At the river's edge - a young woman says goodbye to her family as the floodwaters rise towards their small homestead. The theme of the film is the transition towards consumer capitalism from a farming, peasant-based economy as China develops its rural areas. The 600 ft. tall dam is on track to become the world’s largest hydroelectric power station in 2011. At the river's edge - a young woman says goodbye to her family as the floodwaters rise towards their small homestead. Yung Chang is the director of Up the Yangtze 《沿江而上》(2007), China Heavyweight 《千錘百鍊》(2012), and The Fruit Hunters (2012). Picking up where we left off last week (see previous interviews with James Marsh, Carl Deal & Tia Lessin and Jeremiah Zagar), we come to Yung Chang, director of UP THE YANGTZE.. She is followed as she leaves her family to work on one of the cruise ships serving wealthy western tourists at the same time as her family is being forced from their home due to the flooding that accompanied the building of the dam. The principal human faces of the film are Yu Shui and Chen Boyu, two young workers on the cruise ship. "Up the Yangtze" gives a human dimension to the wrenching changes facing not only an increasingly globalized China, but the world at large. The film is rich in detail about ways of life, dreams, and aspirations, and seeks to provide a view into the reality of modern Chinese life. The teenage employees who serve and entertain them—tagged with new Westernized names like “Cindy” and “Jerry” by upper management—warily grasp at the prospect of a better future. ©AmericanDocumentary,Inc. The filmmaker Yung Chang published letters indicating that Yu Shui's father had serious eye issues that required surgery and a donation fund was set up. The Yangtze is about to be transformed by the biggest hydroelectric dam in history. Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives, Just Watch Me: Trudeau and the '70s Generation, Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry, The Colours of My Father: A Portrait of Sam Borenstein, Fiction and Other Truths: A Film About Jane Rule, Unveiled: The Mother/Daughter Relationship, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Up_the_Yangtze&oldid=1001604905, National Film Board of Canada documentaries, Best Documentary Film Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2020, Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 20 January 2021, at 12:48. The Dam is located by the town of Sandouping, in the Province of Hubei. Written, directed, and narrated by Canadian filmmaker Yung Chang, Up the Yangtze explores the human impact of China’s enormous Three Gorges Dam Project on China’s largest river. Up the Yangtze Take a “Farewell Tour” up the Yangtze river on board a luxury cruise ship and marvel at the dramatic sights, sounds and cultures of China New and Old. The Yangtze has long been the cultural border between North and South China. Constructed as a symbol of modern progress in China, the Three Gorges Dam has forced millions of common people out of their ancestral homes, and will soon swallow up … POV: What drew you to make Up the Yangtze?. The total distance from Chungking to Kiating is 288 nautical miles. A luxury cruise boat motors up the Yangtze, navigating the mythic waterway known in China simply as “The River.” In the biggest engineering endeavor since the Great Wall, China has set out to harness the Yangtze with the world’s largest mega-dam. Nearing completion, China's massive Three Gorges Dam is altering the landscape and the lives of people living along the fabled Yangtze River. He is currently completing a screenplay for his first dramatic feature, Eggplant, 《茄子》 and developing a feature documentary about Robert Fisk, the controversial Middle East correspondent. The population that is most negatively affected by the Three Gorges Dam is the residents and cities that have resided by the Yangtze River for a very long time. Using Yung Chang’s 2007 documentary film Up the Yangtze, Weik von Mossner unravels the power struggles accompanying the construction of the world’s largest hydroelectric power plant—the Three Gorges Dam in China.The film records both the slow submersion of landscapes and cities, and the strategies for survival used by the soon to be displaced people. The Yu family desperately seeks a reprieve by sending their 16-year-old daughter to work in the cruise ship industry that has sprung up to give tourists a last glimpse of the legendary river valley. Kino Now gives you a front-row seat for the classics of today and tomorrow. Yu,16, dreams of becoming a scientist. The film is being distributed in the USA by Zeitgeist Films. At the river's edge - a young woman says goodbye to her family as the floodwaters rise towards their small homestead. Wuhan city is not a backwards village with a wet market; it’s a thriving cultural hub, home to performance artists and a crazy punk music scene. [7], Chang, Y. The film focuses on people affected by the building of the Three Gorges Dam across the Yangtze river in Hubei, China. Seeing the film provided me with a meaningful context and sub-text to the journey. The other main subject is a nineteen-year-old boy from a more prosperous family named "Jerry" Chen Bo Yu. Ella Taylor of LA Weekly named it the 3rd best film of 2008 (along with Still Life),[5] Rick Groen of The Globe and Mail named it the 7th best film of 2008,[5] and Liam Lacey of The Globe and Mail named it the 10th best film of 2008. The film focuses on people affected by the building of the Three Gorges Dam across the Yangtze river in Hubei, China. The Yangtze is about to be transformed by the biggest hydroelectric dam in history. [citation needed], In 2010, Yung gave further updates on the Yu