King of the Children (1987)

Late 60s or early 70s. Laogan (played by Xie Yuan) is one of the Zhiqing (Educated Youth) sent from the cities to the remote villages of the rural Yunan province. His days consist of routine work in the field and waiting for the day to pass by. One day he is appointed as a temporary replacement teacher for a primary school in another village. This is considered to be a better job and Laogan dreams to be 'King of the Children' and can't wait to share the news with his Zhiqing friends. There is no text book for the students and the teacher, but no short of propoganda materials. Laogan indulges himself by teaching the children in his own style. One of his students, Wang Fu, attempts to copy the only dictionary Laogan has by hand. Laogan's days as a teacher end eventually. He leaves his dictionary to Wang Fu. This movie is based on Acheng's novel of the same name. On the surface, it looks like about how a young person tries to break the bordem where life is harsh and nothing happens. But it goes beyond that. Lack of everything except time actually gives the youth space to think and fantansize life and destiny, and make sense of them. In the end, Laogan realises the limit a person can influence the world. You will need some understanding of Taoism to appreciate this film. This is a world away from Chen Kaige's other early works that are full of visual contrast and symbols. As the result, this film has been largely ignored by the festival circle. In China, it only had very limited release because the distributors fear the audience at that time won't accept such a 'boring' film.