Introduction

Since A Little Red Flower was released, it has received widespread praise online. Along with Soul, it topped the box-office charts, so I went to see it over the weekend.

About the film

A Little Red Flower (in Chinese) was directed by Han Yan and stars Jackson Yee and Haocun Liu (Haocun is so adorable haha). Through two families fighting cancer and two intersecting life paths, it tells a warm, realistic story.

What makes the film distinctive

The acting is excellent. The two young leads are natural in both their physical performances and their dialogue. This was my first time seeing veteran actor Gao Yalin in a work outside 家有儿女, and he gave me a completely different impression; his acting was really nice.

The film’s dialogue is heartfelt. Some of what the protagonist says resonated strongly with me, as if it voiced the feelings of my own past. Another thing that amazed me was the male lead’s confession: it was practically a straight man’s confession template, so I wrote it down here: “balabala.” There was another line that felt very NetEase Cloud Music: “In another parallel universe, balabala.” Some of Yue Yunpeng’s lines also serve as the finishing touch of the film while deepening its central idea.

PS: I have forgotten some of the lines, so I can only look them up after the film appears on streaming platforms.

The settings feel close to everyday life. Although the film depicts the lives of families dealing with cancer, both the sets and the props feel realistic and restrained rather than exaggerated. This recreation of reality works quite well.

What the film expresses

In my memory, the little red flower appears twice in the film. The first time is after Jackson Yee confesses to Haocun Liu, when she says that the flower is his reward for taking the initiative for the first time. The second time is after Liu becomes ill, when Yee draws a little red flower for her on her hospital bed.

Although the concrete flower appears only twice, the abstract little red flower is everywhere. It represents a reward: for the relatives of cancer patients struggling through life, for the deaf-mute courier riding through wind and rain, and for ordinary people fighting their illnesses.

Because of survivorship bias, we think we see many outstanding people, while overlooking the fact that there are even more ordinary people like us. We rarely have moments in the spotlight; we rush around exhaustedly to make a living. Even without a shining moment, simply staying alive means we deserve a little red flower.

The film throws us a question, one we evade at every moment: loss. There is no feast that never ends. No matter how much your surroundings affect you, eventually you will leave them—deliberately or accidentally, willingly or reluctantly—and leave people you did not want to leave, losing things you cared deeply about. In the film, Yue Yunpeng and Lao Ma lose their wives; Jackson Yee loses Haocun Liu; the father outside the hospital loses his daughter; the grandmother at Liu’s home loses her grandson. The film even shows the state of Gao Yalin and his wife after losing Jackson Yee. It keeps expressing one idea: when facing loss, we should still treat this world earnestly, with warmth and enthusiasm.

Jackson Yee’s emotional changes run through the entire story. At first, afraid that others would lose him and that he would lose himself, he refuses to communicate with anyone and views the world pessimistically. After meeting and getting to know Liu, he becomes optimistic and outgoing and learns to compromise with loss. After Liu dies, he truly begins to face loss: whether or not he leaves, he continues to love.

The little red flower rewards precisely these ordinary people, represented by Jackson Yee, who continue to live earnestly after loss.

Since we have lost the past, all we can do is live the present well and look toward the future.

A question about the film

Why is the female lead so kind to Jackson Yee from the very beginning?

Afterword

After watching the film, my first thought was that I should live well. Although the film discusses what we should do after loss, I still do not want to lose anything. So in the new year, I decided on a few goals:

  1. After starting work, take my parents for a health check-up costing at least 1,000 yuan every year.
  2. Stay up late no more than three times a week (meaning going to bed after midnight), and try to go to bed early one of Friday and Saturday (before 11 p.m.).
  3. Eat breakfast five times a week whenever possible, with an egg every time.
  4. Never put too much pressure on myself; ease it in time, do not let my boss manipulate me, and change jobs if necessary.