Original subtitles

"I rise early...

and see...

the sun...

coming up.

The sky is high.

The soil is wide.

The sky is high. The soil is wide".

KING OF THE CHILDREN

Been here seven years, huh?

Got on top of our jobs here?

Depends on how you look at it.

I'll never be the top hand.

Learned to put up with life in the team?

You've got brains.

You're the boss.

Whatever the job is,

just give me the assignment and I'll do my best.

It's not up to me anymore.

When you get there, make a good job of it, eh? Don't let me down.

You know my third son, learning don't come easy to him, try to give him a bit of a prod.

Tan his hide if he mucks up, you tell me and I'll give him a hiding too.

What the hell are you up to?

What's going on?

What are you supposed to do?

Teach.

Lao Gar?

Go on, tell us'!

Tell us!

How much did it cost you to buy your way out?

Are you going to tell us or not?

Come on, boys' We'll give his dick a cold bath!

Hold on! Hold on!

Any girls around?

Who cares?

If I've been hunting round for a cushy job, you can call me a..

What? What? Speak up!

That's enough, that's enough!

If he's going to be a teacher, he's got clean up his language.

Lao Gar, why do you let them give you such a hard time?

Everyone's fed up. If it makes them feel better to beat me up, that's fine by me.

You got to admin Lao Gar's got a good temper…

How come they want you to go and teach?

How should I know? If you don't believe me, you can go and investigate.

Who said anything about investigating? Just don't forget your friends.

If there's a meeting, we go past your school, so we can drop in and get something to drink.

Although I'm going to teach,

I'll still have the same kind of life as the rest of you.

I won't forget my friends.

When you get kids of your own, they'll probably end up in my class,

and I won't let your kids down either.

Why've you got so serious, Lao Gar?

Haven't we all got to know each other pretty well over the last couple of years?

Boozing away, and no one call your old ma over

Oh, Laidi, come in, come in

So you're off to be a teacher! I'm going to miss you!

Why not go a bit lower down while you're at it? Gently!

It's only when he's leaving that you're getting soft on him?

Lao Hei! Stop picking on your old ma!

You're making a big mistake if you think I only know how to cook. I can read music, sing - how about that!

So why can't I go and teach music?

Lao Gar, you know your old ma's got loads of talent, don't you?

When you get to the school, ask if there's a chance for me.

I just need a score and I'll have the whole school singing in less than an hour.

Good stuff!

Do this for your old ma, Lao Gar, and I'll finish off the bottle in your honour!

Hang on! That's other people's grog!

What's so precious about this dog's piss?

Call yourselves men and you're not even halfway down the bottle yet!

No girl'd ever go for any of you lot!

No one'd ever make you an offer, anyway!

How can you play that?

You are no match at all to the king of chess

You are so full of yourselves.

Who wants to trick you?

I'll ask him to come one day...

And beat you all.

How do they expect me to be a teacher?

- A bird - A bird? Where?

- Catch it and cook it!

- Wow, you're good!

-What's wrong with you?!

Taking your machete to the school

Hadn't you better throw it away and try to look like a teacher?

That's right! Give the kids a whack when they muck up!

Walk properly!

What're you doing? Trying to kill someone?

Come in, come in!

Oh, it's you!

I only did one year at senior high before coming here.

I'm not sure that I can

Here, have some water

Here, have some water

Beanpole!

Go away!

You can put your machete on the table. Here, on the table.

This is where you sleep. There's a bed.

and here's the desk.

Well, fuck me.

Lao Hei,

next time you come, bring my hoe with you

I thought you'd have it easy here!

We're all stuck here! Who has it easy?

So it's not such a cushy job after all?

Fine, excellent

Shit!

Who did this book belong to before?

He wasn't suffering from some disease, was he?

Yes, of course he was.

What disease?

What's all this about diseases?

Mr Li, the teacher who left, was a bit careless, that's all.

But he never lost the book, and that's something.

Best you don't lose it either, because if you do it, it won't be easy to find another.

Oh yes, here's the timetable.

The third-year class.

How far have they got?

Term's just started. Probably still Lesson One. Or maybe Lesson Two!

Today, there's a new teacher.

Quiet!

Anyone fooling around is going to catch it!

Today, there's a new teacher coming to take you. Now mind you pay attention?

Stand up!

Sit down!

