The Home In The Tree is a family comedy movie that I’ll be explaining today. Beware of spoilers! A young boy by the name of Ba Wang lives in a village in the central Shaanxi plain. Because of his poor grades, the teachers frequently misinterpret him. One morning, Ba Wang is busy attempting to steal comic books from the library while the fifth-grade pupils are studying outside of their class. He constructs a temporary hook to fish the books, but principal Yin catches him. The person is Ba Wang’s greatest detractor. He doesn’t value his originality and believes he is useless. Ba Wang retaliates after receiving criticism for stealing the books. It turns out that he had borrowed the aforementioned books from the school library for the use of other students.
But, the principal misappropriated them in order to represent it as school property to the education department. Ba Wang repeatedly tries to get them back because they were never given to him. Ms Jiao, his Chinese instructor, is seven months pregnant. Unknowingly calling her fat when she asks Ba Wang to construct a phrase from a word, he is expelled from the class. Similar to the previous period, he is forced to stand at the front of the room for failing to complete a math problem. For Ba Wang, receiving punishment has become an everyday occurrence. After school that day, Ba Wang visits a nearby field. There is a tree there that he has designated as his own. He climbs it every day after school and spends hours there. It is his preferred location on earth.
He had memorised the homework he had neglected to do that day and Miss Jiao had requested him to meet her at the teacher’s quarter. Ba Wang follows instructions but discovers a stunning woman in Miss Jiao’s room instead. She is Miss Fen, a temporary teacher who will fill in for Miss Jiao while she is on maternity leave. Fen is compassionate and patient with the students, which is unusual for teachers. She believes that only terrible teachers make lousy students. She asks Ba Wang to return later after hearing from him that he hasn’t had lunch. But then Miss Jiao shows in and forbids him from eating until he has remembered his assignment.
When Miss Fen calls her out for being cruel to the child, she justifies her behaviour by saying that Ba Wang deserved it because he was misbehaving. Ba Wang is trying to get water from a dry tap when Fen notices him and gives him a jar of pickle juice as a treat. Ba Wang is unaccustomed to receiving such attention from a mentor, therefore he begins to like her right away. He goes swimming in the adjacent Lake after the meeting. As a punishment for swimming in an unsanitary area, the school principal finds the clothes on the ground and brings them back to the student. He is given the clothes back and forced to write a letter of self-criticism. The next scene shows Ba Wang and his pals having fun with a street vendor. They are informed that they will receive a present of their choice if they remove 10 blue marbles from a pouch.
Ba Wang tricks the vendor using his own marbles, but it turns out that he had been deceiving them all along because there aren’t any blue marbles in the pouch. They start fighting, but Miss Fen breaks it up. She brings the child’s parents along and stands up for him in front of them. But even then, his father continues to abuse him. Ba Wang’s mother accepts him as he is, but his father constantly points out his shortcomings. Miss Fen starts her first day of work the next day. In the hopes that it may help them with their grammar, she lets the kids read comic books. The children are overjoyed because the old teacher never let them to do so.
Ba Wang is even happy when she keeps him in charge of lending and collecting the books and makes him the librarian. He completes the work quickly and enjoys having such power over his classmates. He has been attending school for five years, and this is his first success. He tells his father about it, but as usual, dad is unimpressed. Instead of encouraging him, he tells the youngster to focus on his studies rather than waste time. Ba Wang visits Miss Fen the following morning to pick up the books. He obtains some wood from her carpenter father to fix an issue she is having with her bed. As a reward, Fen gives the boy candy, which makes him like her even more.
After just one week of instruction, Miss Fen wins over every student’s affection. She involves the kids in the lesson and encourages them to express their creativity rather than simply lecturing them. Her methods are not well liked by the principal or the other teachers since they feel that she is allowing the students to misbehave. One day, Ba Wang surprises Miss Fen with a present of mushrooms. Later, when she searches for him, she discovers him beneath his favourite tree. They enjoy themselves greatly while playing on the swing and watching birds. Ba Wang continues to lend books in the meantime and gains a lot of popularity among his peers.
Even worse, he gives the fancier books to the students who get better scores and exhorts the rest to try harder in class so Miss Fen would be recognised for her efforts. Ba Wang harms himself after falling off a bench during school lunch. He is let to use Fen’s bed in the teacher’s quarters by a sympathetic Fen. The strategy fails when Ba Wang offers him one final warning before informing his father that he broke into a teacher’s room. Ba Wang conceals information from the principal out of concern for Miss Fen’s safety. That evening, Miss Fen receives a reprimand from the principal for letting the youngsters read comic books instead of studying for their forthcoming test.
