When four-year-old Qiang (Dong Bowen) joins kindergarten, stern teacher Miss Li (Zhao Rui) has him pegged as a troublemaker, while kindly Miss Tang (Li Xiaofeng) is more tolerant of his boisterous behaviour. The school has a system whereby little red flowers are awarded to children who learn their lessons and do as they are told. Qiang wonders why he hasn’t any. With a wild imagination and an independent streak, he cannot seem to fit in with the other kids. So, Qiang tries to grab their attention by becoming a little bully, disrupting class and forcing his teachers into drastic action…
A simple synopsis can’t really do justice to this truly glorious film, a remarkably honest portrayal of childhood and a parable about societal pressures taking their toll on free will and individual freedoms. It’s tempting to read this as a purely political fable, a dissection of the Chinese government’s attitude towards nonconformists. However, the film’s message is universal and applies to societies the world over whose school systems often seek to squeeze a square peg into a round hole.
Zhang Yuan’s screenplay never stoops to portraying Miss Li as a simple hate figure and Zhao Rui’s performance strikes the perfect balance between intimidating disciplinarian and committed teacher. As patient, sweet-natured Miss Tang, Li Xiaofeng embodies the kind of teacher we all wish we’d had. When Qiang spits an expletive at her, it is a truly shocking moment and the way Xiaofeng’s express deep hurt is a masterpiece of subtle acting.
Yet it is the kids who are the stars and Yuan draws wonderfully naturalistic performances reminiscent of the great films about childhood by François Truffaut, particularly L’argent de poche (1976). These are real children, not some screenwriter’s cutesy caricatures. Capricious, prone to tantrums, curious about each other’s bodies (Abundant child nudity might offend some but is presented as natural and certainly not in a prurient manner), innocent but never mawkish, playful and yes, utterly adorable. A priceless scene has Qiang convince other kids that Miss Li is going to eat them. At bedtime the entire nursery sneak upon the sleeping teacher to tie her up. Little Dong Bowen is a real find but the entire cast are captivating, including Yuan’s own daughter. Nepotism perhaps, but it pays off in her genuinely sweet performance: the scene where she and Qiang run away together and spend a day wandering a garden will linger with you.
Gorgeously shot at a child’s eye level, a la E.T., Yuan peppers his film with fantasy sequences such as Qiang wandering alone, naked in the snow. Wisely, he never discriminates between dreams and reality, placing us inside a child’s mind. A miraculous film with the direct simplicity of a schoolchild’s drawing.
9 (from 1 vote)