Why does everyone sit down before the teacher tells us to?

Let's begin.

Let's begin.

Oh, sit down!

What lesson are you up to?

Lesson One? It should be Lesson Two.

Alright. Turn to page 4.

Turn to page 4.

Turn to page 4, everyone.

You there! Where's your book?

What book? We don't have any books!

Who's the class monitor?

Are you the class monitor?

Tell me,

what's the point in coming to class if you don't bring your books?

There aren't any books.

There aren't any?

Then what do you do in class?

Every lesson, Mr Zhang, then it was Mr Li,

they'd copy out the lesson on the blackboard.

They'd teach the bit they'd copied out, and we'd copy it down in our exercise books.

Didn't the school issue books to you?

None at all?

Alright!

Officials without seals and students without books.

Is going to school just a kind of game then?

When I went to school

When I went to school, on the first day of term, the first thing books were issued,

all brand new, and you'd make dust jackets for them.

I'd bring them to school every day, and each class I'd bring out the books for that class.

Sit down.

Did you forget something?

It's not me,

the school's forgotten to issue books to the students.

Oh, I forgot to tell you. There aren't any books.

We haven't issued any for the last few years. There's a paper shortage.

Help yourself. They're good for papering your walls. You can also wipe your bum on them.

Shouldn't say things like that, shouldn't say things like that.

Shouldn't say things like that?

"This is Lao Gar!'!"

Finished, sir!

Everyone, finished?

Finished!

Finished?

You've finished copying, but do you understand what it says?

The lesson is very simple.

It's a story about a village.

You! Tell us what it's about.

I don't know.

On your feet!

What do you mean, you don't know?

It's easy enough. You're not dumb!

If I did know what would we need you to teach us for?

You!

In simple words, a village landlord engaging in sabotage,

is exposed by the poor and lower-middle peasants. Afterwards, production in this village increases.

You need me to teach you this? Speak up!

In simple words,

a village landlord engaging in sabotage was is exposed by the poor and lower-middle peasants

Afterwards, production in that? no,

afterwards production in this village increases?

Did I do it right, sir?

Yes!

You've got a good memory.

You're not much of a teacher.

Why don't you teach like you're supposed to?

First you give us the new words, then you divide it into paragraphs,

then you give the main idea of each paragraph, then you give us the writing style.

Even I could teach this.

I bet your work in the team was lousy. You only came here to have it a bit easier!

"The sky is high

The soil is wide

The word is "Sheng".

You should know.

Sheng of " Shenghuo ", it means life.

What does 'life' mean?

It means living.

To live you have to eat

and drink

so the character for 'living' is written with the character for 'water'on the left..

and the character for 'tongue' on the right.

"The sky is high

The soil is wide".

Stand up!

Sit down!

Wang Fu!

Present!

First I should mention something.

You don't have to bother anymore with this standing up in class.

What's the point in standing up if you don't have any books?

Another thing, you don't have to put your hands behind your back in class.

You can talk, and leave your seat if you have to.

You've all grown up in the mountains, and now you're in your last year in school.

Wang Fu!

You can speak sitting down.

Wang Fu, you said you could teach. Well, come and show me how to teach.

Do you want to punish me?

No?

I've only just got to the school, and I only got the textbook just before starting.

To be frank, I know how to read fairly well, but I've never taught before.

I don't know the best way to teach you.

Tell me how Mr Zhang and Mr Li used to teach.

Come on!

Come up here in front of the blackboard and show me which words you don't know.

I don't know how much you can read.

Come on!

Underline all the words you don't know.

Alright, I'll explain all the words underlined.

Sir, there's some other words we don't know.

Alright. Everyone up to the blackboard!

No wonder you don't know what lesson means.

Actually, you should have learned at least half of these words in primary school.

Sir, the two words I underlined we've never had before. I can prove it to you.

OK.

First I'll explain all the underlined words.

Then we'll go through the real new words more slowly.

Wang Fu!

Wang Fu, you said you could prove which words really were new?

How can you do that?

Here, look.

Presented to.

Are you Wang Qitong's son?

I know your father, once we loaded rice together.

Your father's very strong, but he's not much of a talker.

So, Wang Qitong's son.

Correcting their homework's really an effort.

You have to guess half the words.

Sometimes I'm up till midnight trying to make some of them out.

