"This is the happiest, most carefree time of your life!" So says an angry teacher to tearaway tot Qiang (Dong Bowen) in Chinese drama Little Red Flowers. But the four-year-old's frown tells a different story in this grown-up yarn centred on a 50s Beijing kindergarten. What at first seems an innocuous setting is soon revealed as a battlefield for the opposing forces of individualism and conformity, as Qiang's refusal to tow the line threatens to spark a revolution.

Well, a pint-sized one, anyhow. Still, it's clear from our hero's bawling entrance to his new boarding school that he's going to be a headache for the staff, including the sweet-faced Miss Tang (Li Xiaofeng) and the unsmiling Miss Li (Zhao Rui). Qiang quickly begins to covet the Little Red Flowers that are handed out for good behaviour, but remains too wayward to win any. Not for him a life of learning to dress oneself or strictly controlled bowel movements. Yet despite earning the nickname "King of Bed-wetting" from his peers, he's able to rally them to his unruly cause with the rumour that Miss Li is a child-eating ogress.

"WILL LEAVE THE AUDIENCE THINKING"

None of this is played cutesy or for cheap laughs, which isn't to say the film lacks charm or humour. Recalling vintage rebel-kid classics like Zero De Conduite and The 400 Blows, helmer Zhang Yuan coaxes disarmingly unforced performances from his infant cast. Meanwhile, the open-ended, surprisingly sober wrap-up leaves not only Qiang to think about what he's done, but the audience too.

Little Red Flowers (Kan Shang Qu Hen Mei) is released in UK cinemas on Friday 5th January 2007.