Not One Less

Rating:
Summary: Zhang Yimou has done better.
Review: This was a good movie and I'm not sure if it's because I've become too jaded or because this movie reminded me too much of Yimou's own THE STORY OF QIU JU, but I was not affected emotionally.

While thirteen year old's in America are busy wearing their hats crooked and replacing the letter "s" with "z" thirteen-year-old Wei has taken a substitute-teaching job in an extremely poor village in a remote region of China. The regular teacher will be gone for a month due to a family illness. Right before he leaves he tells Wei that she will only get paid when he returns and will get a bonus if all the kids are still there.

The school is nothing more than 30 kids rammed into a shack. The first few days are very rough. Wei cares nothing about the kids, she just wants the money, but soon she starts to care for the kids a little. Then the main troublemaker disappears into the city to get a job to help his broke family. Wei freaks out and goes to the city to find him. Remember she's only 13.

Yimou could have really cranked up the drama right about now, but instead he plays it safe and there is never any indication as to how much trouble they are really in. Sure they sleep outside and both have to eat table scraps but that's nothing compared to the Hell that the boy went through in Anh Hung Tran's CYCLO. Doesn't this city have any drug dealers, perverts, pimps or sadists?

I would easily count Zhang Yimou as one of the top five directors alive today, but no amount of directorial talent can make up for a boring script. Worth a watch, Wei's performance is refreshing, but if you haven't yet seen Yimou's TO LIVE then check that out first.


Rating:
Summary: A quasi-realistic fairy tale of modern China
Review: Wei Minzhi (played by Wei Minzhi, essentially playing herself) is a 13-year-old peasant girl pressed into being "Teacher Wei" at a small rural elementary school when the regular teacher must take a month off. She knows one song (a Maoist propaganda song) and that not very well. She hasn't a clue about how to manage a classroom. Her arithmetic is suspect and her people skills are those of a self-centered beginner. It's not even clear that she wants to do the job. In fact she seems more concerned about the 50 yuan she's supposed to get than anything else.

Thus acclaimed Chinese film maker Zhang Yimou sets the stage for a most compelling fairy tale which illustrates how the determined spirit of a little girl might triumph over poverty, ignorance, and the hard-headed reality of the post-Maoist bureaucratic society.

And is she determined! She is given 30 pieces of chalk and warned not to waste any of it. The lesson plans are to copy some lessons on the chalkboard and to get the students to copy the copy. That's it! Both the regular teacher and the town's mayor point to the other as the one who will pay her. When the regular teacher starts to leave without paying her, she chases after him. She is told she will get paid when he returns, and if all the students are still enrolled, she will get a ten-yuan bonus.

Thus we have the movie's title and the source of "Teacher Wei's" determination. When one little girl is picked to go to a sports camp because she can run, Wei hides her from the authorities. When Zhang Huike, the class trouble-maker (played by Zhang Huike), quits school and heads for the city to find work, Wei schemes ways to get him and bring him back.

At this point the magic begins. With this common goal both teacher and the kids figure out ways to raise money to send Wei by bus to the city and back. They figure the cost for Wei's round trip and for Zhang Huike's one-way trip back, with the kids themselves taking the initiative at the chalkboard with the math. Wei makes them empty their pocketbooks, and when there is not enough she takes them on a field trip to a brick-making factory and together they move bricks to raise the cash. Again they calculate how many bricks they must move at so many "cents" per brick.

I mention all this because what is demonstrated, by the by, is some real teaching and learning taking place. In fact the mayor comes by and peeks into the classroom and is delighted to see that the substitute teacher knows how to teach math!

This sequence of events is very moving and is at the heart of the film. Any teacher anywhere in the world will recognize how brilliantly this is done. The kids become so eager to learn that they learn effortlessly, which is the way it is supposed to be. Furthermore, one of the phenomena of the profession is exemplified: that of the real teacher learning more (partly because she is older) than the students from the lessons they encounter.

Now, it is true that director Zhang Yimou does not show us the real poverty that exists in China nor does he point to the horrid dangers encountered by children who go to the city to work. Neither the little boy nor Teacher Wei is preyed upon in the manner we might fear. Recapitulations of the baser instincts of human beings are not part of Zhang Yimou's purpose here. This is in fact a movie that can be viewed by children, who will, I suspect, identify very strongly with the story. Zhang Yimou is talking to the child in all of us and he does it without preaching or through any didactic manipulation of adult verses child values. It is true he does manipulate our hearts to some degree, but with all the ugliness that one sees in the world today, perhaps he can be allowed this indulgence.

