New on DVD Nov 16 2008 @ 01:00 pm
REVIEW: Up the Yangtze
Directed By: Yung Chang
Written By: Yung Chang
Running Time: 93 minutes
Not Rated
This review was originally published September 28th, 2008.
The Three Gorges Dam spanning China’s Yangtze River is the largest hydroelectric project in the world. Upon being finished it will provide mammoth amounts of hydroelectric power to the country and its people, but it will cause the waters of the Yangtze to rise, obliterating many homes. Thousands will have to relocate to the highland and start anew. Yung Chang’s new documentary Up the Yangtze explores the different worlds created by the dam and illuminates a darkened corner of the world that may soon disappear under the waters of the Yangtze.
The resulting film is far from academic. Up The Yangtze is not a National Geographic special report on a nation’s economic climate, but a film focusing on two young people from two different parts of China.
Cindy (right) and family members
Jerry is from the city; little is known about his family and he’s introduced during a night out with friends where he toasts to a future of opportunity. He is confident about rising above his peers and becoming a success – something he bluntly communicates to all. Cindy comes from a family of poor farmers who struggle daily in dirt and rain just so they will have food to eat. She desperately wants to be a successful teacher, but her family situation is crippling. “I know it’s because your father and I don’t have skills that we have to exploit you,” her mother tells her through tears.
Both Jerry and Cindy want to leave their current environment to pursue lifelong dreams and each take advantage of job opportunities aboard a cruise liner touring up and down the Yangtze. Upon boarding they are rigorously drilled on how to act around passengers as not to offend. They are not to be overly modest or polite, should never compare America to Canada, and may never call people old, pale, or fat.
The foreigners aboard the cruise liner (mostly Americans) are blind to the plight of Chinese young people like Cindy and equally apathetic to Jerry’s hope for a successful life. Too busy with the frivolity of an exotic vacation, they parade blissfully around the ship with an oblivious idiocy reminiscent of characters penned by the Coen Brothers, trying on traditional Chinese garb by day and listening to a Barry Manilow wannabe by night.
Cruise patrons boat up the Yangtze
It is here that Yung Chang places images of debilitating poverty against those of immense wealth. While touring a small cross-section of the highland, the passengers are assured that the Chinese are a happy people and that everyone who must relocate after the river rises will be given a safe and comfortable life. After they smile and walk away, we are again shown Cindy’s family as they struggle to survive on the banks of the rising river. This is something the happy-go-lucky tourists will never see.
At one point in Up the Yangtze, an impoverished shop-owner is interviewed in close-up. He talks about how being human is hard enough, but being a common person in China is even harder. His words are heartbreaking considering the context, but there is something amiss about the way he carries himself. Something seems off-kilter – perhaps even staged. The picture of Cindy’s home life feels the same way. The audience is placed directly inside their dilapidated riverfront shack by day and by night listening in on private family conversations and seeing traumatic moments from multiple camera perspectives. It begs the question: just how much can a filmmaker invade people’s lives before altering reality or being tempted to stage events?
In Up the Yangtze, the emotional weight on display when people speak to the camera adds gravity to the fact that they will probably lose their homes when the river rises, but the uncommon level of candor and emotional freedom displayed is greatly overplayed. It feels fake at times.
All is not lost, though. The opening and closing sequences are worth the price of admission alone. Yung Chang takes his camera inside the Three Gorges Dam to give perspective on how massive the project really is. These sequences are overpowering and have a larger-than-life quality, lending immediacy and poetry to the rest of the film. The film wisely uses these and other solemn, quiet moments to engender a real compassion for the impoverished people who gaze at the river each day with great unease about the future and profound embarrassment of the past.
