Synopsis
Set in the People's Republic of China during the 1990s, the film centers on a 13-year-old substitute teacher, Wei Minzhi, in the Chinese countryside. Called in to substitute for a village teacher for one month, Wei is told not to lose any students.
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Cast
- Wei MinzhiWei Minzhi
- Zhang HuikeZhang Huike
- Tian ZhendaVillage Chief
- Gao EnmanTeacher Gao
- Sun ZhimeiSun Zhimei
- Feng YuyingTV Receptionist
- Li FanfanTV Host
- Zhang YichangMr. Zhang
- Zhanqing XuBrick Factory Owner
- Liu HanzhiZhang Huike's Mother
Recommendations
- 100
New York Daily News
It's an uplifting movie about the rewards of perseverance and community. - 100
Philadelphia Inquirer
Has a slow-burning emotional power. - 91
Portland Oregonian
If it touches up against the syrupy at a very few moments, it's nevertheless consistently clear-eyed and convincing. - 80
Village Voice
The film's occasional dips into sentimental cuteness and its too-pat ending can't cancel the gap that yawns ever wider between rural and urban society. - 80
L.A. Weekly
Zhang's work is always worth watching, but this is the first of his films in which the sorrows are so heart-rending, its many comic moments so laugh-out-loud human. - 75
Chicago Sun-Times
His story is simple, unadorned, direct. Only the margins are complicated. - 75
Miami Herald
Zhang, who tried to make his actors as unaware of the camera as possible, lets the story evolve slowly and deliberately. - 70
TV Guide Magazine
This is much more than a typically one-dimensional message-movie -- it's obviously the work of a master filmmaker .
