China: Not One Less (Yi ge dou bu neng shao); 1999; directed by Yimou Zhang

Thirteen-year-old Wei Minzhi is brought in to replace Teacher Gao for a month in a very poor Chinese village’s elementary school. The girl, the only qualified person available to take on the job, is expected to control and teach the class, consisting of fewer than 30 students up through grade four. Because families often require their children to work, schools in such poverty-stricken areas tend to lose students rapidly. If Teacher Gao returns from caring for his ill mother to find the entire class intact, and “not one less,” then Minzhi will receive a bonus in addition to her regular pay. It becomes clear that the young girl will do absolutely anything to ensure this outcome. First, one female student is recruited by a much larger school as an athlete, but Minzhi is assured that because this is a good thing, it will not count against her. But soon afterward, the class troublemaker, Zhang Huike, leaves the class for the city, in a desperate effort to make some money for his family.


Wei Minzhi then sets the other students’ sights on bringing him back. They calculate the amount of money necessary to get Minzhi to the city to search for the boy, and then attempt to raise it by working all day long to move huge stacks of bricks. This mission does not go as well as they hoped, so Minzhi ends up trying to sneak aboard a bus into the city, and finally, begins a lengthy, hot trek down the road alone. At last she is given a ride. In the city, she enlists the help of another young girl who had been with Zhang Huike at the station and then could not find him. Forcing this girl to assist her, Minzhi is able to set up an announcement to be broadcast to the city, telling her student where to come find her. When this fails, Minzhi is forced to pay the girl, then is left alone to try other methods. She spends hours writing up fliers, but after being told that they are hopeless, she takes a man’s advice and seeks out the manager of the local TV station.



Repeatedly turned away and told that she will never be allowed into the station, Minzhi persists and relentlessly waits outside the gates, asking every man she sees whether he is the station manager. Meanwhile, Zhang Huike has been begging for food, finally taken in by a restaurant owner in exchange for ceasing to annoy her customers. The station manager hears about the determined young girl who’s been waiting to see him, and kindly invites her in and offers to help her by having her on a show as their guest. Here she is allowed to tell the audience about the village school and plead for Zhang Huike to return. Luckily, he watches her tearful message at the café, and does come back. The happy ending sees the TV crew driving the two children back to the school, interviewing them. The entire village now celebrates the fact that many people who witnessed Wei Minzhi’s touching story have decided to help them, and all of the students and Teacher Wei write joyful words on the blackboard using their newly donated colorful chalk.

The struggles of the impoverished are certainly this film’s most glaring, prominent, and important theme. And as many a film proves, it's through the innocent eyes of children that these subjects can perhaps be most effectively showcased. Such a large fraction of the Chinese population now lives this way that to let them go ignored while other certain specific areas of the country flourish is atrocious, and is definitely horrible in the director’s eyes. The tremendous gap existing between the few rich and the many poor people is made apparent simply by comparing the scenes of the city versus those of the countryside. It is not even the most affluent type of city, yet the differences in the residents’ clothes, dwellings, and lifestyles are startling. The poor wear the same clothes over and over, attend class in a small, dirty, ramshackle building, and must constantly struggle just for enough to subsist on. The girl who tried to help find Zhang Huike was doing difficult manual labor for what converted to a mere few dollars a week. For most of us here in America it is probably next to impossible to even imagine having to face that sort of life, but millions in China and elsewhere all over the world do so every day of their lives. Movies such as this one are a large part of what brings the sad reality to people in far more privileged places.

Also evident is the director’s undisguised criticism of the Chinese “Communist” government. People must rely on the kindness and generosity of one another, because clearly, their rulers have little concern for their well-being. The blatant hypocrisy came through early on, when Minzhi sang the song she’d learned in praise of leader Mao. Later on, after the children recited the national anthem around the flagpole, Minzhi--consciously or not--displayed some wisdom and reflected the director's own apparent thoughts by changing the plan and having the class learn a different song that dealt with nature.

Sympathizing with Wei Minzhi is all too easy. Here is a 13-year-old put in charge of a whole class, who at first seems understandably out-of-place, shy, and unsure. However, in time her true personality shows itself: She can be decisive, take-charge, and even bossy when the situation calls for it. She is simply another person desperate for money—but she also is compassionate and obviously becomes attached to these students. Her naïve innocence and thus her complete, single-minded, dogged determination during the search for Zhang Huike was very moving. Undaunted by the discouraging, negative attitudes she encountered in the city from people who are much more advantaged than she is, that girl moved logically from one plan to the next, refusing to give up on the goal she couldn’t envision failing to reach.



The simple and almost documentary-like style of filming works perfectly for this movie, given the extremely realistic subject matter and simple lives being depicted (and hopefully respected by the audience.) Nothing about the look, feel, or message is flashy and superficial. All of the actors, in this spirit of neo-realism, are non-professionals. Natural scenery, bright sunlight & outdoor lighting, and a natural soundtrack of animal sounds, cars, etc. are found throughout much of the film. Very little music is used; the score is mainly reserved for particularly poignant moments, such as the students sharing their first Coca Cola, Minzhi’s long walk toward the city, or the explanation of Teacher Gao’s lessons on the significance of conserving their chalk--and hence why all of their limited resources are so precious. Ironically, as is very often the case around the world, natural beauty surrounds groups of people living in poor conditions with barely enough to survive, help their families, and possibly educate their children. “Not One Less” is an excellent, powerful film whose very positive ending should be an example for all—only if others care and are charitable can so many lives be changed for the better.