Not One Less by Yimou Zhang
The mayor of an impoverished village has finally found a substitute to cover for a teacher who must leave for a month: a 13 year old girl by the name of Wei Minzhi. Before leaving, the teacher promises her an extra ten yuan if there’s not one less student when he returns. Apparently, before her arrival, the school had lost a few already. Not even a week goes by when Zhang Huike, a class clown of sorts, is forced to leave for the city and find to help with his poverty stricken family. The stubborn and single-minded Wei is more than determined to bring him back. After a failed attempt to earn money with the aid of her remaining pupils, Wei begins a long journey for the city in search of Zhang.
I believe there are two main themes behind the story: perseverance and the humanity in man. Throughout the whole entire film, Wei never stops trying. She may quit doing something a certain way, but she ultimately gets right back up and chooses a different river to follow that basically leads to same the ocean. She is awarded for her insistence with more than she asked for when she is able to reacquire Zhang and earns the school a generous donation. Her demeanor is the catalyst for finding Zhang, however, without the assistance of the concerned men and women who aided her along the way, her efforts would not have been in vain…but, it would have taken a lot longer to bear the fruit of them. Throughout the film we are presented with a multitude of characters that are apathetic towards Weis’ cause, or don’t even bother to ask what she is doing all alone in the city. Towards the end of the movie, we run into a character filled with angst and a lot of information that helps Wei. He plays both sides of the field: Doesn’t seem to care, yet is helping while seeming not to care. He provided with the advice that leads her to the T.V station. And there, its manager shows us that not everyone is hardhearted. After allowing Wei to guest star on one of the stations most watched television shows, the calls pour in with tips and hints regarding the whereabouts of Zhang. Calls, I originally thought would never have been made. Even after helping her find what she was looking for in the city, people provide her with even more assistance in the form of monetary and material donations.
I liked the movie. One of the few things I didn’t like was how there were no subtitles for the interpretation of written foreign language on posters, signs what Wei wrote, etc. I couldn’t help but wonder what things said and why they elicited the reactions they did in people who read them. Also, I didn’t like how Weis’ persistence almost bordered on “dumb”. However, she is only 13 and the fact that she didn’t seem to understand what “no” meant or that the city is dangerous is only a minor circumstance I suppose. I loved the contrasts between village and city life. It was hard not to think of the village while the plot took place in the city.
