Not One Less

Not One Less, is a beautiful piece of work that includes non-actors who play there part to perfection. When the schools regular teacher Gao has to leave the school for a month to be at the side of his ailing mother, the village mayor selects very young Wei Minzhi to teach the class for a salary of 50 yuan. If she is able to keep all twenty-eight students in school she will earn an extra 12 yuan. She is so overwhelmed by the assignment that she begins by letting the kids do whatever they want, while she writes the notes on the board and guards the door till the end. Through this time she develops a problem with a student in the school, Zhang Huike who is very disruptive and breaks the schools precious chalk. When he decides to drop out of school to try and make money in the city for his family is when Wei Minzhi finally transforms into a teacher. She decides to go into the city to look for him and uses real life problem solving to teach the students at the school. After trying few ways to get money, Wei finds herself in the city relentlessly looking for Zhang. With no knowledge of city life she has to depend on strangers, often asking them questions. She tries to get into a TV studio, where the receptionist stubbornly doesn't allow her to get in because she has no form of identification. She than resorts to hanging outside by the studio asking strangers relentlessly if they were the studio manager. The movie seems so real when during a Tv interview she freezes up in front of the camera, giving the movie a real sentimental value. This movie is real straight up with every thing depicting poverty's effect on rural China. The movie primarily focuses on the heroine who is determined to carry out her adult duties. Yimou Zhang is the director of this movie, he is a notorious great chinese director who has directed such great chinese films such as, "Hero" and "The House Of Flying Daggers." A very slow movie with such a great story deserves every accolade it receives, not one less.