Synopsis

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 postCultural 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.