LITTLE RED FLOWERS
China, 2006, 92 minutes, Colour.
Dong Bowen.
Directed by Zhiang Yuan.
This is a strange experience. Introduced to a small boy who is being left at a child-care centre by a father who travels extensively, we enter an institution with him and find ourselves, like him, interned in a strict and regimented daily routine – with a rather large group of little boys and girls, all of whom, it seems, have been abandoned to this centre.
We spend an hour and a half learning more about this kind of Chinese education system than we ever needed to know, about eating, about games, lots about toilet training and what seems to western eyes a great deal of intrusive attitudes towards the children and their hygiene. So, if that is what the director wanted, he has succeeded too well.
The children seem very real indeed, especially the little boy who starts by crying incessantly, who gradually adapts to the regime, then becomes rather mischievous, especially in creating and spreading a fantasy that the lady-in-charge, wants to eat them and is a monster. It is easy to see how five year olds in this situation, with a severe principal but with kindly assistants, could get these misapprehensions into their heads.
The film is in the detail, so meticulously presented that we really feel we have been there. The film is also demanding emotionally as we might imagine ourselves in such situations, or our children, and wonder what long-term effects this kind of training and living might produce for good or for ill.
The little red flowers of the title refer to what used to be a star system whereby the child could win stars, now little red flowers, by behaving well – though here they can be taken away for bad behaviour – which makes us realise that a child could become dependent on them.
Best seen with a child welfare worker or teacher so that we can test out our reactions to the children, their plight and their behaviour.
1.The acclaim of the film? In China? More popular in the west? The western style of storytelling, photography, the Italian composer and the musical score?
2.The re-creation of China in 1950, the city, the orphanage, the interiors and exteriors of the orphanage and its courtyards? The musical score?
3.The title, the symbolic red flowers, given to the children for excellence, the chart, the placing and removal of the red flowers? The final march and the troops wearing the red flowers?
4.The universal theme of the orphan? The institution? The teachers? The tradition of films about orphans and staff? The variation on the theme?
5.The focus on the little boy, Qiang, and his age, four, being brought by his father, his father leaving him in the orphanage, his being too busy? The sole glimpses of the father – and the seeming detachment of the boy from his family? The absent mother, in another city, being a pilot?
6.The staff, Miss Li and her receiving the boy, the rules of the institution, the disciplines? Her being perceived as a monster? The audience perceiving her as a caring principal? The other members of the staff, their roles, work, relationship with the children?
7.Qiang, his arrival, the details of his life there, his refusing to conform, the sleeping arrangements, his wetting his bed, refusing to dress himself, the food? The lessons, the singing, the art? The red flower system? The focus on potty training, the many scenes of defecation and urination? The purpose? In common, the communal toilets? The detail of Qiang alone, with his little friend, his subverting her ideas?
8.The creation of the insurrection, the myth, the teacher as a monster, the fairytale aspect – and Qiang exaggerating it? The plans for the revolution, hiding, the dormitory, the escape?
9.Miss Li, normal, the running of the school, China in the 1950s, the new Maoist system? The minister and his visit? The rest of the staff?
10.The symbolic nature of the story? Of Maoist China? Of a young brat and his being spoilt? Or the socialising of children for the state? The impact of this story more than half a century later? For Chinese? For westerners?
