改編自河北著名作家賈大山小說精品集的三部短篇，出身電影世家的影人鄭大聖把「村戲」、「花生」和「老路」幾個故事揉在一起，拍出80年代初北方農民在改革開放前夕發生的故事。這條村每家每戶靠「九畝半」地種花生維生，村民王支書愛聽當地戲曲，請來老藝人唱梆子戲，同時暗地裡整出一份新的農業改革計劃，想把奎瘋子強佔的九畝半分出來，結果分地鬧劇牽出一段引人深思的歷史悲歌。鄭大聖用黑白片手法投射出這數十年來中國農村社會的體制變化，用一首首戲曲唱出一代代農民和知識分子的遭遇。

The year is 1982, and a small Hebei Province village is about to be turned upside down. Wang, the village’s party secretary, has been tasked to revive a Bangzi opera with villagers as the performers. Lu, the coordinator of the show, casts one of the town’s eligible young bachelors in the lead, much to the dismay of Lu’s daughter, Xiaofen, who is also the female lead. That’s because Xiaofen’s heart already belongs to Shuman, the son of the mentally ill Kui. Based on three short stories from an anthology by Jia Dashan, Bangzi Melody uses the village as a darkly humorous microcosm of post- Cultural Revolution China. Nominated for four Golden Rooster Awards but ignored by mainstream audience, this black-and-white drama is an offbeat gem that deserves to be discovered.