NOT ONE LESS (Sony Classics) Starring: Wei Minzhi, Zhang Huike, Tian Zhenda, Gao Enman. Screenplay: Shi Xiangsheng, based on his book _There Is a Sun in the Sky_ Producer: Zhang Weiping. Director: Zhang Yimou. MPAA Rating: G Running Time: 106 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
It's a terrible habit of mine that I often find myself watching non-English language films throught he lens of "how would Hollywood screw this up." Aside from the implied inherent superiority of all things sub-titled, there's the strange problem of comparing a film I'm watching to a film that hasn't even been made, but which in my head is a dire experience indeed. A film can't help but seem glorious under such conditions, though it doesn't help the discussion of the film on its own merits. I was doing a pretty good job of avoiding the hypothetical comparison in Zhang Yimou's NOT ONE LESS, until a curious thing happened: In its final fifteen minutes, it started to turn into its own Hollywood incarnation. Thank heaven it's so good for so long that the strange twist can't spoil the experience.
Using actors whose own names become the names of his characters, Zhang tells the story of the rural Chinese village of Shuixian and its unique educational problems. Shuixian's only teacher, Gao Enman, is leaving on a month-long sabbatical to care for his ill mother, obliging mayor Tian Zhenda to bring in a substitute from a neighboring village. The new teacher is Wei Minzhi, a 13-year-old who's the only person willing to take the job. Wei is only in it for the 50 yuan she's been promised, and is eager for the 10 yuan bonus Gao promises her if he returns to find the same 28 students in his rapidly dwindling class. Then class troublemaker Zhang Huike leaves for Beijing to help his family pay off its debts, sending Wei on her own quest to bring Huike back to the village.
The impressive thing about both Zhang's direction and Shi Xiangsheng's script (based on his account of his experience as a rural teacher) is how gradually and unobtrusively Wei's character develops. She's pretty unsympathetic at the outset -- utterly unqualified for her post, effective primarily at playing goalkeeper at the schoolroom door, but not at all troubled about demanding her money. When Huike leaves, she's so single-minded about getting him back to guarantee her bonus that she takes her class on a field trip that essentially amounts to slave labor, moving bricks to earn the money for bus fare. The cleverly handled scenes of Wei leading the class in math problems with very real-world implications make for a solid foundation, but it's only when Wei heads into the city that her quest becomes more selfless. The amount of time she devotes to ensuring the welfare of one student -- although initially for selfish reasons -- turns her into a real teacher.
Wei's quest and the growing she does along the way make for a thoroughly compelling narrative, but Zhang has socio-political fish to fry as well. As NOT ONE LESS draws to a close, the story becomes a statement about the plight of China's rural poor, including the deteriorating conditions of schools and the flight of students to help support their families. There's a funny bit in which a thoroughly terrified Wei goes on television to help the search for Huike, but it leads to a sentimentalized ending in which the troubles of the Shuixian school become a media sensation. A film crew rolls into town, accompanied by plenty of donated school supplies, and the children end up gathered around Wei in an uplifting "to her, with love" climax while a scrolling message dutifully informs us about the real-life conditions in rural Chinese schools. It's still a satisfying resolution, but it's excessively underlined. It's the way Hollywood films too often try to convince an audience they've not just watched an enjoyable film, but also become more compassionate, better-informed citizens of the world.
The frustrating part is that it's so unnecessary. Virtually from the outset, the financial conditions of the school become an effective part of the drama; you'd never expect a film to wring such tension from a student stepping on the school's more-precious-than-gold chalk supply. The rookie actors are raw, but do a more than serviceable job of performing their own lives. In short, NOT ONE LESS does everything a film needs to do to draw you into its world, and into the characters inhabiting that world. When it resorts to a message-heavy happy ending, it suddenly feels like another sort of film entirely. For a thankfully brief moment, I saw a glimpse of the mass-market crowd-pleaser that might have been. It's a reminder of how much more pleasing a film can be when it sticks to simpler truths.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 class struggles: 8.
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