In the movie Not One Less, a thirteen-year-old girl is asked to be the substitute teacher in a small Chinese village. The teacher tells her that when he returns, if he finds all the students there, he will pay her ten yuan—
In the movie Not One Less, a thirteen-year-old girl is asked to be the substitute teacher in a small Chinese village. The teacher tells her that when he returns, if he finds all the students there, he will pay her ten yuan—less than two American dollars.
Although money is involved, it isn’t much. When one student, Zhang Huike, stops coming to school, Wei Minzhim, the thirteen-year-old substitute, follows him to the city.
There are several themes in this movie. The most powerful to me were the value of an education and not losing face. If Wei loses Zhang, she will fail the responsibility the teacher gave her. To succeed, she must keep all the students and teach them.
Confucius taught the Chinese that an