Not One Less

Not One Less (English title) is a movie that concentrated on why are there so many Chinese children who quit school. Let's face the facts of life...poverty can ruin one's plan for the future, and this was evident in the film. You'll really see how hard life in mainland China is, even though this is a movie. The story is gripping and very realistic. You'll really feel the hardness of being in poverty and having to quit what you're doing. For the characters, Wei is a substitute school teacher who would go to extremes (high determination) from handling a class to walking around the city looking for a missing person.

I highly recommend watching this Chinese movie to any movie lover out there. This film is NOT a waste of time, it is simply VERY GOOD.

I suppose 'heart warming' are the first words that come to mind but lest that put anyone off, I have to say that it is the way Mr Zhang involves us from the very beginning that is the reason for the film's success. Beautifully shot with some wonderful natural light, our first glimpse of the rural backwater is astonishing. Almost immediately though we are drawn into a drama involving a thirteen year old girl being put in charge of a school of youngsters. The usual teacher has to visit sick relatives for a month and he leaves the girl behind with specific instructions to keep the schoolchildren from leaving school. Hence the film's title. Of course one goes missing and she follows to the city to try and find him, which becomes the story of the film. It is fascinating to see and believe the degree of poverty in the village and wonder as the children do at the difficulty of surviving in either place. The young girl may be acting less out of altruism than self interest but our eyes do not leave her and her concerns are ours. Seemingly non professional cast do a magnificent job, which must in no small part be down to Zhang, but then nobody seems to put a foot wrong. Excellent.

I was moved not only by the cultural value and socio-economic perspective of the movie, but also by the themes of compassion, hope, and diligence. As a middle school teacher, I also like how it brings out the idea that meaningful learning (in the classroom and beyond) takes place through real-life commitments, situations and applications.

As a note aside, notice the credits; although this movie is based on a Chinese novel, the director selected actors and actresses from the real world to play their real-life parts—complete with their real names and titles. Thus teacher Gao really is teacher Gao! Mayor Tien really is mayor Tien, and the kids, together with Minzhi Wei, really are village children, who have no acting experience. Thus the movie really is "realistic" in a true and meaningful way. Don't miss this one!

There isn't much to this story, I but I still liked it. The lead character, played by Wei Minzhi, is supposed to be playing a 13-year-old girl and was really interesting to watch, as were the young students and some of the other people in this film.

Oddly, all these actors were amateurs, real-life students and people of varied professions. It's nicely filmed, too, despite the bleak background many times. I find the dialog of many Chinese films to be very pleasing. Yes, there is a lot of receptiveness, at least in the translations, but it's tolerable. There is very little profanity and plenty of good old-fashioned values and feelings of people, simply told. You don't find much of this is in modern-day movies of the Western World. The colors in here - the reds, yellows and oranges - are always a treat for the eyes and the Asian kids' faces are intriguing.

This film is very different from anything Western audiences are used to, but I recommend it for those who realize that fact and are okay with it.

I am generally not a big fan of movies made only to send a message, tending to agree with the Hollywood director who famously said, If you want to send a message, go to Western Union. And make no doubt about it: this is a message movie. And in case you might miss the message, the director flashes it across the screen at the end. That said, this is a beautiful and heart warming story about an aspect of Chinese culture one generally does not hear much about in the West: the situation at rural schools. As Zhang Yimou lets us know at the end, more than one million students drop out of schools in rural China because of poverty. From what I understand, this is a pretty accurate picture of the situation in many places in the Chinese countryside. Forget about having a computer in the classroom; this place has to worry about having enough chalk. To add to the authenticity, Zhang Yimou used real people from the Chinese countryside to play the roles (although to clear up one misperception, this is not a true story). It is certainly a different China than the economic superpower we hear about in the news. But for anyone wishing to get a more complete picture of China, this film provides a vivid depiction of the plight of rural schools in a very moving if somewhat contrived story and is highly recommended.