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Up the Yangtze
2008; directed by Yung Chang

Chinese-Canadian director Yung Chang has created a compelling documentary with his 2008 entry Up the Yangtze, using the massive Three Gorges Dam project -- as seen through the eyes of two young people working on a tourist ship cruising the overflowing Yangtze river -- to tell a tale of modern China as a whole. In many ways, this is not an easy film to digest and doesn't provide any clear answers as to China's new role in the capitalist world, but, in the end, that ends up being one of this movie's biggest strengths, allowing the viewer to draw their own conclusions, rather than hammering them over the head with an not-so-thinly veiled message.

Up the Yangtze    Up the Yangtze

The first of the young people featured is Yu Shui, whose family makes their meager living being farmers along the banks of the Yangtze, which will soon become impossible due to the Three Gorges project making the level of the river rise. She wants to go to high school and eventually college, but her family's dire financial situation forces her to give up the dream as she goes to work on the boat. Regulated to menial tasks like cleaning trash out of sinks and feeling out of place alongside her more sophisticated and educated co-workers, Shui almost immediately starts to feel homesick and questioning if she made the right decision.

Up the Yangtze    Up the Yangtze

On the other side, we have Chen Bo Yu, who is an example of the "little emperor" generation of young Chinese males who are the only children of their families. Born into relative wealth and embracing capitalism, these people are often derided for being materialistic and self-centered, which Bo Yu certainly is. While Shui spends her last night before leaving for the ship with her family having a simple candle-lit meal of vegetables, Bo Yu goes out on the town, singing karaoke in a garish neon-swathed bar and drinking western liquor. While his good looks and knowledge of English would seem to make him more of a natural fit for the ship, his attitude soon begins rubbing people the wrong way, and he soon runs into his own set of problems.

Up the Yangtze    Up the Yangtze

Even though Yung Chang directly puts himself into the movie via his narration, going so far as to say why he wanted to make the film was due to his grandfather, who lived and worked along the Yangtze for many years, one never really gets the heavy-handed treatment some documentary film-makers such as Michael Moore throw towards the audience, confusing documentary (i.e., impartial) film-making for grand-standing. Obviously Yung has a point to get across that the modernization of China is often coming at a high price to the lower classes, but this is not a matter that doesn't have any conveniently pat solutions that can be essayed within a ninety minute film, and Yung gives his audience enough credit to take in the information on their own. Despite what you may think of modern China's policies, you may still gain some new insight after viewing this picture.

RATING: 7

This movie is available from Amazon.

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