Going To School With Dad On My Back

The hardships of growing up poor in rural China provide the dramatic core of Going to School with Dad on My Back, an involving, handsomely crafted account of one boy's determination to endure. Helmer Zhou Youchao served as an assistant on Zhang Yimou's groundbreaking Red Sorghumand Ju Dou, and while his pic doesn't have those films' undercurrent of acerbic social comment, it does boast stylistic assurance and a Zhang-like appreciation of the rugged textures of peasant life. The time is presumably the present or very recent past, yet we never hear any news of the larger world beyond, controversial or otherwise. Protag Shiwa is a boy when his dad, an unlettered, widowed farmer, spins a copper spoon and lets it fall determine which of his two kids will attend school. Shiwa's older sister loses out, but becomes her brother's staunchest ally. Rather than chronicling Shiwa's schooling, tale concentrates on his difficulty in gaining in and its impact on his life at home. Zhou and scripter Wang Zhebin manage to steer clear of various pitfalls, however, by giving the story an understated social resonance.