Not One Less

Set in rural China during the 1990s, Not One Less follows Wei Minzhi, a thirteen-year-old girl who is asked to take over a village classroom for a month while the regular teacher, Gao, cares for his sick mother. She has little preparation for the job, and keeping order among the pupils is difficult. Teacher Gao offers her extra money if every student is still enrolled when he returns, so when one boy leaves for the city to find work for his family, Wei sets out to bring him back, a search that takes her far from the village.

Zhang Yimou directed the film, the seventh of the twenty-five features listed for him and the one that followed Shanghai Triad, with The Road Home arriving next. Xiangsheng Shi wrote the screenplay, and Yu Zhao and Zhang Weiping produced. The largely non-professional cast includes Wei Minzhi as Wei Minzhi, Zhang Huike as Zhang Huike, Tian Zhenda as the village chief, Gao Enman as Teacher Gao, Sun Zhimei and Feng Yuying, among twenty-four credited performers.

Released in 1999 and running 106 minutes, the drama was rated 7.7 out of 10 on IMDb from roughly 9,800 votes and 7.5 out of 10 on TMDB from about 200 votes, while a critics' rating stands at 7.6 out of 10 from 46 reviews. Audience and critics' scores sit close together, indicating broadly similar responses across those groups.