Not One Less
by Yimou Zhang
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Enman Gao, Huike Zhang, Minzhi Wei, Zhenda Tian, Zhimei SunDirector: Yimou Zhang
Brand: MINZHI,WEI
Cinematographer: Yong Hou
Editor: Ru Zhai
Producer: Weiping Zhang
Producer: Yu Zhao
Writer: Xiangsheng Shi
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Chinese (Subtitled); Chinese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 106 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-08-22
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Not One Less
Movie Review: Simple but Profound, Heart-Warming
Summary: 5 Stars
This story is about the care, love, and sheer indomitable stubborn spirit of a 13 year old girl Wei Minzhi who became a substitute teacher in a remote village primary school for one month in China. The film shows how she brought hope and a better future into the lives of her young students. Initially, Wei was concerned with her wages, she had been told that the teacher going on leave to visit his sick mother would pay. She had asked him, but he said the mayor who hired you pays your salary. She spoke with the mayor who reassured her: at the end of the month, when the job is complete you will get paid. As a poor girl from a nearby village, it is not surprising that the money interested her yet in the end, she proved she cared about much more than money.
After she received a tour of the school, shown the lessons to teach and introduced to 4 or 5 students who lived with her and were her assistants, she was determined to do her best and earn her salary but was clearly somewhat at a loss, never having done this before and being so close in age to her students. The story revolves around her relationship with Zhang Huike, the "bad boy" of the class, who is mischevious and uses his unspent energy to be disruptive whenever he can get away with it. Whenever Wei turns her back or leaves the classroom he misbehaves. During one such episode, he overturned a desk which held the only box of chalk owned by the school. The chalk became dirty and broke into many small pieces much of which could not be used ... Another time, Wei caught him teasing and grabbing a young girl's diary. She insisted he read the diary entry outloud. The owner of the diary was moritified as her secret thoughts were revealed to the class. In it, she said Wei did not care for the school equipment as much as the previous teacher because Wei did not seek out and punish the culprit Zhang who upturned the desk and broke the chalk. Taking both aside privately, Wei forced an apology from Zhang to the young girl. Wei realized the girl had been a school monitor whose duty was to ensure the chalk was not wasted. She felt responsible for the damage. After this incident, Wei more energetically committed herself to teaching ... She copied taught the lessons and maintained order. She kept her students focused and learning. She provided exercise time and singing lessons, and ensured the students pledged allegiance to Chairman Mao and the Communist system. She was determined to do her best and earn her salary. The build up of the plot and sequencing of scenes is superbly done. As the story unfolds, each current event suprisingly and brilliantly flows into the next event. The message is simple but profound.
The film takes a unique turn on the day Wei took roll call and she discovered Zhang was missing. She looked fro him all over the village and even visited his home. There she learned his mother was ill, and as a result the family incurred a debt. He went to work in the city to help pay off the expenses. Her dedication to finding Zhang caught on like a wildfire among the students. She did math lessons using the practical problem of calculating how many days of work it would take carrying bricks at the local factory to raise enough money for her to travel by bus into the city to find Zhang. While doing the calculations on the black board, the mayor walked by and was impressed how this 13 year old Primary School graduate could capture the attention of a whole class of students to intently work out math problems. He did not know their goal was to help find Zhang and bring him back to school. Her zealous spirit and one-mindedness brought about a miracle: all the students worked at the local brick factory to raise the funds necessary for the trip.
The film is totally engaging in how it covers her experiences in the city when trying to find Zhang. She hires a girl about her own age to help look for him. It was under her watch Zhang had disappeared at the bus station after going to the bathroom ... The Director does a fabulous job in filming the realistic experiences associated with someone totally unfamiliar with city life who goes looking for a missing person. The difficulties she faced were daunting and well portrayed. Through a chance encounter, a stranger sees her writing posters to place in strategic locations with information about Zhang, he points ouf the problems with this strategy and explains why it will not work. Due to her tenacity, he gives her the most valubale information which allows her to locate a television studio where senseleass bureacracy blocks her goals. By pure chance, the person she is looking for, the radio station manager, learns of her quest ... The story ends in a most heart-warming satisfactory manner: Wei Minzhi is interviewed on a TV program "Today in China". She tearfully and sincerely pleads for the viewers to help locate Zhang and she asks with heart felt emotion for him to return to school. Although the home coming to the village is a bit less spectacular than one might expect, over all the execution and flow of the story makes up for this one slight deficiency. The film does indeed reveal the rewards of teaching ... Erika Borsos [pepper flower]
Summary of Not One Less
When the regular teacher must leave his post, he can only find a 13 year old girl to take his place. She takes her new job so seriously that she refuses to loose even one student.Genre: Foreign Film - Chinese
Rating: G
Release Date: 22-AUG-2000
Media Type: DVD
Zhang Yimou's (Raise the Red Lantern) tale of a plucky adolescent substitute teacher in a rural Chinese village, cast entirely with nonactors and shot on location, is an astute example of censorship politics. Taking on touchy issues with a veneer of can-do spirit and happy-ending fantasy, his film is at once rousing and eye-opening. Wei Minzhi is a stubborn young woman who takes a substitute teaching job in a tiny provincial town because they can't afford anyone else. When one troublemaking boy heads off to the city to help support his starving family, it's not a sense of responsibility that drives her rescue mission, it's money: She won't receive her bonus if any students are missing. Her efforts to raise money for the city trip pulls the class together in a sense of purpose, and even drives the lessons, but when she finally reaches the city she's shocked to discover an urban jungle of lost and runaway kids. Yimou shoots with an easy naturalism that suggests a well-intentioned docudrama in spots, due to narrative contrivances and a few self-conscious performances, but his compromises ultimately make his shocking look at China's rural poverty, adolescent workers, urban juvenile homelessness, and woefully underfunded educational system more potent. In the heat of the film's uplifting climax, the once-mischievous boy pulls the film back down to earth with his reflection on his big-city adventure: "I had to beg for food. I'll never forget that." --Sean Axmaker
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