 Set in the People 's Republic of China during the 1990s , the film centers on a 13 @-@ year @-@ old substitute teacher , Wei Minzhi , in the Chinese countryside . Called in to substitute for a village teacher for one month , Wei is told not to lose any students . When one of the boys takes off in search of work in the big city , she goes looking for him . The film addresses education reform in China , the economic gap between urban and rural populations , and the prevalence of bureaucracy and authority figures in everyday life . It is filmed in a neorealist / documentary style with a troupe of non @-@ professional actors who play characters with the same names and occupations as the actors have in real life , blurring the boundaries between drama and reality . 
