fludd.org - Movie Review

To be very honest with you, the reason why I have always admired Zhang Yimou, one of the best Chinese movie directors of all time, it’s because I am always moved by the honesty that one can feel by watching his movie, despite the small budget that he has at his disposal. Zhang Yimou offers us a movie about education in rural China and that man gives us a chance to see how much education is important in a country that is doing its best to develop itself economically.

Relying on a very small budget, Chinese movie director Zhang Yimou does know how to transform a very realistic movie (that look like an independent movie) into a very entertaining and unforgettable experience with a script that reflects the reality of China. The script is quite simple, because all we are seeing is a two leading characters that are evolving as the story advances and at the end, they see that they have learned so many lessons and that they got what they were looking for. Despite being written quite brilliantly, the script has a little weakness that affects the movie a little bit: the pace. In fact, during one scene, the teacher who is outside a train station just ask every man with glasses if they are the train station’s manager. Unfortunately, one might have the feeling that it creates such a long period, but the movie viewer will feel very elated when the scene is over and afterwards, you will be driven to the end very quickly. All that being said, the script looks very brilliant despite the presence of a little weakness. Although it wasn’t produced with a big budget, it obviously hits us by its stunning realism.

Obviously, it is quite strange that such an excellent movie director like Zhang Yimou relies on a non-professional actors. Apparently, that Italian cinematographic technique is called neo-realism. The advantage of neo-realism has a very noticeable advantage (however, it can often be a big disadvantage!): the cast’s performance, which is wonderfully astounding, looks very natural and therefore, it can also be said that the characters’ feelings are pretty close to reality. The leading actress Wei Minzhi (everybody is playing themselves), as the substitute teacher, is playing very well and obviously, she does not lack charisma, because whenever she appears, it is always a pleasure to see that actress in action because of her charisma that no one can deny. All that being said, the whole cast of Not One Less delivers an impressive performance that we are likely to find anywhere, even in Hollywood!

Finally, it can be said that Not One Less shouldn’t be watched as a Saturday night entertainment movie, because you might be disappointed. All you have to do is to watch it the same way you will watch a documentary (but instead, it is an extremely smart and deep movie) and let yourself be charmed by the incredible and irresistible sweetness of the story about the crushing poverty in rural China. Many people can also guess easily that behind such a tremendous work, director Zhang Yimou probably wanted to say that although many people are poor in China (at the time when the movie was shot, mind you), education will give them hope and happiness.

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