Part 10 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Chinese origin as per its listing on imdb.

Quite intriguingly this Chinese film looking at the uniformity of their preferred society in an undefined period post 1949, could have been classed as an Italian picture. The vagaries of modern film funding.

Much can be said about the strength of the child performers throughout, it is from a child's perspective that we see the magic of the world used for Communist gains afterall, without strong performances this would have been quite dreadful. As it is however they are perfect examples of children; constantly screaming, screeching, moaning, whinging, crying,…

Review from my VOD column "This Week on Demand".

Scarcely are political films so effective as when told through the eyes of a child; there’s something about looking at the world from the perspective of a young protagonist that, in their simplified views of social issues, reduce matters to the very essence of their being. Zhang Yuan’s Little Red Flowers adopts such a technique in its examination of Communist China, using the story of four year-old Fang Qiang Qiang as a pointed criticism of the bland conformity of the nation’s populace. The flowers of the title are the rewards given Fang and his classmates for obeying the rules, a simple symbol yet one given ripe relevance in Yuan’s subtle implementation…

Part 10 of the 30 Countries project.

For the purposes of this project this movie is classed as at least partially being of Chinese origin as per its listing on imdb.

Quite intriguingly this Chinese film looking at the uniformity of their preferred society in an undefined period post 1949, could have been classed as an Italian picture. The vagaries of modern film funding.

Much can be said about the strength of the child performers throughout, it is from a child's perspective that we see the magic of the world used for Communist gains afterall, without strong performances this would have been quite dreadful. As it is however they are perfect examples of children; constantly screaming, screeching, moaning, whinging, crying,…

Review from my VOD column "This Week on Demand".

Scarcely are political films so effective as when told through the eyes of a child; there’s something about looking at the world from the perspective of a young protagonist that, in their simplified views of social issues, reduce matters to the very essence of their being. Zhang Yuan’s Little Red Flowers adopts such a technique in its examination of Communist China, using the story of four year-old Fang Qiang Qiang as a pointed criticism of the bland conformity of the nation’s populace. The flowers of the title are the rewards given Fang and his classmates for obeying the rules, a simple symbol yet one given ripe relevance in Yuan’s subtle implementation…