Youthful rebellion and the quest for individual identity are risky themes for a film from mainland China. It seems downright subversive
to inject them into a picture that depicts the interior life of a six-year-old boy. Yet that is what director Zhang Yuan does in this disarmingly
funny, quietly heartbreaking film.

Little Red Flowers opens with young Quiang’s introduction to his kindergarten class, where he quickly learns that the students who
conform to the school’s rigid social training are rewarded with the titular crepe paper ornaments. Quiang’s class doesn’t spend much time learning “The Three ‘R’s.” Mostly, the curriculum involves extensive conditioning of the pupils’ biological functions or teaching them to dress and undress in a uniform fashion. Quiang, a bed-wetter with an irrepressible curious streak, is immediately relegated as an outsider. Yet he still finds himself leading a pint-sized rebellion against a particularly monstrous teacher.As Quiang, Dong Bowen has a beautiful, expressive face and, considering the paces his character is put through, he gives a fearless performance.

At once an intimate peek into the life of children (in the vein of Rene Clair’s Forbidden Games) and, in the tradition of many mainland
Chinese films from recent decades, an astute political allegory. But regardless of how one approaches Little Red Flowers, it
impossible to forget. - Jonathan Knipp