A Little Red Flower

A Little Red Flower is a 2020 Chinese romantic-drama film directed by Han Yan.[3] It stars Jackson Yee, Haocun Liu, Yuanyuan Zhu, and Yalin Gao, and premiered in China on December 31, 2020. Following its release, the film grossed over 1 billion CNY, setting multiple box-office records in China, and becoming the highest-grossing film of 2021.

This article is about the 2020 film. For the 2006 film, see Little Red Flowers.
A Little Red Flower
Promotional release poster
Chinese送你一朵小红花
Directed byHan Yan
Produced by
  • Yin Lu
  • Lian Ray
Written by
  • Jinliang Han
  • Han Yan
  • Han Li
  • Jia Jia Wei
  • Yu Yonggan
Starring
Production
companies
  • HG Entertainment
  • Lian Ray Films
Release date
  • December 31, 2020 (2020-12-31) (China)[1]
Running time
122 minutes[2]
CountryChina
LanguageMandarin
Box office$196.7 million[1]

Plot

The movie follows the journey of Wei Yihang, a cynical and reclusive teenager who has been in remission since his brain tumor operation two years ago.

After meeting fellow brain tumor patient Ma Xiaoyuan, Wei begins to open up socially. Wei and Ma share various imaginary travel adventures and try to live life as “ordinary people” which they are unable to be due to their respective illnesses.

At the same time, Wei began forming a deeper understanding and appreciation of his family, who have unconditionally supported him during his medical difficulties. In one particularly moving scene, Wei sees his grandmother volunteering to sell her house to fund his medical expenses, then his uncles and aunts joining in saying they’d do the same, sending his father into tears.

After finally being allowed to travel to Wei’s dream destination Qinghai, a place where Wei frequently hallucinates himself with an unknown girl playing by a lake. Ma and Wei set off their journey together. However, Ma faints on the train and is sent back to the hospital, where she was given a grim prognosis.

Wei accompanies and cares for Ma during her final days, including shaving his head, and conjures a “potion of no return”. During this time, Wei and his mum discuss the difficult topic of “death”. Wei’s parents record and send him a video depicting their life in case of Wei’s death. Wei cries as he watches their video, now comforted by the fact that his parents will be able to carry forward even if he is no longer around.

Ma dies not long after, and Wei packs up her belongings. One year later, we see an “ordinary” Wei Yihang finishing his class in college. He then makes a trip to Qinghai by himself, where he finally ends up at the lake he frequently hallucinates. There, Wei sees images of himself with Ma playing in the waters. It then occurs to him that those images are not hallucinations, but life in a parallel universe. A parallel universe where he is healthy, Wei is healthy, all his fellow cancer friends are healthy and living ordinary lives.

Cast
  • Jackson Yee as Wei Yihang
  • Haocun Liu as Ma Xiaoyuan
  • Yuanyuan Zhu as Tao Hui
  • Yalin Gao as Wei Jiang

Production

The film was directed and co-written by Han Yan, who had previously worked on Go Away Mr. Tumor, a comedy-drama about the life of Xiong Dun, a comic book artist who became famous after creating a popular webcomic shortly after being diagnosed with cancer.[4] As that film tackled a person's individual fight against cancer, Han wanted A Little Red Flower to show how entire families struggled with the same problem, stating that the film was "intended as a spiritual guide and therapeutic support for the audience".[4] Additionally, during production, Han worked with film colorist Hua Cheng to give the film a "natural look", eventually deciding to use the DaVinci Resolve 17 tool to give color to the film and a "12 bit 4:4:4 quality image".[5] Produced by Yin Lu and Lian Ray, A Little Red Flower began filming on June 11, 2020, in the Shinan District of the city of Qingdao.[6][7] To prepare for his role, Jackson Yee went to Qingdao one month prior to filming, lost weight in an attempt to become "closer to the character's morbid setting", began searching for information about brain cancer, and consulted a doctor to learn about patients affected by it.[8][9]

Reception

Box office

A Little Red Flower was theatrically released in China on December 31, 2020, where the film grossed $39 million on its first day,[10] and a grand total of $80.1 million over its three-day-opening weekend.[11] By its second weekend, the film had grossed $160 million nationwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of 2021, in front of the American releases of Soul and Wonder Woman 1984.[12] By its fifth, the film had grossed over $200 million,[1] still ahead of both films.[13][14]

