The Worst Film Ever

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

While "Please Vote for Me" has an interesting subject and an interesting way to look at it, being a part of the "Why Democracy?" series, it fails to make a point about democracy, while only seeming to.First of all, while not wanting to sound political and unlike the common opinion, I don't think what happens in the film has anything to do with China. These children are third-graders and even if they have their own personalities, in a class monitor election with a campaign, they are basically dependent on their parents. Yes, Cheng Cheng wants to have authority and the Luo Lei beats other kids up but after all, they are children for god's sake! The majority of the behavior that they display in this film is typical of a third grader, regardless of how communist or capitalist a country he or she may live in. I must say there are times when the documentary seems artificial, as in one candidate plans to sabotage another's act in the talent show. It is very unlikely that a kid at this age would reveal such a plan to a friend in front of the camera; these are not kids that are too stupid to tell right from wrong. This age is a time when guilt plays an important role in the child's life.The only sound comment the film makes about democracy is the view of the parents. Rather than seeing this election as an opportunity for their child to learn about democracy, self-confidence, winning and losing, most of them take it as a chance for their kid (and perhaps themselves) to show others that s/he is better than everyone else, with whatever means necessary. For example, Cheng Cheng has a mother who belittles him, pushes him constantly and doesn't seem to appreciate him at all and this may account for his desire to have his classmates under control, because his self-confidence is always undermined at home. The film does a better job of analyzing the behavior of the parents than making a point about democracy or democracy in China, for that matter. The scenes showing the school children chanting and exercising in disturbing unity didn't add much to it, either because the election process did not seem to be related with what was happening outside and if it were, the film made no effort to mention how.I wouldn't want to discourage anybody from seeing this film, but I think it is a disappointing film which fails to deliver what it seems to be promising.

Luo Lei, Cheng Cheng and Xu Xiaofei are all in the same 3rd grade class and are told by their teacher that the three of them will be running in an election to see who will be class monitor. It seems that such democratic-style elections are unknown in China and at first the kids seem a bit puzzled. However, they soon get into the spirit of this and the kids act out lessons about the worst attributes of the electoral system--with name-calling, bribery, threats and a variety of other dirty tricks. This really had me wondering if the kids and their very, very overly-involved parents came up with all this on their own or if perhaps this film was deliberately staged to be a parable about the evils of self-rule! If it wasn't staged, then it says a lot about the natural inclinations of humans.Luo Lei appeared to be very capable as monitor--provided you want a kid who will slap the others around to get them to bend to his iron will! Cheng Cheng was, in many ways, like a little "Eric Cartman"--a rather nasty little porker who slapped his parents around and seemed to have gotten his game plan from Machiavelli--what a conniver! Poor little Xu Xiaofei seemed like an adorable and sweet little kid--and soon it seemed like she was out of her element because she's just too nice to run a dirty campaign like the boys!! Frankly, she was the only likable kid of the three--so naturally she's the one who ended up with the least number of votes--a case where Chinese kids are not so much different from their American counterparts! This was a very fascinating experiment, though I was amazed how dirty the teacher allowed the race to be (hence, making me wonder if perhaps it was all staged to a degree to prove that democracy won't work). I was most surprised at the parents, however, as they were nothing liked I'd expected! The seemed far more involved with their kids and allowed some behaviors that were pretty bad (particularly out of Cheng Cheng)--perhaps this over-indulgence is related to their only being allowed one child per household. In addition, the parents continually drilled the kids, wrote speeches for them and prodded them unmercifully--like you'd expect from an American father who demands that their child excel in sports.Perhaps this film was most helpful to me not because of its lesson about democracy but because it gave amazing insights into the Chinese family and children. It was refreshing to see that even though the government is so different from a Western one, the kids seemed a lot like regular kids--for good and for bad! In particular, I was happy to see that Chinese kids can also be obnoxious and full of energy just like the kids I teach her in the States!!

This documentary showed some of the truth of China. Not every Chinese are fond of "vote". In my option, 80% or more people living here don't care who will be the leader, they just care about there OWN life. "If I can get rich anyway, I don't care who is wearing the crown even he is a totally b*****d."But, if the b*****d can not do the job, they just waiting for the "god's willing" to punish him, their patience is FAR MORE beyond your white's imagination.Probably, there will be change, but not my or your eyes could witness.Well, guys, it is hard to find this film to watch HERE, that might prove that this documentary is not "lead" by a liberal politico---that kind of creature is more rare than panda.

As a 25 year old westerner I feel really bad for the sibling-less kids of China post 1979; such an intense, strict and oh so serious upbringing! But it was good to see these kids still know how to have a bit of fun some of the time - alternating between deliberately making people cry - to dancing about like a crazy loon.After finishing watching this just now, my first thought was "who produced this?" was it the Chinese government trying to show democracy as a bad/flawed idea, or pro-westerners trying to say "yeah man, you DO need democracy now!".... in the end it doesn't really matter as the film can equally discount or credit either argument.It is a surprisingly honest and intimate doco; quite cleanly played out (not editorialized). Just like in most elections, the good guy you hope and would really love to see win; gets done over by the political machinations of the more cut=throat dodgier candidate - as is sadly too often the case in real world politics. Make a bet with whoever you watch this with in the first 20 minutes as to who you think will win, you might be surprised!This had me from the first minute until the last credits rolled, good film, nuff said.