Aren't your classes the same?

We're all under the same headmaster, aren't we? How could they be any different?

You shouldn't say things like that.

You're teaching reading and writing, it isn't the same as teaching maths.

But how to divide into paragraphs,

give the main idea of each paragraph,

the overall theme and so on, there's standard rules for all that!

The school in town's got a teachers' book

with all the standard rules.

If you like I can tell you how to get there, and you can go and make a copy.

that boy of mine, he wrote a letter to the folks back home, and three days later we got a reply.

I told him to read it out to me, but he stuttered and stammered so much

I couldn't make head nor tail of it, nor him either.

Still on about that letter, are you? Wonder you're not ashamed to bring it up?

Afterwards, he got me to read it for him. I tried, but I couldn't make any sense of it.

Then I asked him whose grandad he was. He said he wasn't anyone's grandad,

so when I told him the letter was addressed to a grandad, he started rubbing his head.

Finally, I figured it out.

It was actually the letter his son had written, returned to sender.

The receiver's address and the sender's address were written the wrong way round.

The writing looked like a bunch of crabs. I nearly bit my tongue off trying to read it out?

I hear you're taking the third-year class.

Now that's really something! If you finished primary school,

in the old days you'd be called a County Scholar,

and a Provincial Graduate if you did junior high.

He's teaching Provincial Graduates, that's really something!

Your son'll be a Provincial Graduate one day.

No, how could he ever reach that high?

It's better here in the team, it's not so lonely.

What, aren't there women teachers at the school?

There's some educated people from somewhere or other,

but there's not a sound from them after dark.

What sort of sounds do you want to hear after work?

There's not enough room for three on my bed.

Piss off then, so I can have a nice chat with our teacher.

You must be teaching indoors all the time, look how pale you've got.

Keep your hands to yourself!

Putting on airs, now, are we? The masses have to keep our distance!

Let me tell you something, even if you taught for a hundred years,

you think your old ma doesn't know what you've got dangling between your legs?

Only a few days and he's pretending to be a gentlemen, squeezing his legs together!

Who's squeezing?

There's a boy in my class, Wang Fu, who knows 3,888 characters.

He gave me a hard time the first few lessons.

Afterwards, it was him that taught me how to teach.

- How many characters do you know? - I haven't finished the primary school.

And how many do you know?

How about you?

Me?

When I was at school we had a junior teacher.

He lived at home with his mother, who used to assemble matchboxes,

forty-six cents a thousand, to send him to school.

Afterwards, the poor bastard stayed on as a teacher - his marks had been pretty good.

But because he looked a bit rough round the edges, and he was fairly young,

he hadn't any control over the students.

Then one day he said,

"l don't know how good you are at your other subjects,

but let's just take reading and writing.

See this dictionary:?

open it at random, any page, and if you've got - well,

if there aren't any characters on that page that you can't write,

or explain, or read,

I'll give in: I won't bother any more when you fool around in class."

The kids didn't believe him:

right away they picked up the dictionary, opened it and looked at the page,

they all gave in,

not a single one of them knew all the characters on the page.

Who's got a dictionary?

Don't have one.

I don't either.

Whoever thought of bringing a dictionary with us when we came here?

How can you be "King of the Children" without a dictionary?

Never mind. Your old ma's got one.

Bring it over then.

I'll bring it over on one condition.

We don't want to be a team leader,

we don't want to be a team official,

we just want to be a music teacher: what about it?

Isn't a dictionary worth a teaching job?

Seeing that real teacher doesn't even have one!

What's so special about a dictionary? I can go and buy one.

Where? There's none in the county town. Are you going off to the provincial capital?

Ask your class who's got a dictionary!

Lao Gar, go back and tell the school,

tell them there's Laidi in our team who's got so many songs

she doesn't know what to do with them. They can ask her to go and teach some of them.

I'm not the boss, how can I get a transfer for you?

How about this? You write the words and I'll write the music.

Then you teach our song to the kids in your class.

It'll be something really different.

Then when the leaders ask about it, tell them it was written by Laidi from our team.

Once the leaders know how good I am, I bet they'll ask me to come and teach music.

Write music? You think that's some kind of joke? It's art,

you got to make a special study of it, at the very least you've got to go to university.

You're crazy, you're out of your mind!

What's so difficult about it?

Shut up!

