Non-actors give Chinese film a unique honesty

'Not One Less' is a terrific new Chinese movie: think Dangerous Minds for the Far East. The Michelle Pfieffer role is a 13-year-old substitute teacher and her 28 students are about every possible age younger than she. Chinese grade schools apparently have a high attrition rate, so the tenacious teenager, Wei Minzhi, must keep the students in school until Teacher Gao returns from a trip to visit his ailing mother. If there is "not one less" student when Gao returns, Wei gets a bonus.