Not One Less had Me Hoping I would Not Leak One More Tear

Not One Less, directed by Zhang Yimou was one of the most understated, emotional movies I have ever seen. Unlike traditional Chinese movies that contain blatant elements of sensationalism and Orientalism to stimulate a reaction, Not One Less powerfully compounded the everyday, unremarkable struggles of Wei Minzhi. I recommend this movie because it is a cinematic experience that left me teary-eyed and hopeless until the last, shocking twenty minutes. This movie reminds audiences of the ones forgotten, those countryside villages that barely make their mark on a map. Yet, even one troublemaking child from one unknown village holds significance for an entire nation.

Throughout the movie audiences follow the efforts of Wei to teach an ever-shrinking classroom subject material that even she has not mastered. Teacher Gao gives Wei an incentive to keep the class together until he returns, and it becomes Wei’s enduring mission to retrieve Zhang Huike from the city where he has gone in search of a job. What I found most remarkable about this movie was its ability to make me feel genuinely tender towards the characters without the use of melodrama. Histrionics are commonly employed by Chinese filmmakers to force emotion upon the audience, and although this tool is effective it leaves viewers feeling mentally exhausted at the end of a three-hour movie. Not One Less employed the ever-augmenting daily obstacles confronted by Wei to convey a sense of woe. As a result, the film is more believable and the characters are more human.

Humanized characters are interesting in film because they can only survive to a certain point before the weight of their troubles crushes them. On the opposite end of the spectrum, characters that are more similar to caricatures can tolerate more strife than the average person because their struggles are often symbolic and represent the suffering of an entire population rather than a specific individual. The characters in Farewell My Concubine are good examples of caricature characters. Yet, Wei struck me as a living soul and the climax of the movie hits at the point where she has reached her human capacity to sustain despair.

Amazingly, after Wei has reached her breaking point, the movie provides an unexpectedly happy ending. Happy endings are another rare gem in Chinese film, and I experienced mixed feelings as a result. Initially, I was literally beaming with delight, but after the credits rolled I felt the ending was a touch incongruous in regards to the rest of the movie. The ending marked a break with the realistic nature of the movie and adopted a more idealistic approach. Although the hiccup of an ending left me bemused, I still believe Not One Less is a successful film worth watching. Even if its just to take a break from the traumatic plot lines that have inundated Chinese film.