Not One Less

Not One Less Chinese pinyin yge du bnng sho is a 1999 drama film by Chinese director Zhang Yimou, adapted from Shi Xiangshengs 1997 story A Sun in the Sky Chinese pinyin tin shng yu ge tiyng . It was produced by Guangxi Film Studio and released by China Film Group Corporation in mainland China, and distributed by Sony Pictures Classics and Columbia Tristar internationally.

In the 1990s, primary education reform had become one of the top priorities in the Peoples Republic of China. About million Chinese people had missed all or part of their education because of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and in 1986 the National Peoples Congress enacted a law calling for nine years of compulsory education. By 1993, it was clear that much of the country was making little progress on implementing nineyear compulsory education, so the 19932000sevenyear plan focused on this goal. One of the major challenges educators faced was the large number of rural schoolchildren dropping out to pursue work. Another issue was a large urbanrural divide funding and teacher quality were far better in urban schools than rural, and urban students stayed in school longer.Not One Less was Zhang Yimous ninth film, but only the second not to star longtime collaborator Gong Li the first was his 1997 Keep Cool. For this film, he cast only amateur actors whose reallife names and occupations resembled those of characters they played in the filmas The Philadelphia Inquirer s Steven Rea described the performances, the actors are just people playing variations of themselves in front of the camera. For instance, Tian Zhenda, who played the mayor, was the reallife mayor of a small village, and the primary actors Wei Minzhi and Zhang Huike were selected from among thousands of students in rural schools. The names and occupations of the films main actors are listed in the table below. The movie was filmed on location at Chicheng Countys Shuiquan Primary School, and in the city of Zhangjiakou both locations are in Hebei province. ........

Source: Wikipedia