NOT ONE LESS (U)

Phoenix Picture House, 23rd June to 6th July 2000

He has been labelled 'muckraker' and 'aesthete'. He has been accused of pandering to western audiences, and has been repeatedly censored by the Chinese authorities. Yet Zhang Yimou's latest film, Not One Less proves that he defies classification. It is as beautiful as Raise the Red Lantern but with none of that film's anger or melodrama - as multi-faceted and involving as Shanghai Triad but with a contemporary resonance. In his portrayal of rural poverty in modern day China, Zhang has demonstrated a maturity and depth that must silence the last of the critics.

Not One Less is the story of Wei Minzhi, a 13 year-old substitute teacher in a small village who must maintain the number of children in her class or forfeit the 60 yuan she will be paid for a month's work. When a disruptive student, Zhang Huike, is sent to the city to work, she sets out herself to bring him back to the village.

The presentation of poverty in the cinema is so often distanced from us, either by time or by culture. Here Zhang Yimou refuses us that blanket of comfort. We are shown brand names and imagery from which we can't dissociate ourselves. The children try Coca-Cola for the first time, but can only afford two cans between a class of 26. And there is nothing distant about the bored schoolchildren, or Wei's desperate search for Huike through the streets of a terrifying city. We are told at the end of the film that more than a million Chinese children are forced to leave school through poverty every year.

The amateur and semi-professional cast take their own names, and Wei Minzhi's portrayal of individual struggle and determination is exceptionally powerful. As with all his female leads, Zhang's camera looks very kindly on Wei. After hand writing a hundred notices in her search for Huike, Wei is forced to sleep on the city streets. She looks angelic and vulnerable as the wind scatters her posters and street cleaners sweep them up in the dawn. It is a haunting image, and the wave of pity from the audience was tangible.

But what Zhang threads through this film, and what probably allowed it to be shown freely at Cannes last year by the Red tape of Chinese bureaucracy, is a sense of the pride and compassion of the people it portrays. Huike and Wei are continually offered food help and by the people in the city. When asked what his memory of the city will be Huike says, "I had to beg for food - I will always remember that." There is an enduring self-sufficiency and self-respect in the characters of Not One Less. Zhang Yimou is showing a system at fault and a people who survive despite it.

So, muckraker? Possibly. Zhang certainly exposes the social system of his country to international judgement. Aesthete? Definitely. His photography and sparing use of music to punctuate poignant moments is achingly beautiful. But Zhang Yimou is so much more besides. Storyteller, artist, and social commentator, he has given Chinese society a cultural resonance that we rarely see in the West. Not One Less is open, honest and beautiful, and it deserves to be seen.

Harry Smith, 26 / 6 / 00