Cortechba Overrated

Connianatu How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

Patience Watson One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

chingwen_chew PLOT SUMMARY At a remote Chinese primary school, a thirteen-year girl, Wei Minzhi, was employed as a substitute teacher for the regular teacher, Gao, who had to leave for a month to look after his ailing mother. For her work she was promised fifty Yuan and Gao agreed to give her a bonus of ten Yuan if she managed to retain all his twenty-eight students, hence the title, Not One Less. As she was barely older than her students and her limited education she encountered difficulty in running the forty-five year-old school. She had to face a particularly disruptive boy, Zhang Huike. One day he failed to turn up to school as he was compelled to look for work in the city to cater for his ailing, debt-ridden mother. Determined as ever, Wei tried to raise the necessary funds with the help of the other students to go to the city and bring him back. To Wei and Zhang city life was alien and harsh as they struggled to feed themselves and sought shelter in the railway station. It was through the local television station's contact that they were finally reunited. Not only was her goal achieved but she managed to get other resources for the students and to rebuild the school, later renamed Shuiquan School of Hope. ANALYSIS Zhang Yimou, the producer of such colourful, mythified, melodramatic movies like "Raise the Red Lantern" and "Red Sorghum" had come full circle to produce this semi-documentary, realistic film. However, given his experience as a rural worker (1968 to 1878) during the Cultural Revolution, it is not too surprising that he had come up with this emphasis on real rural life in contemporary China, the prevailing poverty, children deprived of education and hardships faced by the inhabitants. This "realistic" film is underlined by the use of amateurs instead of professionals. Most played their real-life roles, for example, the mayor is actually Tian Zhenda, the teacher is Gao and two children Wei Minzhi and Zhang Huike played characters of the same name. Settings such as the school, the local television station and the city (Zhangjiakou) are real. The only connection with the Zhang Yimou of old is his preference for red which is depicted by the large red flower in front of the truck carrying the goods to the village. There are four major themes in this film. The first focused on courage and determination. Once Wei made up her mind to go to the city to bring Zhang back nothing could stop her. She was not concerned about her own safety in an alien environment and her limited resources. We first saw her determination when she tried to stop one of the girls from being taken away to the Sports academy. Although she was lost in the city and made to wait for one and a half days to meet the station manager she did not give up. It was her sheer courage and determination that won the day. These two qualities plus persistence and endurance are reminiscence of human qualities that we see in many of Zhang's films.The next theme is the prevailing poverty in the rural areas. We see the decrepit school condition, the broken school furniture and children migrating to the city to work to support the family. The third is the importance of money, including the lack of it. Money permeates this film from beginning to end. Early in the film Wei asked Gao about her pay and later we saw how she tried to raise funds for the bus trips and at the same time the students learned how to count. The lack of money meant Wei and Zhang had to sleep in the railway station and rely on leftovers to fill their stomachs. On the positive side money was donated to rebuild the school and settle Zhang's mother's debts. The final theme is the urban-rural dichotomy. On one hand, we saw beautiful natural landscape relatively untouched by man, on the other we saw the busy, crowded and man-made city landscape with high-rise buildings. This dichotomy is also the rich and poor divide. Coming from the countryside where everybody knows and helps each other, Wei and Zhang were misfits in this new uncompromising environment. Not only were their clothing different, they encountered unfriendly and unhelpful people like the receptionist at the television station. Zhang Yimou raised these themes of rural poverty and rural-urban dichotomy to highlight the prevailing social inequality that exist in China and hopefully generate some support to alleviate poverty. His final message stated that one million children had dropped out of school annually because of poverty. Financial help from various sources had enabled fifteen percent to return to school. This is powerful message that he had sent out in this film.

