Today is the teacher's day and a day to remember our scholar, philosopher president Hon. Mr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan.
Few years ago on AXN TV, I saw a beautiful chinese movie "Not one less". It is a story of the simple and dedicated village teacher, who for her troublemaker student, comes to big city and on the television appeals him to return to the village and because of her heart-touching appeal not only her naughty student cries but the every sensible person in that city moves and helps her to find the student.
The story -
Teacher Gao of the Shuiquan Primary School has to be away from school for a month to tend to his ailing mother. The mayor of the village finds a substitute teacher, Wei Minzhi, to take over the class for Teacher Gao. Seeing that Wei Minzhi is only 13 years old, Teacher Gao protests to the mayor that such a young girl will not be able to teach students who are her own age or slightly younger. The mayor replies that finding anyone in that rural area that is willing to take the job is no mean feat, and that at the least she can keep an eye on things while Teacher Gao is away.
Wei is also poor, and initially accepts the job because of the money. She does not care about student or the teaching. Teacher Gao’s class had 40 students at the beginning of the school year, but increasing attrition has brought that number down to 28. Teacher Gao admonishes Wei Minzhi that she must not allow even one more student to drop out while he’s gone and promises her an extra 10 yuan in pay if she succeeds (Not one student should be less).
Teacher Wei, as her students—who are not much younger than she is—now ironically call her, embarks on a day-to-day struggle to maintain some semblance of order and authority. She writes Teacher Gao's lessons onto the board, and then makes her students copy them into their notebooks. A very straightforward plan of action if it wasn't for those mischievous children who sense a trace of shyness clumsily disguised in Wei's bossiness.
In an attempt to discipline the students, Teacher Wei occasionally resorts to locking them up in the classroom and running after those who manage to escape. And so her struggle continues.
When a bus carrying an athletics trainer from the state sporting institution arrives, in an attempt to recruit a talented fast runner from the school, Wei displays her stubborn resoluteness in trying to prevent the loss of the student. In this humorous scene, Wei desperately tries to find the young girl who has been hidden by the Mayor. The Mayor approves of the transfer, and reassures the trainer that the girl's parents will as well, when he notifies them of it later. Especially striking is the power exercised by local authority over family matters. In a final effort to “rescue” her pupil, Wei runs after the bus. The Mayor remarks to the trainer that Wei is also not a bad runner. Maybe she could also join the training institute? Everything seems permissible in the pursuit of success, or in the fight for government funding and a higher profile for the school.
Wei faithfully calls the roster every day and then sets the students to copying lessons from the blackboard. She is not overly concerned about whether the students actually learn anything as long as they stay put; she ends up spending most of each day sitting guard outside the classroom door.
A particularly disruptive nuisance is 10 year-old Zhang Huike, who, amongst other troubles, causes the crushing of the chalk. His action evokes sympathy towards the helpless Wei from children who previously gave her a hard time.
Zhang Huike is a bright but naughty boy who often tries Wei’s patience as she works to keep a semblance of order amongst the children. His family is in serious financial debt, however, and when he fails to appear in class one morning, Wei discovers he has been forced to go to the city to find work.
With Teacher Gao’s words still firmly in her mind but only a vague idea of where the boy might be, Wei Minzhi sets off on her own to the big city to try to find Zhang Huike and bring him back.
Wei's reasons are purely selfish, which is somewhat of a turnoff. Initially, she tries to find Zhang only to ensure she receives the extra money. Also, Zhang is a brat. He is the class troublemaker, constantly a thorn in Wei's side. Neither character engenders much sympathy from the viewer. Who cares if Zhang returns? The class is better off without him. Thankfully, sometime in the middle, Wei's reasons for searching change, becoming earnest.
All the students begin to adopt a more serious and purposeful approach to their studies, especially arithmetic. The exact bus fare that Wei will need to travel to Jiangjiakou City must be worked out. In one of their calculations, the children decide they will need to move bricks for 175 hours in the local brick factory to pay for Wei's return fare. In the end, they manage to earn just enough for a couple of cans of coke, which they eagerly gulp down as their reward.
The children's efforts seem to indicate their yearning for their greatest unfulfilled dream—getting to the city themselves. Helping Wei is probably the closest they will ever come to the imaginary prosperity of the outside world.
Finally, the children help Wei sneak into the city-bound bus. Despite being thrown off, she manages to reach her destination after an arduous ordeal on foot and hitchhiking. Now a totally different, more sophisticated picture of China emerges, one of technological prosperity, although punctuated with people holding mobile phones sleeping on the streets.
After an exhausting search, Wei decides to implement her final plan to find Zhang: to plead with the state television chief to allow her to appear live on air, hoping that Zhang might see her. In the following sequences, almost painful to watch but also comically natural, Wei tries to find the chief by stopping every station employee wearing glasses (that was, after all, how the security guard described him).
In an unexpected twist, the station chief calls for the girl after noticing her at the gate for two days and sympathizing with her cause. In the most moving scene of the film, Zhang recognizes the tearful Wei on television and breaks down in tears, unleashing all his pent-up pain, mixed now with happiness. Finally, both children are returned to their village, escorted by shiny-faced beaming media personnel looking for a picturesque slice of China's rural life. The greatest gift by these media personnel to these children is the colored chalks which they have seen first time in their life.
