Several years ago, about 1997 plus or minus 2 years, I viewed a
Chinese foreign film with English subtitles at a local independent
film theater. The plot, as I remember it, is a young girl is hired as
a teacher in a small rural village. They are very poor-- and she is
given only enough chalk to write a lecture a day on the board, which
the students copy down. Somehow, a student or relative of the girl
goes to work in a faraway city, and the movie reveals what happens and
how she tracks him down. Eventually, she gets in touch with a TV
studio who put it on the news, and she finds him. Many people also
donate money, and the closing scene is one where each student is
allowed to write one character on the chalkboard with colored chalk. I
would greatly appreciate the title of this film, as well as
information on how I can purchase a copy or at least find some more
information about the film.

Hi alakon2!
Apparently, you're looking for the Chinese picture called "Not One
Less", by director Zhang Yimou. The film is from 1999 and the Chinese
title is "Yi ge dou bu neng shao". A summary of the plot can be found
in the following site (it's in Google cache).

Calendar Live - Movie Review
://www.google.com.ar/search?q=cache:Emy9ieB3bVgJ:www.calendarlive.com/top/1,1419,L-LATimes-Movies-X!ArticleDetail-3311,00.html%3Fsearch_area%3DMovies%26channel%3DMovies+chalk+chinese+movie+rural+teacher&hl=es&ie=UTF-8

You can find a bunch of information on this movie, as well as reviews
from other people, at the Internet Movie Database.

IMDB.com
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0209189

As you can see in this page, the movie's available both in VHS and DVD
from Amazon.com. There's a direct link to buy it there.


Google search strategy:
chalk chinese movie rural teacher
://www.google.com.ar/search?q=chalk+chinese+movie+rural+teacher&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=es&meta=


I hope this helps! If this is not the movie you were looking for,
please request a clarification, I'll do my best to find another
candidate.


Best wishes!
elmarto

---

Clarification of Answer by elmarto-ga on 21 Jul 2003 11:49 PDT

I forgot to include the following link - it's the official site of
this movie, and features some downloadable stills and clips.

Not One Less
http://www.sonypictures.com/classics/notoneless/home.html


Best wishes!
elmarto

Thank you very much!