NOT ONE LESS

Communists and liberals used to think that governments can cure every ill, but, as any competent political thinker now knows, that idea is simply false. NOT ONE LESS, a movie recently made in Communist China, seems to teach the limits of governmental power. A story about the poverty in a small rural school, the movie advocates charitable giving rather than government handouts. It also fosters charity in the heart as well as in the pocketbook.

In the movie’s story, a middle-aged teacher in a poor primary school, located in the dusty mountains of China, must leave school for a month to tend to his ailing mother. The village mayor hires a 13-year-old student named Wei to substitute for him, because he can find no one else. Although not happy about this, the teacher admonishes Wei to just keep an eye on things while he’s gone. He confides in her that 12 of his original 40 students have already dropped out because of family poverty. He pleads with her not to let one more student drop out. If she succeeds, he promises to pay her 10 extra yuan.

Before leaving, the teacher orders the shy young girl just to make the students copy lessons from the blackboard. Consequently, she spends most of her days sitting guard outside the classroom door of the broken-down building. Meanwhile, a bright but mischievous boy named Zhang tries her patience by often disrupting the class. When Zhang must go to the big city to earn money to support himself and his widowed, sick mother, Wei sets off on her own to find Zhang in the city and bring him back to school.

Although slow to get started, NOT ONE LESS picks up steam when Zhang leaves school. At this point, there are funny, clever scenes showing Wei and the remaining students trying to find ways to earn money for a bus ticket to the city. Under Wei’s persistent tutelage, the students begin to practice their math as they calculate what it will take for them to get the necessary funds. Now, even the mayor is impressed.

The movie turns sad and poignant after that, however. Wei actually has trouble earning all the money she needs. Eventually, she must hitchhike to the city. When she gets there, however, she finds Zhang has disappeared. Then begins a desperate search for the precocious boy. Many obstacles are put in her path, including an obstinate TV station bureaucrat who is probably paid by the Communist government.

This whole drama, told in a realistic style, seems to be a plea for charitable giving. A couple scenes at the end of the story imply that donations will help Wei’s village to improve its education facilities. An epilogue at the end of the story informs viewers that about one million children in China must leave school each year because of family poverty, especially in rural areas. Charitable giving, however, helps about 15 per cent of them return to school, the movie tells viewers. Thus, even though it does not directly challenge the socialist ideology of public schools and government-mandated education, the movie seems to preach an incipient capitalism and some Christian values. There is even one charming scene where Wei buys two cans of Coca Cola for her students with their hard-earned money. They all share a drink, not only to quench their thirst but also for a special treat. The scene with the bureaucrat adds to the movie’s anti-Communist, but mildly humanist, worldview.

Non-professionals play all the roles in NOT ONE LESS. In nearly every case, each “actor” plays the same role he or she has in life. For instance, an actual 13-year-old school girl named Wei plays the role of Wei the substitute, and a real village mayor plays the village mayor. This policy renders the children more natural, but the adults a little stiff at times. This does not interfere with one’s enjoyment of the story, however, especially once it gets going.

Only a few things keep NOT ONE LESS from becoming an unqualified masterpiece. First, a little trimming in the first hour and in a scene near the end where Wei waits monotonously outside a TV station would pick up the pace immensely. Also, famed director Zhang Yimou (RAISE THE RED LANTERN) needs to get some training in the moral and social philosophy of the Bible to improve the intelligence and cohesion of his worldview and that of his movies. He can find some of that social philosophy discussed in the second volume of John Calvin’s INSTITUTES, in the great Protestant thinkers who founded the American colonies and the United States, in Roman Catholic historian Christopher Dawson’s RELIGION AND THE RISE OF WESTERN CULTURE, and in other writings. Learning about the theological teachings of Christianity also would help. Finally, Yimou could have improved the dramatic power of the story in NOT ONE LESS by having more things happen to the little boy lost in the city and by having the middle-aged teacher return at a crucial moment in the climax.

Still, NOT ONE LESS is a lovable, family-friendly, poignant movie. Those who see it will grow to care a lot about what happens to Wei and the little boy lost in the bustle of the big city. Despite the social and political differences between China and countries like the United States, the humanity of the young people in rural China shines brightly in NOT ONE LESS. Reaching out to that humanity in a loving Christian spirit would do wonders.