A stand-in teacher from a dirt poor village travels to the city to find a
lost pupil. Zhang's return to the international scene after a lengthy
ban on co-productions won him top prize at Venice. Appropriate, for it
has an Italian Neo-Realist flavour; the entertainingly anarchic
spontaneity of the classroom scenes is down to the fact that the cast are
largely playing themselves. Less stylised than the films for which
Zhang became famous - but despite its concern with poverty and child
labour, ultimately more optimistic.
