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4/11/2000
Not One Less
This is the first movie I've suggested that is
actually at the theaters when I recommend it.
This movie is about a teacher in a rural Chinese
village who is called away to tend to his sick mother.
The town hires a 13 year-old girl to substitute for
him. She is offered extra money if all 28 students
are in school when the teacher returns, Not One Less.
The beginning of the movie is devoted to showing the
substitute trying to teach the class but really having
no idea what how to teach. Then when one student goes to the big city to try and make some money for his sick mother,
the substitute follows him to try and bring him back.
This leads to one of the more compelling scenes you'll ever see in any film. The substitute teacher goes on TV to beg the boy to return to the village with her. I can't describe the sheer emotion of this scene, but suffice to say this
13 year-old actress, Minzhi Wei, gets more emotion out of 30 seconds of silence than an entire lifetime of Jerry Bruckenheimer movies.
One of the more interesting aspects of this movie is
the way the director, Yimou Zhang (best known for "Raise the Red
Lantern") cast the movie. He didn't use
actors but went to an actual village in the Chinese
mountains to fill out all the roles for the movie. Its pretty amazing the
genuine passion he is able to get out of these everyday people.
CDWH
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