Those things I'm always humming,

I just need to write them down. Aren't they better than that stuff?

True enough,

haven't I only had a few years in school?

And now I'm teaching the third years,

Provincial Graduates.

Right, grandad?

You never know in this world,

you never know

what people can do.

It's a deal, then, Lao Gar.

What do you think you're doing!

Why not stay overnight?

It might be rough going after it gets dark, you want to watch out for wild animals.

I'm not scared.

I've got classes first thing tomorrow. You go back now.

See you!

Who's there?

Why are you walking so fast? You want to be first under the knife?

Are you going to put down that hoe?

Oh, it's you. What are you doing up in the mountains this late?

Stop!

I wanted to ask you something,

why didn't you say goodbye to your old ma before you left?

We're old pals, what's the point in saying goodbye?

It's not as if I'm leaving for good.

Was it true what you said back there?

What did I say?

People call you a scholar and you act like you're a genius?

How can you forget something you've only just said?

This business about?

Didn't you say we'd write a song?

Oh, that business. wasn't it you who talked about it?

It doesn't matter who it was.

Alright!

We'll write it, and I'll get my class to sing it.

It won't sound like the others, right?

Come on, your old ma will walk with you a bit, let's talk about it.

None of this old ma business in front of your old pa,

I'm older than you are!

Fine, my old pa can write the words and your old ma can write the music.

I want to pull this off on the quiet.

I'll show Lao Hei and the others, they shouldn't think that all I'm good for is cooking.

OK, it's a deal. I'll let you know.

I have to hurry up. Do you want me to walk you back?

Who needs you!

Lao Gar!

Take it.

Don't you need it?

You take it.

Laidi!

Goodbye!

I can't remember how I go to school.

Yes, you can. You know better than anyone else what you do yourself.

Finished?

Everyone finished?

"Going to School"

Class is over.

I'll talk about the compositions after the break.

Go out and play!

I'm going to read out two of the compositions.

The topic for today is "Going to School".

I'm going to read them aloud.

Good.

The first one goes like this:

Going to school, to the classroom at school,

I go to the classroom at school.

I walk to school.

the classroom at school.

Going to study to the classroom at school.

I walk to school. I, to walk.

That's all?

Fine!

I don't think it's bad.

That's true.

At least he used the word walk,

and I understod...

He didn't run,

he didn't fly either,

and he wasn't carried,

but he walked.

Sir, but it's too short.

It doesn't matter it's short. The more you practice the better.

Sir, who wrote it?

You!

It's not important who wrote it.

OK?

The second one's by Wang Fu I'll read it out.

The topic is Going to School.

I don't have a clock at home...

I got up,

I got dressed,

I washed my face,

I went to the cookhouse to fetch breakfast,

I ate breakfast...

I washed up my bowl...

I picked up my schoolbag.

I don't have a clock.

I walked for a long time,

there was mist in the mountains,

I reached the school,

I sat down,

I started class.

Don't laugh.

There are too many 'l's.

When you've written 'l' once, everyone understands, you don't have to keep writing it.

He wrote down some facts, and what's more he noticed the mist.

Too many commas.

Yes, there are too many commas,

all the way through.

But this can be corrected.

He wrote very well.

Firstly, there are no wrong characters,

it's clear.

Secondly, it's got content.

What I'm asking you for now is this: firstly, the writing has to be clear.

It doesn't matter if it doesn't look so nice.

Secondly. well, there isn't a second. Only the first.

Secondly.

Sir, didn't you just say there wasn't a second?

Secondly,

when you write compositions don't copy from newspapers.

No matter what it is, don't copy.

So what do you do?

You think about the topic yourself,

you write yourself, write what you like.

It doesn't matter if you don't write much,

but you must write honestly.

Is this clear?

Yes sir!

You made me jump! It's right not might that counts!

Goodbye, sir!

See you all tomorrow!

You must have been reading something weird this morning, they were laughing right through the lesson.

It's good to laugh.

What did you say?

I said it's good to laugh.

Whose son are you?

Do you go to school?

You don't?

Why not?

I can read,

do you want me to teach you?

Class!

You all know that the school has to repair the school roofs?

Yes sir!

Our task is to cut down two hundred and thirty bamboo logs

That many?

Tomorrow morning bring your machetes with you.

