Review of The Class (2008) by Kong M — 08 Apr 2009

Terrific film and probably the best film on education I have seen so far. whats so unique about this film (and probably the reason why it won the cannes palma award) is that it is a real reflection on the realities of the happenings in everyday classroom within a year. It doesnt need to rely on a series of events or plots, nor needing a happy or sad ending, cuz what u will see throughout are unrelated sequences but all the more so events that shows a very realistic portrayal of the interaction, challenges and the social behaviour among teachers and students.

All these cant be possible if the main actor and screenplay writer isnt played by the person who wrote the book and was a teacher himself. Clearly he doesnt need to act at all to bring out 100% of what he intended to tell the audience. But still, it is a magnificent feat to produce a film of this quality, it is like directly shot from a classroom in real life!

Moreover, he is not afraid to reveal the weaknesses of teachers and the cowardrice attitude they have sometimes to 'escape from certain issues as their hands are already overloaded'. We all know that teachers are human and sometimes we hate them too. There was a critical mistake his character made in the film, causing an unnecessary loss, and there was no attempt at all to find a proper remedy other than following the system -- this just make the film even more realistic, cuz in real life, how many teachers will actually be brave enough to act otherwise? Not many films manage to reflect on the challenges faced by teachers, and the conflicts they face with their students, and the conflicts the students have with the school. Probably this is the first successful masterpiece to link all that.