Not One Less

Not One Less
Directed by Zhang Yimou
Starring Wei Minzhi, Zhang Huike, Tian Zhenda, Gao Enman and Zhang Yichang
playing exclusively at the Ritz at the Bourse
* * * 1/2 (three and one half stars)

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THE JIST of MY PROSE A wonderfully simple, carefully structured - to gleam, mind you - near-perfect story of a 13 year old teacher that ventures to the big city to retrieve a student in her class. There is no filmmaker on earth like Zhang Yimou, who has carved a niche as impressive as any of the masters. This film is delightful from it's opening scenes to it's closing credits. I had a smile on my face the whole time.

I have a lot of good things to say about legendary director Zhang Yimou’s latest
cinematic offering. Before that - to balance the scales - allow me to showcase my biases.
I love Zhang Yimou. I think he’s one of the best filmmakers working in the world today.
‘To Live’, made in 1994, is one of the best films I’ve ever seen. His quieter, but still
wonderfully constructed family trilogy - ‘Ju Dou’, ‘Raise the Red Lantern’ and ‘The
Story of Qui Ju’ are necessary treasures which are gloriously written. His first film, ‘Red
Sorghum’ boasts, literally, some of the best imagery put on film in the last twenty years.
And finally, ‘Shanghai Triad’, which I discounted at first - is a brilliant period piece and
one of the most suspenseful films ever to travel the language gap. In short - I went into
‘Not One Less’ with the director’s entire repertoire on my mind, expecting nothing short
of absolute majesty - and was not disappointed.

‘Not One Less’ is a very different kind of film for Yimou. For one, much of it is
hand-held it straddles the fine line between narrative and the very evocation of direct
cinema. It’s also a different type of film because it’s a message film - one that’s never
obtrusive nor preachy. It certainly doesn’t feel like a message film - but the epilogue
makes it one. And it’s not a bad thing.

And it’s whimsical. It’s a real-life story, but it’s light around the edges - keeping
it afloat when the really intense subject matter comes to pass. My original take on the
film was that it fit the mold for an American ‘at-all-costs’ picture. I quickly refuted that
type of thinking. ‘Not One Less’ is genre-less. Like his last film, Yimou creates with the
palette of life and defies what is on the surface - giving us a film that builds and builds
with energy and beauty - and never seems to land in familiar film territory. It seems to
make its own place in it’s own world. And it’s simply delightful.

The movie opens with Wei Minzhi, 13, being summoned as a substitute teacher to
a class of 28 while the regular teacher (Gao Enman) visits his ailing mother for one
month. He instructs her not to let a single student quit the class (down 12 kids from the
beginning of the school year already). What ensues is a power struggle - a stubborn
journey of retrieval - and ultimate respect which defies Wei Minzhi’s age. She inevitably
loses a student - a sharp but wicked young man, Zhang Huike - to a debt he must work to
pay off for his own ailing mother. When Minzhi ventures to the big city to drag him back
with her - the film gambles and wins on whether or not it can portray the hopelessness
that overwhelms Wei Minzhi - and an appropriate vindication of sorts. It’s the kind of
perfection you grill over in your head, smiling to yourself and hoping everyone in the
theater has picked up on the same thing you have.

Finally, when the persistent Wei Minzhi begins spending money to make things
right - the movie breaks free. It becomes a wonderful excursion of self-discovery for her -
and breaks down beautifully to : childhood innocence embodied, struck, discarded and
regained. With strife comes results - as simple as that. ‘Not One Less’ - using
non-professional actors, raw compassion and a wondrous bout of dedication - is
simplicity defined and easily one of the best films of the year.

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