She apologises and makes a commitment to hold onto the comics until the tests are over. The following morning, when Ba Wang arrives to pick up the books, he is instructed to concentrate on his academic work instead. As he succeeds with a higher grade, Miss Fen encourages him by promising to grant him access to all the books he desires. Ba Wang accepts the challenge and begins to work even harder on his studies. Being one of the students in the class with the lowest grade at first causes him to struggle. But with perseverance and hard study, he eventually begins to grasp it. He chooses to tattoo cheats all over his body the day before the exam because he is anxious.
While he is doing it, Miss Fen discovers him and forces him to take a bath in the lake to remove it. Ba Wang is pleasantly surprised to find the exam’s questions aren’t too challenging. Without soliciting assistance from anyone else, he tries his best. The results are released a week later, and instead of failing as usual, he receives a score of 73 out of 100. He certainly has Miss Fen’s support, to put it mildly. She feels satisfied knowing she contributed to his desire to put more effort into his studies. He receives praise from her in front of the class for his efforts. At supper, Ba Wang won’t stop narrating his day. His mother is ecstatic to see her son starting to put more effort into his studies. But as usual, his father is pessimistic.
Only then will he get Ba Wang’s esteem if he wins an honorary award that the top three pupils receive. He refuses to stop criticising his son’s accomplishments even when the mother tries to change the subject. Miss Fen that the principal add an award for the kid who made the highest improvement in the previous semester the next day at school. He declines, however, as the institution cannot afford to grant more students. Ba Wang keeps his fingers crossed that his name will be announced during the event. He wants to show his father how valuable he is, but after the ceremony, he is let down.
Miss Fen creates the child a certificate of his own using blank paper and lipstick because she feels horrible for the child. It is given to Ba Wang in front of the class. She also snaps a photo of him for recollections. He rushes home after school to present his parents the certificate. His mother proudly hangs it on the wall, but his father complains that it isn’t a legitimate certificate. Ba Wang, however, is ecstatic to have a teacher like Miss Fen in his life and could care less about what his father thinks for the day. The following day, Ba Wang’s classmates begin to follow him about in an effort to hang out with the popular student. Also, they beg him to have Miss Fen snap their photos.
Ba Wang boasts that he can handle it because he and Miss Fen get along so well. He visits her room one morning to get the day’s supply of comic books. But because Miss Fen is on vacation, the principal sends him away. Ba Wang is unable to fall asleep during her absence during nap time. He exits the classroom deftly and breaks into Miss Fen’s chamber. He searches for the camera for some time before bringing it outside. He abruptly spots Miss Fen and a male student entering the building. He quickly enters her room and places the camera before slipping beneath the bed. When Miss Fen and her friend enter the room, they immediately begin calling each other by their pet names.
As they kiss, Ba Wang is confirmed in his suspicion that they are a relationship. Thankfully, he escapes the encounter unharmed, but the revelation spoils his day. The following morning, when Ba Wang enters Miss Fen’s room, she discovers her boyfriend lying on her bed naked. After assisting Ba Wang with the comic books, the man enters the room again. Ba Wang, while being only a little child, feels jealous when he observes his favourite person displaying devotion for someone else. He overhears Fen complimenting her boyfriend’s appearance before heading back home. He wants to wow Fen the next day by taking an hour-long bath, using glue to gel his hair, and dressing nicely.
His classmates tease him at school by saying that his hair looks like a hedgehog. Miss Fen requests that he accompany her and her partner to the tree that he loves so much before she notices the change. She considers the location to be romantic because it allows her to spend time with her lover. Ba Wang is forced to show them about and take them to the pitch against his will. While Ba Wang and Fen hang out on the tree, the boyfriend plays on the swing. The couple goes cycling together a time later. Ba Wang makes use of their absence to use a knife to cut the swing’s rope. He wants to get the guy to fall off it, but when Miss Fen swings on it after him and is harmed, his plan backfires.
Then the screen blacks out and the picture shifts to two weeks later as she cries out in anguish. Although Fen no longer teaching at the school, Ba Wang is still being influenced by her while in class. He gets a letter from her during the lunch hour. She writes in the letter that she misses him and the other students. She also exhorts him to keep up his good work so he can eventually receive the principal’s official certificate. It turns out that she has a broken arm and is recovering nicely in the hospital. She recently graduated as well, and as a keepsake, she sent a photo of herself.
Ba Wang visits his favourite tree in the last scene, which has sadly been felled. The message and images are buried in the front by him. We observe a little twig emerging from the tree’s bark as he leaves, showing that the tree will eventually grow tall once more. On this scene movie ends. Thankyou.
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