“Up the Yangtze” Review - Traverse City Film Festival

Film: Up the Yangtze * Official Site	In Theaters: Screenings
Runtime: 93 minutes	On DVD: Nov. 18, 2008
MPAA Rating: Not Rated	Gecko Rating:

Directed by Yung Chang, this beautifully shot documentary chronicles the changes taking place on the Yangtze River in China. Luxury cruise boats such as Victoria Cruises, motor up the river, carrying Western tourists eager for a final glimpse of the legendary river’s ancient and revered sites. Massive changes are about to take place.

In a huge engineering feat, China has decided to harness the Yangtze with the world’s largest hydroelectric dam known as the Three Gorges Dam. Soon, the river will rise, displacing everything — and everyone — in its path.

Read more…

This film focuses on one poor family living in a ramshackle hut on the river’s edge. To Americans, their situation is dire, with chickens wandering in and out of the hut, pieced together with old plywood and other materials.

But to the Shui family who live there, it’s everything. Mainly because the river’s edge offers a great place to grow plants and vegetables. They feel rich, because they always have enough to eat, unlike others in that region.

Keep reading below photo…

Still, their daughter, Yu Shui, wants to attend high school and strive for a better life. Her parents — who, quite frankly, seem emotionally abusive — force her to work aboard one of the cruise boats. So Yu Shui collects all of her belongings into a plastic shopping bag and sadly leaves the hut. Her parents don’t even walk up the path with her. They claim she’s old enough to look after herself now.

Aboard the cruise boat, Yu Shui makes friends, learns how to interact with tourists, and vies for one of the few permanent positions on the boat. After all, she’s just a shy country girl, competing with kids like Chen Bo Yu, an over-confident show-off typical of single sons, the “little emperors” of China’s one-child-only policy.

Meanwhile, at the river’s edge, Yu Shui’s parents assemble their humble possessions as the floodwaters rise. Two million will lose their livelihood because of the dam.

While I thought the film seemed a bit long, the cinematography is stunning, as is the musical score. Yung Chang offers a thoughtful, gripping look at life in contemporary China. As one tearful shopkeeper noted, the common man in China has a very tough time. The peasants along the river seem a rung or two beneath that.

I keep trying to derive some sort of message from the film, but maybe we’re just supposed to watch and draw our own conclusions. It’s clear that the dam will have far-reaching effects for the river dwellers. Then again, at the end of the film, the Shui family is displaced to what seems like a slightly better place to live. On the other hand, they’ve lost the only way they know how to live.

As for Yu Shui, she seemed a bit happier working on the boat — at least we saw her smile — than living in the hut. She also continued her studies on the boat, so you get the feeling she’ll have that better life one way or another.

For more on the fate of the Yangtze River, read Rachel Dickinson’s wonderful piece, Shadowland, on TravelClassics.com.

Watch the trailer:

Images: Up the Yangtze, Zeitgeist Films, 2007

Share This