We'll go up the mountain in the morning and carry them back in the afternoon.

Yes sir!

Sir, which team do we go to?

Come to mine, come to mine

Let's go to my old team.

I'm familiar with the area, so we can start felling as soon as we get there.

It's just that it's rather far away, But the boys can help the girls!

Yes sir! No problem

We do this kind of job all the time, we're just as good as them. Who needs their help?

Sir, do we have to do a composition when we get back?

Let's stick to the job for now, don't worry about compositions.

I bet we have to Mr Li always used to do it like this.

Why not give us the topic now and we can write it today?

Then it would certainly be copying.

Sir, if you set the topic now I can write it today without copying.

Wang Fu,

had you been to your parents' wedding,

you could have written about it.

OK! I'll make a bet with you?

Bet what?

W: ill you really make a bet?

Of course.

The whole class can be the witness. OK?

Yes sir!

Wang Fu, what's the bet?

You'll really make a bet?

Yes. Tell me what you want?

Why not this way:

if I lose, you can have anything of mine you want.

What do you want?

What?

Hand it over to the monitor

It goes to the winner tomorrow

Had your dinner yet?

Not yet

You're felling bamboo tomorrow?

How's it going? Everything alright?

Yes.

Oh, can you lend me your dictionary for a bit? I'm writing something,

but I've forgotten how to write the word "fulfill".

What are you writing?

Song lyrics?

Song lyrics?

"Fulfill"?

I thought you had a dictionary.

It's a bet I've made with Wang Fu. The dictionary's with the stake-holder.

A bet? What kind of bet?

About felling bamboo?

So?

You haven't lost your bad habits from the team.

If you make a bet with the students and lose,

it might not be easy to keep control over them afterwards.

What control? They're all bright kids.

You're not teaching according to the book,

and the higher-ups have somehow got to hear about it.

As far as the school is concerned, it doesn't matter that much,

but don't go too far.

Sir, I've won.

What?

Dad, sir says he knows you.

Hello?

Don't you recognize me?

We loaded rice together once.

Your son's a good student

My dad and me, we went up to the mountain to cut bamboo before it got dark.

When we'd cut down two hundred and thirty logs,

I went home and wrote my composition

I finished it before midnight I've left it at home.

There's Zhiqing as witness.

Good

You're the witness. I won the dictionary.

Wang Fu!

I'll give you the dictionary as a gift.

You haven't won it.

The bet we made was that you would write about today's labour yesterday.

Although you wrote your composition yesterday,

the labour was also yesterday's.

The record of an event has to come after the event?

This is an incontrovertible truth?

You're an extremely serious boy and you've done a lot for the class,

and so I'm giving you the dictionary,

I lost

Sir, give Wang Fu the dictionary!

Wang Fu, it's time to go home

Lao Gar!

Lao Gar, what are you doing standing there?

Come on, give us a lesson

Who's going to say "Stand up"?

I will. Stand up!

Quiet!

Put your hands behind your backs

Anyone fooling around will catch it

The lesson will now begin

Today's lesson is very important,

and I want you to pay attention

First I'm going to read the text aloud

Once upon a time

there was a mountain.

On the mountain there was a temple.

In the temple

there was an old monk

telling a story.

What was the story he was telling?

In the temple

there was an old monk

telling a story.

What was the story he was telling?

In the temple

there was an old monk

telling a story.

What was the story he was telling?

In the temple...

"There was once a mountain...

in which there was a temple,

in the temple there was a monk who told a tale".

What tale?

"There was once a mountain, in which there was a temple,

in the temple there was a monk who told a tale".

What tale?

"There was once a mountain, in which there was a temple,

in the temple there was a monk who told a tale".

What tale?

"There was once a mountain, in which there was a temple,

in the temple there was a monk who told a tale".

"There was once a mountain, in which there was a temple,

in the temple there was a monk who told a tale".

What tale?

"There was once a mountain, in which there was a temple,

in the temple there was a monk who told a tale".

What tale?

"There was once a mountain, in which there was a temple,

in the temple there was a monk who told a tale".

What tale?

"There was once a mountain, in which there was a temple,

in the temple there was a monk who told a tale".

What tale?

"There was once a mountain, in which there was a temple,

in the temple there was a monk who told a tale".

Lao Hei?

Let's go!

OK.