The great thing in this film is that the young students are young students in real classroom. The mayor is a mayor in real life. Television anchors, station managers, store clerks, and train station announcers all play the same roles in the movie as they play in real life. The entire cast uses their real names in the film further blurring the line between fiction and reality. Zhang also placed hidden cameras on to his cast while filming in the city, to catch everyday people acting normally. Any sour taste is gone by the middle of the movie, making the rest heartwarming.
http://www.sonypictures.com/classics/notoneless/story.html
http://www.haro-online.com/movies/not_one_less.html
Wei is also poor, and initially accepts the job because of the money. She does not care about student or the teaching. Teacher Gao’s class had 40 students at the beginning of the school year, but increasing attrition has brought that number down to 28. Teacher Gao admonishes Wei Minzhi that she must not allow even one more student to drop out while he’s gone and promises her an extra 10 yuan in pay if she succeeds (Not one student should be less).
Teacher Wei, as her students—who are not much younger than she is—now ironically call her, embarks on a day-to-day struggle to maintain some semblance of order and authority. She writes Teacher Gao's lessons onto the board, and then makes her students copy them into their notebooks. A very straightforward plan of action if it wasn't for those mischievous children who sense a trace of shyness clumsily disguised in Wei's bossiness.
In an attempt to discipline the students, Teacher Wei occasionally resorts to locking them up in the classroom and running after those who manage to escape. And so her struggle continues.
When a bus carrying an athletics trainer from the state sporting institution arrives, in an attempt to recruit a talented fast runner from the school, Wei displays her stubborn resoluteness in trying to prevent the loss of the student. In this humorous scene, Wei desperately tries to find the young girl who has been hidden by the Mayor. The Mayor approves of the transfer, and reassures the trainer that the girl's parents will as well, when he notifies them of it later. Especially striking is the power exercised by local authority over family matters. In a final effort to “rescue” her pupil, Wei runs after the bus. The Mayor remarks to the trainer that Wei is also not a bad runner. Maybe she could also join the training institute? Everything seems permissible in the pursuit of success, or in the fight for government funding and a higher profile for the school.
Wei faithfully calls the roster every day and then sets the students to copying lessons from the blackboard. She is not overly concerned about whether the students actually learn anything as long as they stay put; she ends up spending most of each day sitting guard outside the classroom door.
A particularly disruptive nuisance is 10 year-old Zhang Huike, who, amongst other troubles, causes the crushing of the chalk. His action evokes sympathy towards the helpless Wei from children who previously gave her a hard time.
Zhang Huike is a bright but naughty boy who often tries Wei’s patience as she works to keep a semblance of order amongst the children. His family is in serious financial debt, however, and when he fails to appear in class one morning, Wei discovers he has been forced to go to the city to find work.
With Teacher Gao’s words still firmly in her mind but only a vague idea of where the boy might be, Wei Minzhi sets off on her own to the big city to try to find Zhang Huike and bring him back.
Wei's reasons are purely selfish, which is somewhat of a turnoff. Initially, she tries to find Zhang only to ensure she receives the extra money. Also, Zhang is a brat. He is the class troublemaker, constantly a thorn in Wei's side. Neither character engenders much sympathy from the viewer. Who cares if Zhang returns? The class is better off without him. Thankfully, sometime in the middle, Wei's reasons for searching change, becoming earnest.
All the students begin to adopt a more serious and purposeful approach to their studies, especially arithmetic. The exact bus fare that Wei will need to travel to Jiangjiakou City must be worked out. In one of their calculations, the children decide they will need to move bricks for 175 hours in the local brick factory to pay for Wei's return fare. In the end, they manage to earn just enough for a couple of cans of coke, which they eagerly gulp down as their reward.
The children's efforts seem to indicate their yearning for their greatest unfulfilled dream—getting to the city themselves. Helping Wei is probably the closest they will ever come to the imaginary prosperity of the outside world.
Finally, the children help Wei sneak into the city-bound bus. Despite being thrown off, she manages to reach her destination after an arduous ordeal on foot and hitchhiking. Now a totally different, more sophisticated picture of China emerges, one of technological prosperity, although punctuated with people holding mobile phones sleeping on the streets.
After an exhausting search, Wei decides to implement her final plan to find Zhang: to plead with the state television chief to allow her to appear live on air, hoping that Zhang might see her. In the following sequences, almost painful to watch but also comically natural, Wei tries to find the chief by stopping every station employee wearing glasses (that was, after all, how the security guard described him).
In an unexpected twist, the station chief calls for the girl after noticing her at the gate for two days and sympathizing with her cause. In the most moving scene of the film, Zhang recognizes the tearful Wei on television and breaks down in tears, unleashing all his pent-up pain, mixed now with happiness. Finally, both children are returned to their village, escorted by shiny-faced beaming media personnel looking for a picturesque slice of China's rural life. The greatest gift by these media personnel to these children is the colored chalks which they have seen first time in their life.
The great thing in this film is that the young students are young students in real classroom. The mayor is a mayor in real life. Television anchors, station managers, store clerks, and train station announcers all play the same roles in the movie as they play in real life. The entire cast uses their real names in the film further blurring the line between fiction and reality. Zhang also placed hidden cameras on to his cast while filming in the city, to catch everyday people acting normally. Any sour taste is gone by the middle of the movie, making the rest heartwarming.
http://www.sonypictures.com/classics/notoneless/story.html
http://www.haro-online.com/movies/not_one_less.html
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