"Not One Less" (1999)

Acclaimed Chinese director Zhang Yimou's (Hero, House of Flying Daggers) 1999 film "Ye Ge Dou Bu Neng Shao" (known as "Not One Less" in America) is a nice little socially conscious film set in rural (and urban) China that has a lot to say with so very little. Little, as in the very real cast, which for the most part consists of non actors who are literally playing themselves, with the same names they have in the film as they do in real life. This conscious decision on Yimou's part was most likely to serve to make the film more realistic and even documentary-like, and he delivers in those respects. The eponymous Wei, our young protagonist, is the embodiment of the disciplined, hard working, and resilient culture of China's poverty and everything that these people have and continue to endure.

We are thrown into a dusty, rural China and a very primative mountainside schoolhouse. Schoolteacher Gao's mother is on her deathbed, so he must leave the school for a month to be with her. It is more than obvious just how little they have over there, in that the village mayor's only option for a substitute teacher is 13 year old peasant Wei Minzhi, who is not only just a couple years older than the students, but is completely ill-equiped for the job. Her only abilities encompass reciting (quite poorly) one or two songs, and copying text. The circumstances are dire, and the schoolhouse moreso. There is no clock; Wei is instructed to have the students leave once the sun hits a certain spot on the wooden post in the classroom. Adjoined to the classroom is the teacher's "office", a primitive little room where Wei is to reside off class hours and sleep with the female students in a tiny bed. Before Gao departs, he stresses to his young subordinate the importance of not being wasteful with the school's depressingly limited resources, namely the chalk. His final instructions to the all-too-eager-to-be-paid Wei is to not lose one student (as he has already lost nine or ten), and if she can maintain the roster she will receive an additional 10 yuan (which I believe is about $1.25).

Now what follows would make any person with a penchant for teaching just shake their head, as the green and generally mute Wei demonstrates her ineptness at handling young students, especially the restless handful that comprises this class. We watch her simply see it fit to transport Gao's lessons to the blackboard, tell the students to copy it all, and leave, sitting on the stoop outside the door, making circles in the sand with a stick as she waits for any potential escapees. One of the latter happens to be class troublemaker Zhang Huike, who eventually is a no show one day at school (at which point Wei had lost one of her female students to sports talent scouts, who got word of the third grader's running ability and wasted no time in picking her up). In investigating Zhang's disapearance, Wei discovers the poor (literally) kid was forced to abandon school and venture off to the city to work, as he and his mother are in dire straights and owe the government a ton of money. This is what sets off Wei's admirable (though questionable) endeavor to find him and get back, and quite an adventure does she subsequently embark on.

We soon discover what extraordinary lengths this determined young girl will go for such a small sum. Wei's pig-headedness, however, results in an inadvertent math lesson for the little ones. We see here as the kids eagerly participate, that their now-absorbed minds are warming up to her, and in turn respecting her as an elder and teacher. As the determined and penniless Wei gets the kids to help her calculate how much money a brick moving job can wield her in regard to getting a bus ride into the city, she is giving the kids substantial lessons in problem solving and mathematics without even realizing it, as all she has on her mind is acquiring this bus fare and getting Zhang back. She ultimately gets what she wants, and into the big city of Jiangjiakou she goes after a botched attempt at riding the bus short of fare, and is entering a whole new world. It is a busy, impersonal, robust city where the prosperous thrive, and the poor are scoffed at and just generally looked down upon, and treated in such manner. Kudos to this courageous and audacious (if slightly dim) girl for going to the lengths she goes to to find him. No matter what obstacles or complications arise in her doing so, she remains undetered in her quest, so much so, that the heartless, unforgiving tools that work the big city, only serve to make Wei, with her noble endeavor and all her subsequent road blocks and misfortunes, seem that much more exemplary a person.

Yimou seems to be making a commentary on the Chinese caste system, the harsh contrast between the rich and the poor, and how the latter recieves unnecessary mistreatment and ultimately gets the short end of the stick. The way the film gives us such a stark contrast in setting, with the first half in the most simple and rural of China's geography, to the second in the unforgiving hustle and bustle of the big city, is a visual representation of this great economic gap between the urban and rural population and further highlights the disparity between the rich and the poor, as there seems to be no middle ground there. So Wei, coming from the simple humbleness of the country, is completely alien to the impersonal, unforgiving, systematic nature of the city. In a way, Wei is a Christ figure; her situation is analogous to Christ nobly venturing off to retrieve his one lost sheep from his great flock, the sheep in this case being Wei. And Wei, misunderstood and in a way, persecuted (as in the scene with the TV station clerk) for a simple, noble endeavor, also serves to enhance her righteous cause.

In film, if the story can hold you and captivate you and lead you to care for the characters, then all other aspects come second. And this is evident here in Yimou's little film, as it is almost as minimalist as you can get. Limited camera movement, dynamic lighting and cinematography. Editing is simple, non-kinetic and straightforward, simply serving to advance the story. Overall it is a neorealist, documentary-like picture, and while I felt the filmmaking was quite bland and pedestrian, I must admit I was held by the story. The premise itself was enough to keep me interested, although what came to bug me once the story unfolded, was how come Wei was so obstinate and obsessed with getting Zhang back when she had already lost a student (the fast girl to the sports talent scouts)? I know that the loss of the girl was justified by the others and that they had assured Wei that Gao would understand and not be upset, but that is still technically "one less". So being so ridiculously pig-headed about retrieving Zhang didn't make total sense to me, especially given the dire circumstances put upon her being able to do so. A normal 13 year old (let alone an adult) would have given up within the first obstacle. And she is so unrelentingly stoic, not only in the face of the incredible responsibility put upon her and the widening burden of the job and her kids, but also the enormous difficulty and road blocks she encounters once she scours the cold, indifferent city for her exile. She is left penniless and hungry, sleeping on the streets, and the only time she breaks is when she miraculously (through her superhuman perseverence) gets a TV broadcast to reach out to Zhang. This scene is certainly tailor-made for the tugging of the audience's heartstrings as Wei breaks into tears with desperation in her voice, and even moreso when Zhang sees the broadcast and is emotionally affected himself. And I must admit, it got me as well. It is a very touching moment, in a cute, quiet little film that kept my attention and pulled me in, and although the film is not a joy to look at, that is certainly what film is supposed to do.