Controversy

Following its release, several moviegoers claimed that the premise of A Little Red Flower was similar to that of the 2014 film The Fault in Our Stars, which had been produced by the American company Fox 2000 Pictures, and had also never been theatrically released in China.[3] On January 13, 2021, The Hollywood Reporter reported, quoting user posts and comments from Douban, that Fox had attempted to create a Chinese remake to The Fault in Our Stars in 2016, with the former president of Fox International Productions, Tomas Jegeus, confirming that a remake was indeed in development at the studio with Yin Lu and Han Yan producing, and Yu Yonggan writing the film's script.[3]

Shortly after, two official film notices announced that the remake was in the works, but after Disney acquired 21st Century Fox, the studio decided to drop the film in 2018 to work on Dil Bechara, the Indian remake of The Fault in Our Stars.[3] In 2018, a notice was released by the Film Administration for a project titled Hopeless in Love, which would be produced by HG Entertainment and Lian Ray Films, with a premise similar to the original remake that had been in development.[3] In 2020, A Little Red Flower was released from the same production companies, and with Yin Lu producing, Yu Yonggan co-writing, and Han Yan directing, but with no credit or mentions to Fox.[3] However, Han said that many of the scenes portrayed in the story were inspired by real-life events that he witnessed himself. One scene portrays how Wei Yihang orders a takeaway meal for a stranger who is walking in a daze on the street after losing his daughter to cancer, which he stated was in fact based on an incident he witnessed at the entrance of the Peking University Third Hospital in Beijing.[4]

Both Disney, who acquired Fox, and the Lian Ray, A Little Red Flower's co-producer and distributor had declined to comment on this matter.[3]

References
  1. "A Little Red Flower". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on January 13, 2021. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  2. "A Little Red Flower - Financial Information". The Numbers. Archived from the original on January 13, 2021. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  3. Patrick Brzeski; Kim Masters (January 13, 2021). "Chinese Blockbuster's Similarity to Fox's 'Fault In Our Stars' Ignites Debate Over Derivative Work (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 13, 2021. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  4. Elaine Yau (January 12, 2021). "New Jackson Yee movie A Little Red Flower is China's first box office hit of 2021 – how the terminal romance story won over audiences". South China Morning Post. Archived from the original on January 13, 2021. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  5. S. Hueter (January 27, 2021). "Chinese Hit Film A Little Red Flower Graded by Homeboy Using DaVinci Resolve Studio 17". Creative Planet Network. Archived from the original on January 31, 2021. Retrieved January 31, 2021.
  6. "Qingdao's Shinan district features in box office hit movie". Qingdao - China Daily. January 5, 2021. Archived from the original on January 13, 2021. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  7. "The movie "Send You A Little Red Flower" starts, director Han Yan opens "Tumor King" anti-cancer family chapter". DayDayNews. June 12, 2020. Archived from the original on January 13, 2021. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  8. "独家提前揭秘《送你一朵小红花》幕后故事" [Exclusive reveal in advance the behind-the-scenes story of "Send You A Little Red Flower"]. China Daily (in Chinese). December 30, 2020. Archived from the original on January 31, 2021. Retrieved January 31, 2021 – via Baijiahao Baidu.
  9. "《送你一朵小红花》路透照曝光：易烊千玺光头造型引热议" ["Send You A Little Red Flower" Reuters photo exposure: Yi Yang Qianxi's bald head shape is hotly discussed]. The Paper (in Chinese). July 9, 2020. Archived from the original on 2021-01-31.
  10. Nancy Tartaglione (January 3, 2021). "China Kicks Off 2021 With Record New Year's Day Box Office As Market Ends 2020 At No. 1 Globally". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on January 13, 2021. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  11. Rebecca Davis; Patrick Frater (January 3, 2021). "China Box Office: Huge Weekend Sees 'Soul' Soar and 'Little Red Flower' Shoot". Variety. Archived from the original on January 13, 2021. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  12. Nancy Tartaglione (January 10, 2021). "'Wonder Woman 1984' Nears $100M Offshore; China's 'Little Red Flower' Leads Weekend – International Box Office". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on January 13, 2021. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  13. Patrick Brzeski (January 17, 2021). "China Box Office: 'A Little Red Flower' Wins Another Quiet Weekend". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 19, 2021. Retrieved January 19, 2021.
  14. Nancy Tartaglione (January 24, 2021). "'Soul' Shines In Korea Debut; 'Master' Blast Encourages India Biz; Japan's 'Demon Slayer' Topping $350M – International Box Office". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on January 24, 2021. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
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