A Little Red Flower

A Little Red Flower is a 2020 Chinese romantic-drama film directed by Han Yan from a screenplay he co-wrote with Jinliang Han, Han Li, Jia Jia Wei, and Yu Yonggan. It stars Jackson Yee as Wei Yihang, a teenager who has been in remission following a brain tumor operation years prior, and Liu Haocun as a fellow patient named Ma Xiaoyuan. The idea for the film was conceived when Yan was working on Go Away Mr. Tumor (2015), a film about cancer patient and comic book artist Xiong Dun. A Little Red Flower premiered on December 31, 2020, and grossed $216 million, setting multiple box-office records in China and becoming one of the highest-grossing films of 2020. The film sparked controversy over its similar plot to the American film The Fault in Our Stars (2014). Unveiled documents revealed that a canceled Chinese remake of the American film had been in development and that A Little Red Flower could have potentially derived from it with no connections or credit to the original source. However, Yan has said that parts of the film were actually inspired by real-life events that he witnessed himself. Plot Wei Yihang, a cynical and reclusive teenager, 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, as the pair share various imaginary travel adventures and try to live life as "ordinary people" which they are unable to be because of their respective illnesses. At the same time, Wei begins forming a deeper understanding and appreciation of his family, who have unconditionally supported him during his medical difficulties. At one point, Wei sees his grandmother volunteering to sell her house to fund his medical expenses, with his uncles and aunts saying they would do the same, sending his father into tears.