@Engine: I thought Luo Lei was extremely articulate (his speech towards the end). The movie also suggests that he prepared his speech without the help of his parents unlike the other two. Also he could memorize it well suggesting that Luo Lei is very intelligent. Xiaofei was a sweet girl and her mother was not as vicious as the other mothers. And I thought Cheng Cheng was through and through dictatorial material

although i did not at first, i was really rooting for the fat kid in the underwear (cheng cheng) toward the end. i found luo lei to be grossly unqualified to be a public figure, someone who ruled primarly by force and pork barrel spending (the monorail class trip). he sort of reminded me of dub-yah bush—in that his father seemed to be driving his campaign, while he had very few ideas of his own. his own inability to articulate thoughts and think for himself also made luo seem like a puppet in his father’s need to extend his power into a third grade classroom. cheng cheng, despite the machialian tendencies, appeared to have a good balance of intelligence, conscience, and flaws. i particularly relished the scene when he shoos his mother into another room because he’s embarrassed to practice his speech in front of her—not because he was in his toony underwear, but simply because he didn’t feel like the speech was ready to be judged.