Up the Yangtze is a quietly heartbreaking documentary of unfettered sincerity even in moments where staged interviews could be a possibility. It has a stark beauty that stands as a testament to those acute periods of personal testing that forge us into new and better people.
on Sep 28 2008 @ 11:14 pm 1. Joseph said …
Sounds interesting. I’ll definitely check it out sometime.
on Sep 28 2008 @ 11:58 pm 2. Daniel said …
Very nice review of what I consider one of the top three documentaries this year, Philip (and I think I’ve seen pretty much everything but The Rape of Europa and The Singing Revolution). For scope and timeliness I don’t think anything achieves what Yangtze does, in a similar way that last year’s Manufactured Landscapes did. It was a bizarre experience to watch the Olympics after having seen those two. I’m sure Evan can relate some thoughts from his time in China as well.
I find it interesting that you felt the interviews were staged. It’s a valid point, just not one that I’ve yet seen addressed with this film, nor one that I personally observed. At first glance I can see why the interview with the shop owner was staged but I thought his pent-up emotional outburst was authentic. And the other sequences, like when the tourists toured the living or working area (I can’t remember exactly what it was) – well that felt staged because it was. I couldn’t believe people were so easily swallowing what the tour guides/ship employees were saying.
Anyway, everybody can judge for themselves because Yangtze is going to be on PBS in the second week of October. In case you see it (or you already have) and your interested, there’s always a very meaningful discussion afterward at the POV blog afterward. Just spreadin’ the word…
on Sep 29 2008 @ 4:22 am 3. Nick Plowman said …
I completely and utterly love this documentary, easily one of my favourites of the year. Okay, not easily, definitely.
on Sep 29 2008 @ 6:43 am 4. Allan Fish said …
Nice piece, Philip. I rated it a little higher, but hey, can’t have everything.
on Sep 29 2008 @ 6:45 am 5. Sam Juliano said …
Beautiful final paragraph Phillip, in fact the entire piece is suffused with a singular eloquence and a pointed insight into this wrenching documentary, which at this late juncture of 2008 is a very strong contender for film of the year for me.
I do understand what you are saying there about the extent of the emotional candor and freedom almost seeming “fake at times” but I didn’t quite read it that way.
The film’s authenticity, and cumulative effect, which culminated with that shattering final sequence, was it’s most persuasive aspect.
Your work gets better and better.
on Sep 29 2008 @ 8:27 am 6. Phillip Johnston said …
I knew I’d get some flack for that observation and I feel like a real jerk for writing about the film in this way, but its truly the way I felt. Some of the interviews made me feel very uneasy and all the nicely framed shots (from multiple cameras) during moments with Cindy’s family seemed too pristine. Quite honestly, I felt like I was watching a more tragic version of Big Brother.
My favorite aspect of the film was the dynamic between the Chinese young people and everyone on the cruise ship. Very fascinating. Those opening and closing sequences, as has been pointed out, are quite fantastic too.
on Sep 29 2008 @ 10:13 am 7. Film-Book dot Com said …
I watched a documentary on The Three Gorges Dam on the history channel. I had no idea a film was being made about it. I hope the flick shows up in my town.
on Sep 29 2008 @ 11:12 am 8. Sam Juliano said …
“I felt like I was watching a more tragic version of BIG BROTHER.”
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
on Sep 29 2008 @ 12:09 pm 9. Andrew Wyatt said …
Nice review, Phillip. I think your observation about the slightly staged quality to the film’s sharpest emotional moments is a fair one. I liked the film immensely, but this element also bothered me a little. I knew the film was a documentary when I bought my ticket, but sometimes I felt as though I was watching naturalistic fiction. Were all the conversations featuring “Cindy’s” family truly captured in the spontaneous moment, or were they performed? It’s an insightful, moving film, but at the same time I couldn’t shake the sensation of tidy theater for the viewer’s benefit that suffuses some scenes.
My full review here.
on Sep 29 2008 @ 1:56 pm 10. Matthew Lucas said …
I never thought it felt fake at all.
on Jan 12 2009 @ 12:29 am 11. Mix - Latest News And Top Headlines From Around The Web! » Blog Archive » DVD Releases for January 6th, 2008 said …
[...] and wakes up the slave/wife of another man. Critical accolades appear to abound, and after Up the Yangtze I am freshly interested in all things [...]
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