Little red flower
Little Red Flower, China film by Director Zhang Yuan, and co-done wif an Italian team. This a very interesting art film. Unlike the out-of-the-world kinda art film, where pple juz catch-no-ball-but-pretend-to-appreciate-it.. HAA.. This movie is very enjoyable. It's engaging and thought provoking, not very direct at what the director is going for, yet easy to understand if think a little deeper...
Storyline goes... 4 yr old Qiang is sent to a kindergarden board sch because there's no one to look after him. The sch has standards for everything - there's a time to play, time to learn, rise the right hand to add more porridge and the left for another bun, there's even a time to shit together as a class! Qiang does not follow such routines and standards, but he starts trying so as to to be rewarded by his teacher, a little red flower (that every other children has except himself), for good performance. The story ends when Qiang is released from his confidment and re-joins his classmates again. His classmates however ignored him and in an effort to catch their, and the teachers', attention, he runs away and kept running until he was outside the sch. He saw a chinese band street performance wif loud gongs and music, suddenly Qiang became very tired and he lay himself down outside the wall of the sch. Inside, the teachers and children are looking for the missing Qiang and call out his name.
And here's my thoughts:
The movie is acted by children as you can tell, and it's amazing how natural and good these children can act!! But Zhang Yuan uses children for a purpose. It seems to me like this whole movie hints at the failure of the development of China. The teacher, at one point, asked "Why is it important for children to learn to dress themselves?", and the children's reply (which was a satisfactory answer for the teacher) was "Little children have to learn how to dress themselves". Like the society says something, and nobody questions but naturally accept that they "have to"/ "it is a must". Grown-ups are like little children who dun ask.
The movie uses lots of "irony" as literature tool. Like the teacher lectures that "girls cannot show boys their butts" (qiang was playing a doc-give-injection role play game), yet boys and girls can sleep beside each other without their clothes on. (i think half the time the boys are always not clothed from below the waist). The teacher also teaches that "children have to learn how to cloth themselves", yet the clothes the sch provides are all torn with huge holes that don't cover up the body - which is almost as bad as not wearing pants.
The little red flower that is rewarded to good behaving children represents praise and acknowledgement from the society (the sch, in this case). Qiang is willing to conform and try to poop at the correct time, learn to clothe himself up (but fails of cos), in his attempts to receive some little red flowers too. But the movie ends after Qiang saw the band street performance. Chinese bands in the past wears simple one-color clothes wif a big red flower in front of their chest (like the bands older days chinese weddings). It seems like suddnely Qiang saw that his vision was so narrow. He thought the little red flower is beautiful, but then he realises that there are bigger and more beautiful red flowers around that he has not yet seen.
And the final scene seemed abrupt initially, like it could continue as a drama serials after this. (haa!) Before the final scene, there was a lot of action, the boy was running, the music in the background was very happening, he saw the street performance, whose performance was very loud.. but Qiang suddenly lay himself down and fell asleep on top a of rock out the sch after the band passed by him. den suddenly, but almost not drastically, everything became quiet with only the shouts of the pple behind the wall. But this is actually a very meaningful ending. I feel, that the director wants to show that Qiang is tired from both rebelling and conforming. He realises his hard-earned little red flower is so little and uncomparable, and it's not worth his efforts to go after. He decides that inside the walls are not the things he like, therefore he rather take his rest outside the walls. and the teacher and children inside the walls who were looking for him, were still shouting out for him because inside the walls, nothing changes and no one thinks anything will change.
This movie makes me a little sad for China in some ways. I dunno wat is this system/standard that Zhang Yuan is trying to criticize, but it's very clear to me, that there's a lot of irony and narrow-minded-ness being told. The society calls out "clothe urselves", yet the clothes they provide do not cover up - don't that saddens you?
For those who wanna watch and have your own other interpretation, go ahead! it's a very good film really. The way it was directed, the acting, the script... all very engjoyable!!
12 March Birthdays