A child's reverence for his father becomes indistinguishable from love for a cause. Lam Chiu Yin strips away everything but the essential: one boy in a village, watching the Red Army pass through, understanding nothing except that the men his father fights alongside matter more than safety. The film trusts that a small story set against enormous historical weight doesn't need spectacle to break you.

Dongzi is a carefree village boy growing up in the chaos of 1930s China. He looks up to his father, a brave Red Army soldier, and to the Red Guards who have shielded his village from an evil landlord. Before his father sets out on the Long March, he gives Dongzi a sparkling red star. Over the following years the star becomes the boy's protector as he faces many hardships and slowly comes of age amid the shifting fortunes of wartime China. Based on Li Xintian's novel of the same name, the animated film is a warm, colorful and patriotic children's story, directed by Lam Chiu Yin and remade by Puzzle Animation Studio with a modern touch.