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
- Starring TFBoys member Yee and Liu Haocun, A Little Red Flower tells the love story of a young couple with cancer and the travails of their families
- Director Han Yan says the movie, which has grossed more than US$150 million, is intended as a spiritual guide and therapeutic support for the audience
With illness, death and other ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic dominating public consciousness over the past year, it is perhaps not surprising that the recent box office champion in China is a movie exploring the devastating toll severe illnesses take on the human psyche.
A Little Red Flower tells the love story of a young couple stricken with cancer and the travails their families undergo. The movie stars Jackson Yee, whose performance in Better Days (2019) brought much critical acclaim, and Liu Haocun, the latest muse of Zhang Yimou, who cast her in his recent film One Second.
Released on December 31, the smash hit has grossed more than 1 billion yuan (US$155 million) in ticket sales in China as of January 11, while Hollywood blockbuster Wonder Woman 1984 racked up only 160 million yuan despite being released much earlier, on December 18.
In spite of the subject of illness, Han Yan, director and scriptwriter of A Little Red Flower, says that his new film is intended as a spiritual guide and therapeutic support for the audience.
“I don’t want to portray how much pain [people] are in after they fall ill or how they toss and turn in bed, unable to fall asleep. If the audience wants to see such things, they can just pay a visit to the hospital. Movies, indeed all works of art, should be able to give viewers psychological consolation,” he says.