Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 22 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 11 Ratings

  • Starring: Huike Zhang, Minzhi Wei, Zhenda Tian
  • Summary: In a remote mountain village, the teacher (Gao) must leave for a month to care for his mother. The mayor can find only a 13-year old girl (Wei) to substitute, even though she is only a few years older than her students.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 22
  2. Negative: 0 out of 22
  1. A beautiful and genuinely spirit-lifting film about poverty and education.
  2. 80
    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.
  3. 80
    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.
  4. At first, the picture is moving. . And suddenly charm turns to quasi-commie didacticism.

See all 22 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. TYL
    10
    Innocent, charming, real and moving. I've traveled the east and this movie reminds me of some of the harsh realities of rural areas and the small yet significant miracles of humanity. Expand
  2. PenelopeV.
    10
    Simple story but with a great message. A teacher has to look beyond the eyes of her students, love and understand her students. Her job goes beyond teaching. Her jobs means reaching out to her learners with her mind and heart. I love the movie! Expand
  3. R.C,
    8
    After living in China for 1 1/2 years I related to the interesting dynamics of the people in the movie. It was not unlike real life experienced by those that live in the country. Very Chinese. Expand

See all 5 User Reviews

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