Simply Perfect

Powerful

Fresh and Exciting

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Minzhi Wei is marvellous in her eponymous role as the determined thirteen year old substitute teacher in a village primary school in 1990's China. Bearing in mind the artistic and cultural restrictions in China, this film is both a touching portrayal of individual humanity in China, and a searing indictment of the state of China's rural economy and the government's inability to tackle the level of need of its poorest people. By focusing on the individual, Zhang Yimou has none the less laid bear social inequality in Chinese society, and the resulting poor treatment and casting aside of the country's poorest and weakest citizens, with the skill of the finest of surgeons.

The director of "Not one less" is Zhang Yimou, and this movie was shooting in 1998 and the style of the firm is different with all his past work. This movie presented base with a nature, simple and touching way, it was popular after the movie showed up. I think people who are not live in Chinese rural cannot deeply understand the education in there. This movie shows the real situation in one of the north rural in China, it is the education issues of reality, but this situation leads many serious problems. I actually do not like the tradition style of Chinese movie; however this movie was touch my heart deeply. This movie is the most successful film for Zhang Yimou and it has one characteristic compare with Zhang Yimou's previous or later movies, he used all non-professional actress, and all actors used their own name and played their real story. The film tells the story of the rural elementary school, Mr. Gao is the only one teacher, but his mother was sick and he has to take a month holiday. Therefore, the school found a 13 years old girl (Miss Wei) to be a substitute teacher for Mr. Gao. Miss Wei's education is very low. Mr. Gao told Miss Wei that "not one less", and this sentence became a responsibility to Miss Wei. This movie shows a group of pure rural children, they never been anywhere else, they only in that rural. One thing very interesting is Mr. Gao also has no high level education background, he does not know how to teach. He just writes on the blackboard everything in the book, and asks all the students to copy it down, and then it is a class. Do you think student can learn something? This is a big problem in some rural in china. Some teachers not even know how to teach student, then how student are able to learn things. Or maybe students learn some incorrect information. This also make me think that China is too big, and the gap between wealth and poor are too big, that caused many problems. In my opinion, there are two main parts in this movie. The first part is Miss Wei needs money, and if she takes over Mr. Gao's job for a month then she could get 50 RMB. Miss Wei is playing an important role here, if she wants to get the 50 dollars, she can't let any student out, she has keep every student in a save place in a month. "Not one less" is the only responsibility for her, therefore; she does not care how naughty students are, she just care not let anyone out. One day, there is some sport teachers wanted to take one of the students to a modern city and train him. But Miss Wei hided the student and did not let the sport teacher to take him out. This represent that Miss Wei does not know to let this boy out of the village is a good chance for him, but she has a responsibility to not let one less. This shows the wrong education way in rural China. The other part is Miss Wei searched for the second student is not only of the 50 dollars responsibility, it is because of the teacher reasonability, it is about love. The student Zhang huike went to a city, and Miss Wei asked all the students to search for Zhang huike in that city. This part was very touching, Miss Wei does not care how hard to find the student, she had to do what she promised Mr. Gao. Not one less. I can see that money is very important in the tradition Chinese society. Because of 50 dollars, Miss Wei has to search the student in a big city that she never been to there, and it was danger and hard. One the other hand, there are one shot that makes me feel uncomfortable, the shot talk about Miss Wei wanted to get into the T.V station to see the manager, but the reception lady used unfriendly and look down people's attitude to told Miss Wei that she can't go in. this represent that many big cities in China always look down some rural city.

Long after De Sica made "Bicycle thief" and Fellini his "La Strada," neo-realist traditions grab me like no other in cinema history. The Chinese film "Not one less" made half a century after the Italian masterpieces, underlines several aspects of neo-realist traditions—non-actors can transform into great actors provided you have an intelligent script and a talented director, poverty attracts anyone with a conscience, the candid camera is a marvelous tool, and human values exist to be appreciated irrespective of national boundaries. It truly deserved the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival.A reluctant substitute teacher taking on a job that would fetch a doubtful "50 yuan" from a village mayor with questionable priorities transforms into a national hero in less than a month as she strives hard to ensure the number of her students do not dwindle until the regular teacher returns. Her resolutions transforms the economic state of the school, makes her students into socially responsible "young adults" and teaches a lesson to the wily mayor, a gatekeeper in the city TV station who goes by rules rather than by her discretion.The brilliance of the film is that the film hooks the audience as a thriller would until the film ends. Yet there is no sex, no violence, no beautiful face, no delightful music or engaging camera angles—only reactions caught by candid camera (at least most of the time).The most poignant comment was the young student's comment "I loved the city but it made me beg for food" For a contemporary Chinese film made under tight censorship—the film's director Yimou Zhang seems to offer layers of comment beyond the obvious story line. Did Teacher Wei do what she did for the sake of money or as a responsible teacher? Are you likely to forget propagandist songs but recall simple songs on family values? Are individual greatness (teacher Wei) more appreciated than group actions (school as a group, nation's need for good athletes overriding permission of the parents of potential athletes)? Is the richness of rural lifestyles discounted by rising urban materialism? Does it require an individual's actions to underline the demands of the rural poor? These are hidden questions for each viewer to answer.I have only seen one other film of director Yimou Zhang and that is "Red Sorghum". "Not one less" towers over "Red Sorghum" in every department of film-making.I saw this Chinese film on an Indian TV channel. I only wish more such international films get shown widely on TV throughout the world. It would raise the bar of what constitutes good cinema to many who currently have little idea of good cinema except those made in their own countries. Recent mainland Chinese films like "Peacock" and "Not one less" have established their world class credentials.P.S. I was more than amused to find Ford and Coca-Cola financed the film in part, which is probably why the school kids in a remote Chinese village know about Coke and relish rationed drops of the liquid. Who was pulling whose leg here???

Surprisingly, I never lost my patience or got bored while watching this, even though it is very slow, understated film in which there is a great deal of repetition and very little character development. Zhang Yimou takes us along with a 13-year-old substitute teacher, played, like the other characters, by a nonprofessional actor (the credits even tell you where each person comes from, and that most of them actually do the jobs in real life that we see them doing here).It is fascinating to see the bonds develop between the teacher and her students almost without anyone trying. The film barely even seems like it needs a "quest," but when one develops, the teacher's plight is even more poignant. I will say that I'm not sure I got any great insights into the problem of "poverty in rural China," but the mindset of the characters as Zhang shows them – obstinate and determined – was quite captivating.