This Zhang Yimou's masterpiece (before he started making craps like 'The curse of the golden flower') was released back in 1999, and I had the privileged of watching it during it's theatrical release then. It was recently shown on SCV and watching it again after so many years still made me awe at it's profound magic. Make no mistake this movie is a true gem and classic in every sense, if only that many people have watched it.
The story is simple, a substitute teacher, Ms Wei Ming Zhi from a poor rural mountain village was tasked to look after a class of students for one month. The original teacher, Mr Gao promised her that if she were to prevent any of the students from dropping out of school, he would pay her an extra RMB$10. Now we are talking about the poorest village you can imagine with it's children having to sleep in the school building itself because they have nowhere else to go. Every piece of chalk is a treasure as precious as the knowledge it can spare to teach. Ms Wei, herself only a few years older than her students, displays little interest or experience to handle a class of kids initially. But what she lacks for in passion she makes it up in perseverance. When one of her student, a young boy named Zhang Hui Ke, was forced to leave home and school to work in the city due to her family's increasing debts, Ms Wei is determined to fulfill her promise to Mr Gao and earn her RMB$10.
There are many areas that make '一个都不能少' so unique. For one all the actors and locations are real, you will not find one familiar actor or big name in it's casting. All the actors go by their actual name as verified in the closing credits. If Zhang is trying to invoke as much realism as he could then he certainly achieved that. The actors I believe, are also not reciting from any script. They are simply told to react as naturally as they could in the given scene. But '一个都不能少' achievements are not just layered to it's level of realism, this is an unpretentious movie that does not try to become grander than it's source material. There is no parallel social message or emotional tankering forced to the audience. The true beauty and lure of this movie lies in it's simplicity in delivering the story in it's purest form that enables audiences to 'ride along' with Ms Wei's journey. Given that, you know whatever hardships she comes to endure in her journey is all true and plausible and before long, you will feel yourself sweating to the heat she's under and wished you could spare your seat to her.
Watching '一个都不能少' will inevitably make you think about yourself and our society of grotesque excesses in general. There is a scene towards the end of the movie when Ms Wei speaks to the TV camera, her tears trickling uncontrollably about her search for her missing student. You would have to be stone-made to not feel anything to that scene! For a movie that tries so hard to not be a movie, '一个都不能少' has achieved more than any other Hollywood blockbusters colored in special effects hankered over a pretentious plot emotions. Zhang Yi Mou demonstrated that he knows about his source material enough to deliver a true image of life in rural China. It is however regrettable that he chose to follow a more profitable but nonetheless shallower path now. But if there is any message '一个都不能少' has taught us, it is to cherish the simple joys life has to offer us before they are gone. This film, however is available for rental, and I do recommend you go watch it!!!
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