Up The Yangtze - carry on flooding...

Introduction

The Yangtze river in China is simply known by the natives as The River, a vast and almost mythical waterway that is now the site of one the world's most ambitious engineering projects. The controversial Three Gorges Dam will be the world's larget hydro-electric dam, harnessing the power the Yangtze but also displacing 2 million Chinese people in the quest for progress in 21st Century China. The Chinese Government are hoping that the dam will provide up to 10% of the country's energy, but critics argue that the weight of the water held in place by the dam could tilt the world's axis by a couple of degrees.

Yung Chang's film centres on the Shui family, a peasant family living on the banks of the Yangtze near Fengdu in a self-built shack. The father used to work as a coolie but work dried up and the family suffered setbacks due to having a larger family than allowed by law (fines are imposed for extra children) and medical bills for their youngest son who had previously been in a meningitis-related coma. The family had become almost self-sufficient in their new home, growing their own food and managing on almost next to nothing. Their daughter Yu Shui is a 16 year old who has left middle school and would like to continue her education but is unable to due to the fees that would be required. In fact her family have no option but to send her out to work.



Also featured is the 19 year old only son of a modestly well off and middle class family from the city of Kai Xian. Although raised by his grandparents, Chen Bo Yu is a typical result of the Chinese 'one-child-only' policy; he is arrogant, over-confident, spoilt and self-indulgent, looking down on everything and interested only in earning lots of money.

Both teenagers are employed by Farewell cruises, a strange tourist attraction whereby huge luxury ships float up the Yangtze river showing the tourists, mainly American it must be said, the disappearing landscape of the area as the water level slowly rises. In a sop to their Western customers, all the crew of the ship are given American names and learn about Western culture and the English language as well as their work duties on board. The shy and awkward Cindy Yu Shui works in the galley washes dishes, whilst the brash Jerry Chen Bo Yu works as a porter.

The film tracks their progress on the ship as well as the changing fortunes of the Shui family as the water creeps ever closer to their home.

Visual

Some simply breathtaking shots of the Chinese landscape along the Yangtze river that are aptly juxtaposed against the more gritty and real close up shots of the desolate, deserted 'ghost' cities and the home of the Yu peasant family. One of the oddities of this film, and life I guess, is that in still shots or from a distance the family shack looks quite picturesque and then close up filmed shots reveal the true picture of poverty. It's quite heartbreaking at times.

Audio

2.0 Stereo soundtrack but no subtitles. A haunting score by Olivier Alary permeates the unfolding tragic story.

Extras

Slideshow of shots that are mostly not included within the film.

Overall

There has been a massive focus on China over the last year or so in the build up to the Olympic Games. The country with the World's latest population (current estimate at time of writing as 1,319,175,335 according to www.chinability.com/ has been evolving in an air of openness and a more Westernised economy, with many problems hidden beneath the façade of respectability. Up The Yangtze highlights a few of these problems.



What this film rather neatly shows is the official face created for the tourists of a China that is ambitious and progressing in the modern world and the impact on the ordinary citizens. So we have the glossy brochure-like tourist drives, the picturesque landscapes and the spectacle of the one of the largest engineering projects in the world (I'm led to believe it's almost on a par with the Great Wall). Then you have a the close up and personal gritty life of ordinary families forced to move in order to facilitate this progress, uprooted and moved (sometimes forcibly) from familiar surroundings that are also sometimes old cultural landmarks; these landmarks are part of the old world though, and nothing is sacred in the quest for the modern superficial world.

The focus on Yu Shui and her family provides a stark and welcome counterbalance to this quest for modernity. We watch the hordes of middle aged American tourists on the tourist ship marvelling at the Chinese landscape, engineering and relocation strategy whilst dispensing $30 tips to an astounded if rather ungrateful Chen Bo Yu simply for carrying luggage. Mean while Yu Shui starts to grow up after being forced to work in order to support her family who face an uncertain future once the Yangtze rises enough to submerge their home. Despite their poverty, the Shui family seem quite well balanced, happy and self-sufficient - despite an overriding trust in their Government.



Her family life actually stands Yu Shui in good stead, despite her initial struggles to integrate into ship life, as she grows more confident and assured throughout the film. Chen Bo Yu, on the other hand, is an unpopular member of the crew despite his good looks and confidence - an air of superficiality pervades when he's around and one of his crewmates describes him rather aptly as an actor. Early impressions of who will struggle and who will prevail during the 3 month probation period are turned on their head in the final analysis.

Up The Yangtze is a moving film that really shows just how much is at stake when the modern uncaring world imposes its will on the people. What is happening in the shadow of the Three Gorges Dam has and will continue to happen wherever there are major engineering and construction projects, but Yung Chang provides a human face for the 2 million people dispassionately displaced by the Chinese authorities in the name of progress.