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For its short length, this Chinese kids doc is funny, enlightening, and shockingly accurate for adult viewers who are used to democracy in their countries.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
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Audience Member
The first school election in China makes for an incredible documentary! Netflix had it for a long time, so it might come back. Check it out if it does. The movie's pretty short and flies right along. The best part for me what that it's totally absent of a narrative voice to steer the viewer's emotions, giving you a chance to experience the content in the objectivity of your own mind. The same absence of narrative overlay creates potential for a uniquely fun talk-with-friends-while-watching experience.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/28/23
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Audience Member
I love docs that show their point without saying it, like this one. No titles, no voice over, no filmmaker on screen. Only Chinese kids living a democratic event in school and their thoughts.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/25/23
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Audience Member
To be sure, this is a high concept documentary ("Election" with Chinese kids). Moreover, it was quite well executed, because the filmmakers show the viewers the school and family lives (pressures?) of the candidates.
Maybe my only complaint is that the filmmakers failed to provide a context to the Chinese political sphere. For me, it was telling that middle-class consumption culture influenced the elections.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
01/30/23
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Audience Member
Interesting without being judgmental. But nothing particularly eye opening about the whole thing.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/07/23
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Audience Member
This Is What Democracy Looks Like?
Bad enough, I think, to get into student government in a country where you're used to the idea of voting. It's preparation for adult life in a place where voting actually happens, where you choose your own leaders. It's worth mentioning that these kids aren't even volunteers. When I ran for student body office in sixth grade (and lost miserably), that was part of life. If I'm doing the math right, that was the same time as my older sister was working for an actual Presidential campaign. (I would go on to be just as disappointed that the candidate for whom she was working lost, probably because I was too young then to have known that he was almost certainly going to.) I had had my first discussion of voting years before that, when I was about the age of these kids, and it was about who was going to run our country, not who was going to run our classroom. The whole thing must be kind of weird to these kids.
The teachers at Evergreen Primary School in Wuhan, China, have decided that their third-graders are ready to experiment with democracy. Instead of choosing the class monitor (which seems to be some sort of equivalent to class president), they are going to let the students choose their own. They choose three candidates, and they run an election. The three candidates are Luo Lei, Xu Xiaofei, and Cheng Cheng. (In my head, they are "the one who's done it twice already," "the other boy," and "the girl.") They are each permitted to choose two assistants, and they all get advice from their parents. We follow them as they attempt to convince their classmates that they are best for the job. I'm not sure their parents have ever voted for anyone before, and surely the kids have not. I'm not sure how long the election period lasts from the announcement of candidates to the election, but it's clearly an emotional experience for the children.
The fun thing is that they seem to invent almost every form of political corruption there is. I believe it's Xu Xiaofei who is going around promising offices to various people so long as they'll vote for him. He and Luo Lei extract promises from one another to vote for each other, and when Xu Xiaofei admits during a debate that he will probably vote for himself, Luo Lei uses it to paint his opponent as a liar. One of the boys gets friends to disparage Cheng Cheng's performance at the class talent show, and much hay is made over the fact that she cries. The parents serve as speechwriters, whether the kids want them to or not. At the beginning, Xu Xiaofei seems amiable on the subject, willing to run a clean campaign and let people vote for whoever they want to, but as the campaign goes on, he plays just as dirty as Luo Lei. Cheng Cheng and her friends compile lists of everything that's wrong with her opponents. In short, they invent dirty tricks.
It kind of bothers me that the teachers chose Luo Lei as class monitor two years in a row and then nominated him as a candidate in the third year. It doesn't seem fair. If I thought he were doing an outstanding job, that would be one thing, but I don't; he's a bully. Oh, I think Xu Xiaofeng's accusations of outright fascism and dictatorship are probably hyperbole taught to him by his parents, but it's still true that about half the class raises their hands when Xu Xiaofeng asks those who have been beaten up by him to raise their hands. Xu Xiaofeng raises his own hand, which is why he's asking the question in the first place. It's obvious that the kids are willing to put up with his bullying, but it seems the teachers are willing to go along with his assertion that he's just being firm because it's what a good class monitor should be. He's able to beat up the other kids, and the consequence is that they make him class monitor again and then put him in the running a third time.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the film is the view we get of an aspect of China that I hadn't really thought about before. We see into the homes of all three children, and while the Chinese government might not like the designation, these kids are middle class. They also appear to have the kind of parent that is so familiar to Western eyes--the kind of parent who is determined that their kids will achieve as much as possible, whether the kid wants to or not. One of the parents actually arranges a trip on the monorail for the entire class as a bribe to get the other students to vote for his kid. He coaches his son to tell them that the trip is on him. Xu Xiaofeng wears clothing with Mickey Mouse on it. I mean, this story could be translated and dropped into half the schools in the US without losing all that much. I'm sure it would be dismaying to a lot of people in both countries to know that, but I actually would find it pleasing if some of the behaviour weren't so reprehensible.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/12/23
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