Not One Less

When the teacher of a remote village in China must leave for a month, his class is left at the hands of a 13 year old girl, Wei. Wei isn't much older than the students herself, but with no else available to take his place, the teacher leaves, promising to give her 10 extra yuan as a bonus to her original payment if all of the students are still there when he gets back. At first, Wei doesn't seem at all interested in her responsibilities until the mayor drops in and reveals that he's taking one of her students out of the school to become a professional athlete.Reality sets in for Wei when she is unsuccessful at hiding the student and keeping her enrolled in the school until the teacher returns. To make matters worse, it's not long before another student is shipped off to the city to find work instead of going to school. At this point, Wei is determined to make her extra money and begins trying to come up with bus money to go to the city. She manages to get the entire class involved in raising money, but when it comes time to buy the bus ticket, she discovers that the price of the ticket was grossly underestimated. Not discouraged, Wei finds her way, on foot, to the city. Once in the city, Wei continues to try different things to find the missing student, including having an audio message broadcast to the city, using the last of her money to hand write missing posters, and even standing outside of a tv station for over a day, waiting for the manager to come out so she can speak with him. Once word reaches the manager that there has been a girl waiting for him, he calls her in, hears her story, and helps broadcast a story about the missing boy on a television program, which ultimately brings the boy home. Along with this happy ending, the awareness of the village's struggle to offer schooling to the children on the countryside brings much needed funding from outside sources to the school. In the end, Wei earns her bonus and through pure patience and determination brings the small village much more assistance than the absent teacher could have ever imagined.

Not One Less contains many different themes including ones about the media, education in rural China, and the clash between rural and urban living. One theme that I found to be quite profound was the importance of money. From the start, money is an issue for Wei, who is working an entire month of school for 20 yuan. For an uninformed American like myself, it isn't realized how little 20 yuan actually is until Wei begins trying to raise money for a bus ticket. She makes little purchases like soda along the way, thinking she'll have enough left for a bus ticket, but as it turns out a bus ticket was a lot more than she or anyone in her class anticipated. Money is very important in the film because it seems she can't do much without it, but it is ultimately the source of all of her patience and determination. Ironically enough, the conclusion of the film brings more money to the village's school, and it seems all of her patience paid off. Literally.

This film was definitely different from the movies I regularly watch. It had a much slower pace and lot less going on. It seemed like there was the one main goal, and it focused on that for the entire film. There were no side plots, there was a problem established at the very beginning of the story, and Wei set out to make things right. Definitely not something I'd recommend to someone as a "good movie". And by that, I mean it's not very entertaining. It certainly has a point to be made about a situation in China, but it's not something that you want to kick back with some popcorn and watch. It's much more serious and leaves the viewer to observe a hardship that they will likely never face. On the other hand, I did think the acting was remarkable. Wei and the children in the classroom were believable, which makes you feel like you are a part of their struggle.