Although I would not say that this film is as good as Zhang Yimou's internationally celebrated films such as Red Sorghum (1987) (his first film) or Raise the Red Lantern (1991) (which I think is his best film) or The Story of Qiu Ju (1991) (which this film resembles to some extent), it is nonetheless a fine work of art exemplifying Zhang Yimou's beautiful and graceful style and his deep love for his characters and their struggles. And as always his work rises above and exists in a place outside of political propaganda as does the work of all great artists.

Perhaps more than anything else, however, one should see this movie to delight in the unselfconscious, natural, and utterly convincing "amateur" performance by Wei Minzhi as a most determined and brave little girl. She will win your heart.

Rating:
Summary: A quasi-realistic fairy tale of modern China
Review: Wei Minzhi (played by Wei Minzhi, essentially playing herself) is a 13-year-old peasant girl pressed into being "Teacher Wei" at a small rural elementary school when the regular teacher must take a month off. She knows one song (a Maoist propaganda song) and that not very well. She hasn't a clue about how to manage a classroom. Her arithmetic is suspect and her people skills are those of a self-centered beginner. It's not even clear that she wants to do the job. In fact she seems more concerned about the 50 yuan she's supposed to get than anything else.

Thus acclaimed Chinese film maker Zhang Yimou sets the stage for a most compelling fairy tale which illustrates how the determined spirit of a little girl might triumph over poverty, ignorance, and the hard-headed reality of the post-Maoist bureaucratic society.

And is she determined! She is given 30 pieces of chalk and warned not to waste any of it. The lesson plans are to copy some lessons on the chalkboard and to get the students to copy the copy. That's it! Both the regular teacher and the town's mayor point to the other as the one who will pay her. When the regular teacher starts to leave without paying her, she chases after him. She is told she will get paid when he returns, and if all the students are still enrolled, she will get a ten-yuan bonus.

Thus we have the movie's title and the source of "Teacher Wei's" determination. When one little girl is picked to go to a sports camp because she can run, Wei hides her from the authorities. When Zhang Huike, the class trouble-maker (played by Zhang Huike), quits school and heads for the city to find work, Wei schemes ways to get him and bring him back.

At this point the magic begins. With this common goal both teacher and the kids figure out ways to raise money to send Wei by bus to the city and back. They figure the cost for Wei's round trip and for Zhang Huike's one-way trip back, with the kids themselves taking the initiative at the chalkboard with the math. Wei makes them empty their pocketbooks, and when there is not enough she takes them on a field trip to a brick-making factory and together they move bricks to raise the cash. Again they calculate how many bricks they must move at so many "cents" per brick.

I mention all this because what is demonstrated, by the by, is some real teaching and learning taking place. In fact the mayor comes by and peeks into the classroom and is delighted to see that the substitute teacher knows how to teach math!

This sequence of events is very moving and is at the heart of the film. Any teacher anywhere in the world will recognize how brilliantly this is done. The kids become so eager to learn that they learn effortlessly, which is the way it is supposed to be. Furthermore, one of the phenomena of the profession is exemplified: that of the real teacher learning more (partly because she is older) than the students from the lessons they encounter.

Now, it is true that director Zhang Yimou does not show us the real poverty that exists in China nor does he point to the horrid dangers encountered by children who go to the city to work. Neither the little boy nor Teacher Wei is preyed upon in the manner we might fear. Recapitulations of the baser instincts of human beings are not part of Zhang Yimou's purpose here. This is in fact a movie that can be viewed by children, who will, I suspect, identify very strongly with the story. Zhang Yimou is talking to the child in all of us and he does it without preaching or through any didactic manipulation of adult verses child values. It is true he does manipulate our hearts to some degree, but with all the ugliness that one sees in the world today, perhaps he can be allowed this indulgence.

Although I would not say that this film is as good as Zhang Yimou's internationally celebrated films such as Red Sorghum (1987) (his first film) or Raise the Red Lantern (1991) (which I think is his best film) or The Story of Qiu Ju (1991) (which this film resembles to some extent), it is nonetheless a fine work of art exemplifying Zhang Yimou's beautiful and graceful style and his deep love for his characters and their struggles. And as always his work rises above and exists in a place outside of political propaganda as does the work of all great artists.

