Not One Less

What good are special effects and action movies if not for their escapist value? But there is much more good to be learned from movies like Zhang Yi-mou's "Not One Less", for what we are watching may be part of everyday reality. In a small school in a remote rural area of China, a thirteen year old girl substitutes for a teacher, who has to visit an ailing parent. This is a job that not too many people want, so a girl not much older than the kids seems to be the only choice. The girl is obviously not cut out to teach 28 kids, whose ages range from kindergarten level to fourth grade. On her first day of teaching, she spends a good part of the day writing the lesson on the board, with the students clueless about what to do. Yet the teacher seems more clueless in what to do next after she is done with her writing. When a dispute breaks out in class, the young teacher has absolutely no idea what her responsibilities are. Yet when events take an interesting turn, she keeps her hopes up and makes the situation into a teachable moment, to the surprise of the village mayor. With steely stubbornness, she heads to the big city to uphold her mission to lose not one less kid from her school not just because she needs the money but also because she has become attached to her students, especially this one. And boy does she get more than she bargained for at the end! There are some very touching moments in this movie, and their effectiveness lies in their sheer simplicity. We get to know what one of the more responsible and sensitive girls in the class feels about the poverty of her school. Her tears were from embarrassment, having revealed to the rest of the school, against her will, her personal feelings. Perhaps she knew there were other possibilities in life, but she felt helpless to attain those possibilities. Another unforgettable scene was the twenty or so kids sharing two cans of Coke, passing it around, with not one kid feeling entitled to more than a single sip. The hunger and desperation that beset both teacher and lost student in the anonymity of the big city. How the TV camera has triggered the teacher's last call for hope. When the boy recognized the teacher on TV and realized that she was specifically looking for him, how could anyone not be touched by his feeling of happiness, relief, and self-pity? It is unfortunate that lack of resources, kids just dropping out of school in order to work, help the family, or move to the city to work, and the limitations in choices when the kids grow up are realities in many impoverished schools, both rural and urban. "Not One Less" is a movie that brings us closer to reality and makes us think about what we can do or contribute to improve other people's lives.

I ordered this DVD due to my interest in China. The plot seemed interesting. Little did I expect it to be such a wonderful movie. It is the story of a young substitute teacher barely older than her students who is asked to fill in for the regular village teacher while he is gone for a month. He tells her that if she has the same number of stndents present when he returns as there are when he is leaving, he will pay her a bonus. She is 13 - little older than her students. The village school is a one room affair. The teachers office doubles as her bedroom. Some of the students sleep at the school so presumeably they live to far to go back and forth each day. Not only is she a teacher, she is also a house mother with 24 hour responsibilities for her students. This is a movie that is simple in it's theme but quite effective in the delivery of the message. It is a part of China that is rarely seen - the deep rural areas with few resources and little money. It is a far cry from Shanghai and Beijing. Yet it brought back memories of my elementary school where we had to copy pages from a book. I never knew why - we just did it. Likewise the students have to copy sentences written on the blackboard. Is it make work? We never know. The determination of the teacher is great. We forget and maybe she does too, about her bonus based on numbers. We become absorbed in her adventures and how her students support her. It is an outstanding movie and while it is a very different subject it should be viewed as a way to learn more about China. I highly recommend this movie to anyone with an interest in China and teaching. The latter could be any school, any place that is starved for funds and us largely invisible beyond the town/city/village limits.

An awesome Chinese movie about a substitute teacher searching for a lost student

I loved this movie because they used non-actors and the cast are just so natural and real. When you watch this film, devoid of the slick Hollywood movie magic that we've all gotten so used to, you can't help but be moved by the storyline. Also, because there's really no 'acting' in this movie, it is really funny to watch these people so obviously working to tell this story with little to no acting skills whatsoever. What results is a comical, touching and magical film about a young woman in an impossible situation and her quest to find her young charge in the big city. It ends like a fairy tale. I just loved it.

This is a true story of a wonderful Chinese student. I taught in China for a number of years This young lady was one of my students. She is now married with a family.

Zhang Yimou is a genius. Watch this movie. If you have a heart it will break. If you have eyes, they will cry as your chest is heaving. If you have a mind it will work to make sense of the seeming contradictions that our cultural bias creates; but once you've figured it out your heart will be filled with love and admiration for the young teacher who, in Chinese tradition, devotes herself completely to her students. Your eyes will see through the veil of culture and in ways that others cannot to an understanding that these countryside people are not poor; but rich in ways that we in the west are starving for. There is true meaning and devotion in their daily life, and a connectedness to people that is deep and profound. This is one of the foreign films that reconnects me with the years that I spent in China and the love and gratitude that I hold for my many Chinese friends. The story may seem hard to believe; but all of the situations and behaviors depicted are very much within the enduring traditional cultural pattern that exists in China today. "If you are my teacher for one day; you are my teacher for life." Watch and learn. Watch and love.

The movie seems simple enough. A girl, really nothing more than an older student, is selected to watch over the school while the schoolmaster is away. The teacher is stubborn (if not too smart) and suggles to keep the class intact till the master comes back. When one boy, needing to make money for his family, goes to the big city the sub follows, to try to find him. The cast is made up of normal people. The students are real students, the shop keepers are real shop keepers and the street bums, for all I know, are real street bums. At first the film seemed slow. Sometimes the movie tried to be TOO clever and did things that I seemed to see coming a mile away. But it was a trick, like when the kids in Rome hold up a newspaper in front of your face while another tries to pickpocket you. The director is using what seems like formula scenes that any Hollywood hack could write while slowly weaving a truly emotional story that only hits you near the ending. Maybe it is because the cast are NOT actors, or the actions taken by the cast seemed so normal, or the scenes of street life were so REAL. By the end of the movie, when the teacher was on TV asking for the boy to come home, I found myself crying. THAT is not the norm for me. The movie is like a mass-produced car that some artist has worked on. Outside it seems plain but on the inside it has real power. In some ways more powerful than 'The Road Home'.

This version has a smaller screen ratio, sub-par picture quality, and messy, inaccurate subtitles. Go for the Sony release, I learned the hard way.

This is another Yimou Zhang winner. The story is timeless and beautiful. In this film, each actor, children and adults, used their real name and profession and provide outstanding performances. The message is one of Hope, Compassion and Commitment.

ATTENTION / SUR LE SITE AMAZON IL EST ANNONCE SOUS TITRES EN FRANCAIS PAR ERREUR / HEUREUSEMENT QUE JE MAITRISE A PEU PRES L' ANGLAIS

This is a wonderful film that gives particular insight into rural life in China. The storyline is simple, but the story unfolds in a touch and often amusing way. There are some breathtaking scenes of rural China too in this well made film. I recommend it most highly to my fellow fill buffs.

Vorab der Film ist jetzt kein reiner Unterhaltungsfilm und somit kein Film für die breite Masse. Zhang Yimou greift hier mehrere Themen an die Probleme in China sind das weit aus offensichtlicher als in Heimweg wo wirklich eine Liebesgeschichte im Vordergrund war. Besonders interessant ist das alle Darsteller Laiendarsteller sind und Dorfbewohner sind und so praktisch jeder seine wirkliche Rolle im Leben spielt. Da durch wirkt der Film so was von überzeugend wie kein anderer Film. (Das der Film hier nur auf Deutsch Untertiteld ist somit ziemlich gut) Die Geschichte, Landschaftsaufnahmen und die grandiose Musik tun Ihr übriges. Der Film ist sehr Gefühlsvoll und einfach nur noch schön.

Good