As if by force of habit, leading Fifth Generation Chinese director Zhang Yimou seems incapable of turning out anything other than great movies, no matter the period or style he chooses to take on. Until now, his success was credited at least in part to incomparable actress Gong Li, who suffered radiantly in such visually sumptuous historical epics as Ju Dou and Raise The Red Lantern. A simple, casually poetic exposé on poor provincial schools, Not One Less is Zhang's second effort without her (the first, 1996's Keep Cool, never found a U.S. distributor), but his sure touch has never been more evident. In many ways, the film is a natural companion to 1992's The Story Of Qiu Ju, a present-day social drama with Gong as a determined provincial wife seeking justice in the big city. Shooting in a semi-documentary format that wouldn't be out of place in contemporary Iranian cinema, Zhang follows 13-year-old substitute teacher Wei Minzhi on the same arc from the desolate countryside to the bustling city streets. Though barely older than her primary-school students, Wei is brought in for a month's work and assured a meager payment only if she can keep them all from dropping out, hence the title. So each day, she uses a new piece of chalk to write a lesson for them to copy and then spends the afternoon blocking the door. But her capacity for stubbornness isn't fully revealed until she travels to Jiangjiakou City to retrieve a student sent there to work off his parents' debts. The most delightful irony in Not One Less is that her efforts to raise bus fare turn into impromptu math lessons, where she unwittingly blossoms into a good teacher. It's a tribute to Zhang's fluidity and grace as a storyteller that he smuggles in such an obvious plea for Chinese rural education without seeming self-satisfied or didactic. Made in the spirit of great Italian neo-realist films like Umberto D., Not One Less is almost single-minded in purpose, yet so unassuming and organic that its emotional wallop is unexpected. More astonishing still is that, measured on a scale few directors can hope to rival, this is actually one of Zhang's weaker efforts.