Chichester Cinema at New Park
Little Red Flowers
- Kan shang qu hen mei
A young boy starting school for the first time struggles to fit in to a strictly regimented society in post-revolutionary China.
Zhang Yuan's impressive ‘Little Red Flowers’ deals sensitively with contrasting the exciting perils of being a rebel and the dull rewards of diligent conformity. The picture is seen almost entirely from the point of view of Qiang, a four-year-old boy placed by his unseen parents in a well-run boarding school for the small children of Communist Party officials and well-connected professionals in 1950s China.
For the best of reasons, the teachers organise the little kids' lives from morning to night in a kindly manner. Everything is regimented. Though keen to earn the eponymous little red flowers given for tasks properly executed, Qiang rebels against the officious rituals. Though he briefly gets the others to join him, he's finally ostracised by his fellow pupils. The story is told with simplicity and insight and is among the best films from China within the past few years. (Subtitles)
China · 2006 · Zhang Yuan · 92min
