Jon Peters Reviews: “Up the Yangtze”

China is in a pivotal transition for the country and its people. Once the Three Gorges Dam is complete, they will have the world’s largest hydroelectric power station, a clear sign of a new modernistic China. But this new advancement for China has caused displacement for near four million people since the dam is causing the great Yangtze River to flood, destroying historical sites and homes. Director Yung Chang has taken a broad approach to examining this subject and as he claims, films about the Yangtze River could be their own genre, but his self-assured eye has captured incredible human drama within China.

Yung Chang uses constant juxtaposition in the film, going from the poor along the river to the rich tourists, from farmers to city folks, establishing a unique look at the perversity of it all. Cindy Shui Yu comes from the poor side of Chinese life. She wants to go to high school but her parents can’t afford to send her, so she is basically thrown into working on this cruise that travels up the Yangtze River. We see her in the cruise’s kitchen learning her new job and hating it, while back at home her parents are worrying about the inevitable flooding that will force them to leave. Yung Chang said the Yu family is extreme examples of the poor in China, but this shifting or juxtaposition shows a monumental culture shock amongst them and the tourists. Cindy’s father is clueless to exactly what the dam is or will do for his country and the tourists are so naive and ignorant about the people of China. The cruise ship gives its workers American sounding names, teaches them what to say and not to say, they allow silly songs to be played, all the while we get the idea that maybe China is an undiscovered world. Even their own people don’t know much about its growth into consumerism and open-trade, but this is just one of many fascinating aspects you can take from the film.

The cinematography is a key element to the film as it gives us an almost travelogue photography of the great river. Shi Qing Wang used a 720p high-def DV camera and captured some breath-taking footage. Yung Chang crafts the scenes in a way directors would do for a narrative feature. It’s a keen eye for composition that helps give the film the epic feel and the atmosphere the film oozes creates a haunting lasting memory.

While Werner Herzog’s influence is all over the film, Yung Chang has clearly made the film his own. The film has many metaphors, a powerful Confucius quote the haunts over the film until its moody closing shot of the Three Gorges Dam opening up. Another gripping scene is a brilliant time-lapsed scene of the river’s flood levels rising and eventually putting Yu’s home under water. Without narration, we get the impact and devastation as much as people like the Yu family are clearly experiencing.

While the film might appear to be a sadden affair, Chang describes the film as ‘Love Boat meets Apocalypse Now’. There’s plenty of humor from the various subjects he captures but we are always reminded of the situation and perhaps the ‘elephant in the room’: the Chinese government. While the film never addresses them, we do see scenes of government officials controlling the protestors and ones who don’t want to leave through some brutal means.

‘Up the Yangtze’ never editorializes. We are left with our own thoughts about the dam and its soon-to-be lasting effects. The brilliant thing about the film is that everyone will have something they latch onto; silly Jerry Bo Yu Chen, the culture shock, Cindy Shui Yu’s plight, the praying old lady, the film’s magnificent cinematography, but we will all be affected by the tragedy. ‘Up the Yangtze’ is a powerful, beautiful, haunting documentary and one of 2008′s best.