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.
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.
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 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.
A Little Red Flower 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.
[6] 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.
[17] 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 Pictures, with a premise similar to the original remake that had been in development.
[17] 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.
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.