Hey, why don't you lot go on ahead, I'm making dinner for Lao Gar.

Don't get mad, but what if something happens?

I'm going to make you a meal!

OK, let's go, let's go.

Ah! Are you punishing your student?

Wang Fu, stop reading Let's get the food ready

So this is Wang Fu!

What a hard worker!

No wonder your teacher is always boasting about you

Are you doing your homework?

No, I'm copying the teacher's dictionary.

Copying?

Fuck! This is my dictionary!

Fuck! I never said it wasn’t.

Do you copy this out every day?

Till this late?

It's not late.

No? But your team's a long way off!

Not so far, we always walk home

Your teacher told me what happened about the dictionary

Look, I'll give you the dictionary as a present

Take it, Wang Fu She's the real owner.

No, I'll copy

Copying makes it stick in my mind

What happens when you're finished copying?

When I finish school, I'll go back and work in the team

When I finish copying I'll take it with me.

Afterwards if there's a bigger dictionary, I'll copy that out.

Sir, I've finished washing the vegetables. I'm going home now.

No, stay here and eat.

No, I'm going.

Goodbye, ma'am

What did you call me?

Laidi,

it's my way of teaching.

I really don't know how I should teach,

We've already written about many things...

things that we know from our own experience

Today,

I want you to write about a person you know

People are living beings, it's not easy to write about them

Anyway, give it a go. See if you can add a bit to what you did before.

Sir, I want to write about our team cook.

Alright.

Sir, I'll write about the driver.

Do you know him well? As long as you do, it's alright.

Sir, I'll write about you.

Me?

I've only been here a few months, do you know me well enough?

Do you know whether I snore at night?

It's alright, go ahead.

Oh, I want you to stay behind a bit after class,

there's a good song I want to teach you.

I'm glad to see you.

This is Comrade Wu from the head office,

he's got something to say to you.

I hear you've been betting with the students?

What lesson are you up to now?

I'm still teaching, but I'm not using the textbook.

Why not?

It's useless.

Cigarette?

I don't smoke.

Thanks.

Everyone finished?

Sir!

Good.

Wang Fu, come and read out your composition.

Come on!

"My Father."'

My father is the strongest man in the world.

No one in our team can beat him when it comes to carrying loads.

My father eats more than anyone else in the world.

My mother always lets him eat all the food we have.

This is right,

because my father has to work, and his wages support our whole family.

But my father says he is not as strong as Wang Fu,

because Wang Fu can read and write.

My father is a mute, but I know what he means.

Therefore, I want to study

and learn how to speak for him. My father is very hard working.

He was sick today,

but later on he got out of bed.

He still wanted to go to work so he wouldn’t lose a day's pay.

I have to go to school

so I can't stand in for him now.

In the white morning sunlight,

my father went up the mountain. He walked into the white sunshine.

I think my father has got his strength back.

You may remember during one lesson,

I wrote up a word on the blackboard, Wang Fu underlined it and then I rubbed it out?

It was a word that I made up.

Back at the team, I used to graze the cows.

Cows are very stubborn creatures.

You can beat them and curse them, but they just blink at you

and go on eating what they want.

Sometimes they distract.

That's when I pee.

Cows love salty things, and pee is salty. Usually they can't get it.

Sometimes I'd hold myself in and wait until we got up the mountain before I'd take a pee.

that day, I saw a cowherd peeing for his cattle.

OK!

The girls need a bit more practice Let's take it slowly

"One two three four five..

One two three four five,

The third-year class has really tried.

Now they've learned to read and write, When they leave school, their future's bright.

Five four three two one,

The third-year class is second to none.

Each pair of shoulders supports one head, They write what they think, not what they've read.

I'd like to keep the students' last compositions,

would that be any problem?

It's right not to have made a scene

If you had

Do you think it's not right?

No, it's right!

We're going to burn off soon Burning off's a fine sight

I've been here

seven years,

I don't remember how many times I've made fires up in the mountains?

"Wang Fu, from now on don't copy anything,

don't even copy the dictionary."

"There was once a mountain, in which there was a temple,

In the temple there was a monk who told a tale".

What tale?

"There was once a mountain, in which there was a temple,

In the temple there was a monk who told a tale".

What tale?

"There was once a mountain, in which there was a temple,

In the temple there was a monk who told a tale".

"Cattlepiss"

THE END