IV. Not One Less, Zhang Yimou.
Greetings!
Back again with a new topic to talk about.
This week, we were introduced to another filmmaker as well as the film.
Zhang Yimou.
To start off, Zhang Yimou is a 65 year old Chinese filmmaker residing in China. He's well known for his movies - To Live (1994), Raise the Red Lantern (1991), The Great Wall (2016) and more. Zhang Yimou is well known for his repetitive themes relating to the hardship and adversity of the Chinese people in the old days. Other than that, he's known for the rich use of colour that relates to the theme of the films Zhang Yimou has produced.
Moving on, we were shown a particular film called Not One Less (1999) which sets back to the 1990s in the People's Republic of China where they were struggling with poverty back then.
I admit, i was confused and i was in a blur when the movie begun. However, the plot of the film slowly got clearer and tangible as time went on. To summarise, the film was about a young girl who has decided to taken up a job as a substitute teacher in a small village struggling in poverty. Said substitute teacher was given the responsibility of teaching the students as well as not losing any of the students during the teachers time away. Wei Minzhi - our protagonist substitute teacher faced difficulties when she started her job as the students would not listen to her nor was she being very responsible with the children considering she did not take good care of them. In the midst of it all, she (the substitute teacher) came face to face with a speed bump where she lost two of her students to the city side due to poor circumstances such as the government taking away their athlete student and a troublemaker student who was forced to drop out as his family asked him to help work and earn money to support his family.
As Wei Minzhi came to realisation that she must hold on to her promise with Teacher Gao (the ACTUAL teacher), Wei Minzhi sets off to the city on foot with whatever amount she has on her to take back Teacher Gao's students.
Wei Minzhi had faced through so much hardships such as begging a TV broadcasting station to let her broadcast a missing person notice. It only took a person who worked in the 'higher-ups' that heard about Wei Minzhi's situation and took interest in her and the school back at the countryside's story. Wei Minzhi and said higher-up agreed that in exchange for a Missing Person Broadcast notice, Wei Minzhi will be interviewed about the rural life back where Wei and the troublemaker lived and studied at.
Long story short, the substitute teacher and the troublemaker student found eachother and the deal was not broken. The TV broadcasting station had given them a drive back to the countryside as well as a donation of supplies for the school.
The main point of this film was poverty.
This film really taught me to be more grateful about the things i have. Not only myself, but i hope that other people realise that there are people who are having it way worse than them.
Media Roles
Let's be honest here, Media plays a big role in this world. Without media coverage, people are not able to be aware about current issues that are happening most likely every second. People who are not there to experience the struggle first-hand are not able to know and feel what it's like.
We learn, be aware and even be informed about what's happening around us through either television, radio, newspaper, magazine or the most popular and common media form - the Internet or specifically the Social Media such as Facebook, Twitter or news sites.
I highly recommend this film. It really makes you think.
That's all i have to say for this entry. Until my next entry, talk to you all soon!
Back again with a new topic to talk about.
This week, we were introduced to another filmmaker as well as the film.
Zhang Yimou.
To start off, Zhang Yimou is a 65 year old Chinese filmmaker residing in China. He's well known for his movies - To Live (1994), Raise the Red Lantern (1991), The Great Wall (2016) and more. Zhang Yimou is well known for his repetitive themes relating to the hardship and adversity of the Chinese people in the old days. Other than that, he's known for the rich use of colour that relates to the theme of the films Zhang Yimou has produced.
Moving on, we were shown a particular film called Not One Less (1999) which sets back to the 1990s in the People's Republic of China where they were struggling with poverty back then.
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| Not One Less (1999), The movie poster. |
I admit, i was confused and i was in a blur when the movie begun. However, the plot of the film slowly got clearer and tangible as time went on. To summarise, the film was about a young girl who has decided to taken up a job as a substitute teacher in a small village struggling in poverty. Said substitute teacher was given the responsibility of teaching the students as well as not losing any of the students during the teachers time away. Wei Minzhi - our protagonist substitute teacher faced difficulties when she started her job as the students would not listen to her nor was she being very responsible with the children considering she did not take good care of them. In the midst of it all, she (the substitute teacher) came face to face with a speed bump where she lost two of her students to the city side due to poor circumstances such as the government taking away their athlete student and a troublemaker student who was forced to drop out as his family asked him to help work and earn money to support his family.
As Wei Minzhi came to realisation that she must hold on to her promise with Teacher Gao (the ACTUAL teacher), Wei Minzhi sets off to the city on foot with whatever amount she has on her to take back Teacher Gao's students.
Wei Minzhi had faced through so much hardships such as begging a TV broadcasting station to let her broadcast a missing person notice. It only took a person who worked in the 'higher-ups' that heard about Wei Minzhi's situation and took interest in her and the school back at the countryside's story. Wei Minzhi and said higher-up agreed that in exchange for a Missing Person Broadcast notice, Wei Minzhi will be interviewed about the rural life back where Wei and the troublemaker lived and studied at.
Long story short, the substitute teacher and the troublemaker student found eachother and the deal was not broken. The TV broadcasting station had given them a drive back to the countryside as well as a donation of supplies for the school.
The main point of this film was poverty.
This film really taught me to be more grateful about the things i have. Not only myself, but i hope that other people realise that there are people who are having it way worse than them.
Media Roles
Let's be honest here, Media plays a big role in this world. Without media coverage, people are not able to be aware about current issues that are happening most likely every second. People who are not there to experience the struggle first-hand are not able to know and feel what it's like.
We learn, be aware and even be informed about what's happening around us through either television, radio, newspaper, magazine or the most popular and common media form - the Internet or specifically the Social Media such as Facebook, Twitter or news sites.
I highly recommend this film. It really makes you think.
That's all i have to say for this entry. Until my next entry, talk to you all soon!
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