Chinese: 地道战; pinyin: Dì dào zhàn), also known as Tunnel Warfare, is a 1965 Chinese film produced before the Cultural Revolution about a small town which defends itself from the Japanese intrusion by use of a network of tunnels during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The film was directed by Ren Xudong and produced by the August First Film Studio.
Plot
Set during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the film tells a story of a group of villages who, after coming under attack by Japanese forces, read Mao Zedong's text On Protracted War and dig an extensive tunnel network under their village. They successfully repel the invaders. The film deals with themes of mass mobilization.
Prologue
The movie begins with the ringing of a large bell, in Gaojia village, causing the villagers to all gather in the village square. They await the return of Chuanbao, the village militia sergeant, and the village elder. The twosome arrive with Chuanbao carrying the village elder on his back. The village elder explains that they were attacked by Japanese forces in the middle of a meeting and has been seriously wounded as a result. With a few parting words instructing his successor, Laozhong, to "keep holding on" and handling him Mao Zedong's On Protracted War book, he dies.
The public source identifies “Tunnel War” as 1965 film about a small town which defends itself from the Japanese by use of a network of tunnels during the Second Sino-Japanese War. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Tunnel, film and small.
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Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16239955. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1965.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tunnel War” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.