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11 Flowers

Play trailer Poster for 11 Flowers 2013 1h 50m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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85% Tomatometer 13 Reviews 69% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings
In 1975 China, a youngster (Liu Wenqing) has a costly encounter with a fugitive, who steals the boy's new shirt and convinces him to help him escape.

Critics Reviews

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Aaron Hillis Village Voice 02/22/2013
More sensitive than disaffected, too gentle to resonate more than mildly. Go to Full Review
Farran Smith Nehme New York Post 02/22/2013
2.5/4
The movie lingers in the mind, largely because director Wang Xiaoshuai's theme is poignant and classic: The more a child perceives of what the adults around him are doing, the more childhood slips away. Go to Full Review
Jeannette Catsoulis New York Times 02/21/2013
3.5/5
Poised on the brink of sexual awareness and the waning of the Cultural Revolution, an 11-year-old boy struggles to interpret the signals from his changing body and an increasingly confusing world. Go to Full Review
Clayton Davis AwardsCircuit.com 07/12/2017
3.5/4
A classy, poignant tale that resonates loudly and enchants the most tender parts of the human soul. Go to Full Review
Mike Scott Times-Picayune 03/01/2013
3/5
A richly directed and historically credible film that -- with its sense of time and place -- ends up functioning as fascinating and poignant temporal travelogue. Go to Full Review
Louis Proyect rec.arts.movies.reviews 02/23/2013
This brilliant coming-of-age story should demonstrate that Americans should be hacking Chinese computers to steal intellectual property and not the other way around--especially Hollywood. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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07/08/2013 Set during the Cultural Revolution but remained almost silent about it. See more 05/15/2013 http://www.clevelandmovieblog.com/2013/05/11-flowers-may-18th-and-19th-at.html See more 03/08/2013 a very engaging film - the world was foolproof and so fascinating to watch! and it was wonderful to see the similarities and differences between their world and my own. the script was well-written and the film felt very real. every action, every character, every event was well-earned. there were some moments that i found confusing, but i think it may have been because of the language barrier and a few subtitles i missed. i think it'll make more sense upon multiple viewings. overall it was a simple story that was well-explored and well done. See more walter m @Harlequin68 02/24/2013 On the way to work in a neighboring town, Wang(Wang Jinchun), an actor, gives his 11-year old son, Han(Liu Wenquing), a ride part of the way on his bicycle to his school where he has just been appointed to lead morning gymnastics and Jue Hong(Mo Shiyi), an older student, has been called to the principal's office. The only thing is that Mrs. Zhao feels Han needs a new shirt which his mother(Yen Ni), now in charge of the household and a factory worker, says they cannot afford, wanting to save the ration coupons and the money for the New Year celebration, even over her son's epic sulking. But once she talks to the teacher and sees him in action, she changes her mind. As endearing as "11 Flowers" can be with an ending that is definitely a punch to the gut, I was wondering when watching this if I was actually watching a movie about a shirt. To be honest, I have seen movies that have succeeded on less but set as this is at the tail end of the Cultural Revolution, it does need more in its rambling narrative, as otherwise it just feels like these momentous events happened to everybody else. So while the most important events happen offscreen, including stranding an intriguing mystery, telling the story exclusively from Han's point of view does work really well in a couple of places where it takes a couple of seconds to ascertain what exactly is happening. See more 02/12/2013 A boy wants a new T-shirt , gets a new T-shirt , lost his new T-shirt was the first hour , a dead body ...then i did fall a sleep See more 11/11/2012 Set against the backdrop of the Cultural Revolution in China.. the plot brings out the socio-economic picture of the time through the eyes of a young boy... A well spent 2 hours at the Kolkata Film Festival 2012... See more Read all reviews
11 Flowers

My Rating

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Movie Info

Synopsis In 1975 China, a youngster (Liu Wenqing) has a costly encounter with a fugitive, who steals the boy's new shirt and convinces him to help him escape.
Director
Wang Xiaoshuai
Screenwriter
Wang Xiaoshuai, Lao Ni
Distributor
First Run
Production Co
Chinese Shadows, WXS Production
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Chinese
Release Date (Theaters)
Feb 22, 2013, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 11, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA)
$9.2K
Runtime
1h 50m