“Why is the sun so red, but still so cold?”
“I am the great Dahufa of the Kingdom of Yiwei. However the crown prince of Yiwei has gone missing. I don’t like this place. No... it’s more like loathing.”
“Come and help me find him!”
“They’re the weirdest people I’ve ever seen. They act like they’re human beings.”
“Don’t you also act like they’re human beings?!”
“Last time I had that kind of manpower [?], I was hurt so badly I didn’t eat a thing for at least half a month!”
“Chickens! Pigs! Serves ‘em right to be killed!”
“Hey! No more carnage! Quiet down a bit!”
“I too wish someone had told me why I am able to do this. I have this power I fear myself. An illusion of people in the mist... Don’t mess with me [???]”
“The sword is sharpened through self discipline. Plum blossoms emerge from the bitter cold.”
“That’s not what I said to you at all! You always do this!”
“You’re still afraid of masculinity!”
“Thank you to those who made this difficult for me.”
"Peanuttown" is a small backwater town on the fringes of the Kingdom of Yiwei, an ignored place on its frontier. But despite its beauty, a hidden danger lurks as evident by the enormous black peanut floating in the sky above the village. In searching for his long-lost prince, Dahufa of the Yiwei Kingdom has come to this strange town. The residents that live here look exactly like peanuts; their faces each have two eyes and a mouth, but these are "fake eyes and mouths" that are stuck onto their faces. As a result, they are sluggish and stupid. They don't know where they're from, but instead live in a mechanical and submissive way. These residents are against all foreign things, and are numb and ignorant. But whenever these residents grow a strange mushroom from their bodies, they are executed by the town's guards. In trying to escape the murderous clutches of the guards, Dahufa encounters the prince as well as gets drawn into an epic story about desire.
As you might expect for a film released in the PRC with a plotline as full of political/social commentary as this, it has come under criticism by the Communist Youth League, however rather than succeeding in having the film pulled or censored, the buzz only seemed to garner the film wider recognition. Many are surprised the film even made it past SARFT (State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, FIlm and Television) in the first place, especially at a time when censorship is being tightened in the PRC.