Not One Less (Yi ge dou bu neng shao)

Released 1999
Stars Wei Minzhi, Zhang Huike, Tian Zhenda, Gao Enman, Feng Yuying, Li Fanfan
Directed by Zhang Yimou

"Not One Less" is not only about the poor in China's remote rural areas, but could be dedicated to them; we sense that Zhang Yimou, the director of such sophisticated films as "Raise the Red Lantern" and "Shanghai Triad," is returning here to memories of the years from 1968 to 1978, when he worked as a rural laborer under the Cultural Revolution. His story is simple, unadorned, direct. Only the margins are complicated.

The actors are not professionals, but local people playing characters with their own names. Wei Minzhi, a red-cheeked 13-year-old who usually looks very intent, stars as Wei, a substitute teacher, also very intent. The village's schoolmaster has been called away to his mother's deathbed, and Wei's assignment is to teach the grade school class.

To assist her in this task, she is supplied with one piece of chalk for every day the teacher will be away. And she gets strict instructions: Since the school's subsidy depends on its head count, she is to return the full class to the teacher--"not one less." Keeping all the students in class is more important than anything she teaches them, and indeed she isn't a lot more advanced than her students. This isn't one of those movies where the inspired teacher awakens the minds and spirits of her class; Wei copies lessons on the board and blocks the door.

These early scenes are interesting in the way they don't exploit the obvious angles of the story. This isn't a pumped-up melodrama or an inspirational tearjerker, but a matter-of-fact look at a poor rural area where necessity is the mother of invention and everything else. When one of her students, Zhang (Zhang Huike), runs away to look for work in the big city, Wei determines to follow him and bring him back. This is not an easy task.

Summary by Roger Ebert

This is an amazing film--not inspirational but deeply moving. From the title and trailer, I was expecting a sentimental journey with a brave young teacher rescuing a lost boy. This is quite the opposite. It's a bleak story that highlights certain negatives in China and ends with some of the burgeoning positives. It starts slowly with Wei taking over as the substitute in a rural classroom. It's hardly a school, and Wei is certainly not a teacher. She's an unsympathetic girl, who is essentially an awkward, withdrawn thirteen year-old, who has no business being there.

Wei's character is interesting in her naivete regarding the workplace and money. She felt copying the lesson on the board and guarding the door was earning her money. She was confused by the act of working versus working to accomplish something. Later she took the kids to the local brick factory, which was closed, and they moved 1000 bricks from one place to another. She figured she moved them and should get paid, regardless of whether this was something the factory needed. It certainly didn't need a bunch of broken bricks, but they did the work and she demanded to be paid. It's interesting how she communicates with everyone. She doesn't politely ask or plead for things. She demands. This makes her unsympathetic, but it makes her a realistic, confused teenager.

We see many examples of her naivete in the city, but the most memorable for me was when she spent the rest of her money on paper, ink, and a pen to make flyers to find the missing boy. She spent hours creating these flyers, and I admired her diligence. I wondered what she was writing and felt terrible when I found out. I liked the fact that she behaved like a thirteen year-old, instead of having wisdom beyond her years. She was a lost, frightened child on a mission. The world seems so straightforward to kids, who don't recognize its complexity, and it's very sad to watch a child's enthusiasm and assumptions crushed by reality.

My biggest question in the film was what was Wei's motivation to go to the city? From the beginning she seemed only interested in money. She obviously had no desire to be a teacher or be around children. She was a poor farm girl and wanted money. Teacher Gao had promised her 10 yuan if she did not lose any students, but was that her motivation? She raised more money than that through the kids, and she could have simply kept it. I don't know what her motivation was. Maybe she was more compassionate than she seemed. We don't get any insight into Wei, but we do see her dogged determination.

China is a third-world country that's trying to graduate to second-world, and this film reflects that. There's a growing number of wealthy Chinese that's beginning a new class system. The wealthy Chinese have begun to notice the poor and to understand the concept of charity. China doesn't have the infrastructure in place for the poor and indigent, because the entire country has been so poor under communist rule. People seem to only be concerned with themselves, and this is harshly depicted in Wei's visit to the city. She meets one uncaring person after another until she is finally brought to the attention of the TV station manager. He's a person who's risen to the upper class and now feels empathy for the less fortunate. He berates the insensitive receptionist, and I thought it was about time someone showed some compassion. After learning her story, he thinks of a way that allows him to help her while also doing his job. It's not a selfless act by any means, but it's a great self-serving act that is also the best way he could help Wei. I loved the direction in this scene. Up to this point, Yimou had been careful to avoid all sentimentality and manipulation, which helped give the film a documentary. Even with this scene, which is the emotional payoff for the entire film, he refuses to fall into melodrama. Wei is herself on camera. She's mute as she sits staring at the lens, and there are long uncomfortable moments as we desperately wish she could explain the situation. The anchorwoman covers for her several times, until Wei's emotion slowly bubbles to the surface in an unforgettable plea that seems completely genuine. --Bill Alward, July 15, 2000