gentendo I'd like to examine the character arc of the young girl who comes to temporarily substitute at the poverty-stricken school: Teacher Wei. When she first arrives, she seems really disinterested and apathetic towards the whole situation. The only thing on her mind is the financial rewards that she is promised by the mayor if, in fact, she's successful in maintaining all of the children at the school without losing any. When she begins teaching, it's simply to fulfill an obligation: very routine-like.She allows the children to fight with each other without intervention, has them write a ton of complicated characters on the board that they don't understand, and expects them to copy it verbatim without cry or murmur. It's obvious, at first, that she has no desire to help these struggling children. This suggests something poignant about her back story—that she, too, comes from the grounds of destitution. When given the chance to earn some money, she jumped immediately at the opportunity not knowing the full implications of how difficult it would be to Sheppard the wandering flock.When the young boy, Zhang Huike, goes with some travelers into the city to make money for his family, Wei is determined to follow after him and reclaim him. This presents an interesting dichotomy in her desires: does she want to reclaim him strictly for financial rewards, or, is there a part of her that really cares for his well-being and wants him back in the fold with the other children? I think it's a little bit of both as the story unfolds (but more so out of love). Wei travels through tremendous moments of change to reclaim him—each moment testing her resilience to stay in the game. She has an objective (e.g. Zhang Huike), but she is thwarted.She needs money to travel by bus into the city, but has none. She works for money by moving bricks, but is paid none because she and the children accidentally break them in the process. She sneaks onto a bus, but is thrown off. She hand writes a multiplicity of rescue flyers to find Huike, but none are seen by him. All of these moments show her steady dedication not to give up on the lost lamb. She is determined to find him. I believe this is where the theme of the story is revealed: the Sheppard of a flock will leave the 99 in order to rescue the wayward one: no matter the extremes.This theme becomes clearer as you see Wei conquer one battle after the next, stopping at nothing to find Huike (especially when she goes on live television). There, on television, with tears in her eyes and a plea in her voice, she asks Huike where he has gone—why did he leave? In that moment, I became convinced that her care for him was genuine—not something strictly lucrative. After all, she wasn't crying crocodile tears. It's a real touching moment when Huike finally sees the broadcast, as he, too, starts to become emotional. He begins to realize all of the things Wei had to go through in order for him to realize her love for him. He reciprocates and goes home.I think director Zhang Yimou was trying to portray the power of love one can have for a wayward child. With obvious Christ-like undertones, though perhaps not intentional, Not One Less is the story about what a person is willing to do when they feel separated from those who they love. It works really well in this particular story because I had ambivalent feelings of whether Wei's intentions were initially sincere, but as the story progressed I realized that she was being charitable, not selfish.I believe Yimou intentionally shot the film, in some instances, like a hidden camera documentary because he wanted the aesthetics of the film to compliment the meaning of the theme. Since the Sheppard theme is one possible theme to the story, it makes sense to say that the camera-work acts as a hidden device, away from the eyes of Wei. Wei is looking for the lost child, but he remains hidden from her eyes. So, too, there is also an omniscient camera looking at Wei as she looks for Huike—a device that suggests perhaps the God of heaven watching over all of his wandering sheep (some respectfully more than others). One particular moment that heavily suggests the hidden camera is when Wei is asking the citizens in the city if they've seen or know the railroad instructor. The scene is shot montage as it shows her exhaust herself throughout the day. She looks helpless; always being observed from afar. The pity she feels in trying to find Huike is the same pity that the camera seems to have on her—always watching; simply observing.

sddavis63 In all frankness, this is not the most exciting movie that anyone will ever sit down to watch. Having said that, it provides a somewhat interesting look at the state of Chinese education and at life in both rural and urban China. The story - which the closing credits suggest is based on a real event - revolves around 13 year old Wei, who is sent to a remote rural village to teach for a month at the local primary school while the regular teacher goes home to attend to his dying mother. Wei is promised 50 yuan for doing the job, and the teacher promises her an additional ten if all the students are still there when he returns. That's a concern, because many students leave school in China at a young age. Wei has the typical problems of any substitute teacher in getting the students to respect her - made even more difficult by her young age. In the midst of her difficulties, one student (the class troublemaker) disappears to the city to get work to help pay off his family's debts. The rest of the movie deals with Wei's journey to the city to search for him.It's pretty straightforward and simple. It's not exciting, as I said, but it does give the viewer a feel for life in China. 5/10

Pro Jury *** May contain spoilers. *** However implausible the story, the acting in NOT ONE LESS is fresh and natural. I give all of the cast a great amount of credit because all of them -- the very young, and the very old -- go through their scenes without being distracted by, or playing to, the camera. The sincere earnest acting makes the film worth the watch.That being said, the screenplay of this film makes no sense. What motivated this substitute teacher to be so extraordinarily determined? It made no sense for her to be motivated by money because no 13 year-old could be so repeatedly fooled by the same adults. Also, as things went on it was clear that more money could be gained from working the kids in the brickyard than what might ever come from what both old men combined had promised.Two students leave her class. It made no sense for her to be so extraordinarily determined to return the big brat and not try to return the nice helpful girl student. Her 30 days of teaching would have been so much better without the trouble-making brat.And leaving the classroom alone for days -- what would make her think that she would be allowed to continue as a teacher when she returned? The substitute's actions were without thought and rational planning. At almost every turn, the viewer watching this film is left thinking that no one could be so dumb yet confident. In real life, people are cautious in matters where they are ignorant.Most of the detailed reviews here are far more rational and logical than the plot of this film.