The reason I rented this movie because of Yimou Zhang. He directed the movie, Happy Times and The Road Home, both very good. He is a fantastic story teller. His movies tell a simple story and the acting is very good (by unprofessional actors). All the movies I've seen by him are good and this one is no different.

This story takes place in a poor rural village in china, the teacher of the local school must leave to tend to his sick parents and the mayor hires a substitute. This substitute is barely a child herself; only 13 years old. At first she has a hard time keeping order and is reluctant to take up her duty but we know she has a good heart because of the steps she takes to make sure the whole class stays together-- I won't give away what she does but she goes through a lot, more so than anybody else in the movie. You will be in awe of her stubbornness. This movie feels good and the ending of this movie was very a joyful unlike Happy Times which had a not so happy ending.