It was a kindergarten. And the movie is not just about showing rebellion as the person who wrote the comment would let you believe. It was made to preserve the image of what kindergartens used to look like in China at that time (many are still very similar today, though much better in the big cities). You'd have to know Chinese (the language and the people) to get the feeling of the whole experience.
shareTo be honest it looked more like a prison than anything.
I started out with nothing and I still have most of it left.
I think so too.
Every movement is restricted.
that's what it was like at that time in China. so it's hard for someone with no experience of that kind to actually feel the feeling of those who do. I'm not saying this is a great movie though. the storyline just isn't completed and perfect. but the mood is exact and will be touching for someone from that kind of background.
shareI went through kindergarden in China in the late 80s and it was quite similar
share[deleted]
To be fair, this movie is very unlikely to be understood by most of the western viewers if a larger context is not acknowledged first. The Chinese society has been about killing individual personality and giving ultimate obedience for thousands of years.
This has become especially so in the recent 300 years, Chinese people have been carried in the current of changing situation of wars, revolutions, the shake down of the entire system and the new establishment. This story is set up at 1980s, right after the culture revolution, which is another historical event that messed up another entire generation. I was born in early 80s, I know how scared people are usually, of showing a tiny bit of personality, or a tiny bit of difference. The country wants you to be exactly the same as others. This is the large context of this story.
Individual families have to obey what the country needs, that's why both the parents of the kid have to give up their family life and send this kid to the boarding kindergarten (no parents want to do that honestly). Individuals have to obey what the group tells you, the first experience this kid has was to be cut of the 'pig tail' by the teacher, as 'no other kids has it', and it is 'for your own good'.
The rest of the film is about a series of incidents where the kid is still fighting for his own personality and wants to take control of his own fate while the system keeps oppressing him. This is the story of 1.3 billion Chinese people, not just this kid.
I was sent to a boarding kindergarten when I was at the same age. All I can say is that everything in this movie is so real and true that it reminds me of a lot of the things I disliked when I was in the same situation. However I would not criticise any individual character in this movie as even the teachers don't have control over their own decisions. This might be hard to accept by a lot of the western viewers but when the freedom was taken away from you since day one it is very very unlikely that you even know what freedom means. Or, let me put it this way, Chinese people have been living in this truman show, that we did not even know there are other possibilities.