Perhaps more than anything else, however, one should see this movie to delight in the unselfconscious, natural, and utterly convincing "amateur" performance by Wei Minzhi as a most determined and brave little girl. She will win your heart.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic, moving, and gripping.
Review: What a great movie! It's a tearjerker, so be prepared, but it is not manipulative -- it tells a simple, true, story in minimalist fashion, letting the characters and events speak for themselves. The determination of the heroine to find her missing student is breathtaking, the poverty is heartbreaking, and the children in her class are genuine and adorable. Take a break from big-budget garbage and see this movie soon.

Rating:
Summary: GOOD
Review: WHAT CAN I SAY?IT IS VERY GOOD.I LOVE THE MOVIE.IT IS MY FAVOR,GREAT WOEK

Rating:
Summary: Yimou's back to his roots.
Review: With this movie Zhang Yimou has returned to his roots.The use of non-actors gave the movie an organic feel to it.This movie is an experience to those who know little of the living conditions of the third world and reminds one not to take things for granted.

Rating:
Summary: A NOT-ONE-LESS FILM...
Review: Yimou is one of the best directors I love. In this film, I've learned how poverty evokes people's wisdom, perseverance, and treasuring objcets very common to us far from the third world. The 13-year-old substitute teacher, quite innocent and inexperienced, even herself not well-educated and qualified, "taught" pupils without definite textbooks. She was not afraid of being insulted that she had Chang hui-ko read Chang Ming-shian's diary. By this, she asked Chang hui-ko to apologize for the destroyed chalk. Even if Chang hui-ko was so naught and untamed, she was determined to find him back, when informed that he dropped out only because he had to make a living for his family. Maybe in the very beginning it was just because of the 60 dollars. However, to collect money for tickets to town, she seemed to give a math class for the pupils. Who knows that teachers usually learn more than students do in a class! Yimou, I'll never miss any of your films.

Rating:
Summary: Zhang Yimou knows how to tell stories in different ways...
Review: Zhang represents one of the major filmmakers of the 5th generation, he has changed a lot if compares with his previous work. Not one less fauces you to face the problems of today's poor villages in China yet it's full of hope for tomorrow. A must see production!

Rating:
Summary: A little tale about humanity
Review: Zhang Yi Mou has been around the block long enough. Unlike many other seasoned directors who would like to have variety in their portfolio, Zhang seems content with making movies of a single topic: humanity. He has tackled so many different aspects of Chinese life, from oppression (Judou) to greed (Shanghai Triad), he has virtually become its conscience. With 'Not One Less,' he shows you that he is keeping up with China's progress.

This is indeed a different era in China. Capitalization has begun to take hold and pockets of the country are prospering, though mostly in the cities. In this movie, he would like to take you on a tour of rural China, where poverty is still rampant and the living condition is so miserable that a box of blackboard chalk is the prized possession of a school. Like the subject matter, the film has nothing fancy to offer, just a matter-of-fact and simplistic style of narration. What makes Zhang a great director is his ability in capturing beauty where you would least expect it. The camera work is delightful as always.

However, the delivery is heavy-handed at times. The movie seems too preoccupied with trasmitting the message "Don't forget about us." For a provocative director, this one feels almost like a public announcement. Even the title seems to suggest that as a people, China has to move forward together, not leaving anyone behind. Nevertheless, it is nothing short of a worthy cause.

The DVD comes with very few perks. I hope that one day the studios will find it worthwhile to pay a homage to Zhang and create a documentary or short that will showcase his brilliant works.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best movies you will ever watch!
Review: Zhang Yimou and his fellow members of the 5 Generation of Chinese Directors have given us such great films. Farewell My Concubine, Blue Kite, and the Emperor and the Assassin.

Personally I enjoy Yimou's films the best. Red Sorghum, Raise the Red Latern, and my favorite To Live. Yimou's films are powerful glimpses into Chinese culture and history. Yimou's directing and the acting of his muse Gong Li made these films so good.

Not One Less is one of his first films without Gong Li. In fact, I do not think any of the actors in the film are professionals. But that does not matter. Not One Less is one of the most powerful and moving films you will ever watch.

Not One Less is the story of rural China, poverty, and education. Without giving too much away NOt One Less is about a young girl who becomes a substitute teacher in a one room school house. She is told she will not get paid if any kids drop out. One kid does and this little girls goes across China to find her.

This movie is more than a story of China. It is a universal story of education, poverty, children, and hope.

I saw three great Chinese films this year: Emperor and the Assassin, King of Masks and Not One Less. I highly recommend all three. Emperor and the Assassin was a historical epic. King of Masks was a heartwarming period piece dealing with the role women and Not One Less.

This is a great film. I recommend getting this film.