family, indicating that they were doing much better, with an apartment with television and a refrigerator. Two young people are the focus of the film as they work aboard the ship. At Suifu the Min River flows into the Yangtze, and power vessels go up the Min to Kiating, eighty-seven miles, in the high-water season from June to November. Yung Chang has described the film as “…a kind of Gosford Park idea that shows the social hierarchy, the lives above and below the decks.” An essay on geopolitical transition that could not possibly have been made at a riper or more advantageous moment in history, it also embodies an autumnal film of death and rebirth -- death to innumerable generations of indigenous Chinese culture, rebirth to a country now shaping itself and emerging as an anglicized economic superpower on the world stage. This award-winning documentary follows the Shiu family as their home is destroyed by the rising waters of China’s Yangtze River - a consequence of the Three Gorges Project, the largest hydroelectric dam in … London: BBC Books. Up the Yangtze focuses on the people affected by the building of the Three Gorges Dam across the Yangtze river in Hubei, China. A wonderful documentary/touching and sad view of the modernization of China as experienced by young Chinese men and women who work on a Yangtze river cruise geared for westerners. The theme of the film is the transition towards consumer capitalism from a farming, peasant-based economy as China develops its rural areas. In China, it is simply known as “The River.” But the Yangtze—and all of the life that surrounds it—is undergoing a truly astonishing transformation… Mostly, though, “Up the Yangtze!” plays quite a subtle game with its subjects, with Chang displaying a precocious self-assurance, letting the viewer draw his or her own conclusions. [5], After filming concluded, "Cindy" Yu Shui returned home to finish her education while her family worked odd jobs. Pourquoi l'étrange Monsieur Zolock s'intéressait-il tant à la bande dessinée? They cry, they laugh, they feel pain and anger – all of which we see through our characters in the film. [4], The film appeared on several critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008. The River at the Center of the World: A Journey Up the Yangtze, and Countless ancient villages and historic locales will be submerged, and 2 million people will lose their homes and livelihoods. Up the Yangtze follows two local teenagers who are grateful to get work on one of the farewell cruise ships, despite the damage the dam is causing to their families. The film shows her acclimatization to the consumer economy of tourism as well as modern technology of the cruise ships, juxtaposed with her family and other older citizens who are displaced from a rural lifestyle to cities where they must pay for the vegetables they used to grow on their own. Up the Yangtze is a 2007 documentary film directed by Chinese-Canadian director Yung Chang. This documentary lays bare the physical, psychological and cultural effects of the planned flooding over entire cities to make way for the Yangtze River's Three Gorges Dam. Yangtze. Chen is an urbane 19-year-old from a wealthier background than Yu. Delve Deeper into “Up The Yangtze” A film by Yung Chang Wilkinson, Philip. (Zeitgeist Films) … This documentary lays bare the physical, psychological and cultural effects of the planned flooding over entire cities to make way for the Yangtze River's Three Gorges Dam. The theme of the film is the transition towards consumer capitalism from a farming, peasant-based economy as China develops its rural areas. Up the Yangtze is a 2007 documentary film directed by Chinese-Canadian director Yung Chang. The setting of the film is a riverboat cruise ship floating up the Yangtze river. Countless ancient villages and historic locales will be submerged, and 2 million people will lose their homes and livelihoods. Yung Chang: I went on a Yangtze farewell cruise as a tourist in 2002 with my parents and my grandfather, and I'll never forget the moment when we arrived in Chongqing, the largest municipality in the world. One is a sixteen-year-old girl from a particularly poor family living on the banks of the Yangtze near Fengdu, named "Cindy" Yu Shui. The first bridge over the ten thousand ‘li’ long Yangzi, 1960. Up the Yangtze focuses on the people affected by the building of the Three Gorges Dam across the Yangtze river in Hubei, China. Still Life (China, 2006) and Up the Yangtze (China, 2008) My current research project as Lecturer in Film Studies at Nanjing University is a study of the cinema of Lou Ye, the Sixth Generation Chinese filmmaker whose credits consist of Weekend Lover (1995), Suzhou River (2000), Purple Butterfly (2003), Summer Palace (2006) and Spring Fever (2009). The film focuses on people affected by the building of the Three Gorges Dam across the Yangtze river in Hubei, China. Discover contemporary, classic and documentary films that will entertain, inspire and amaze you, as only great cinema can. [2] It garnered a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 47 reviews,[3] and a rating of 84 on Metacritic. Meanwhile, at the river’s edge, Yu Shui (whose name is later westernized by her It is considered to be the largest hydroelectric dam ever built, yet comes with a cost. Up the Yangtze is a 2007 documentary film directed by Chinese-Canadian director Yung Chang. Winchester, Simon. producemassivesocialchange.ThatmakesUp the Yangtze an effective springboard for discussing the complex challenges facing developing nations as well as the concerns of an interconnectedworldinwhicheveryoneisaffectedbyeveryone else’senvironmentalchoices. Location of the Dam Location of the Dam along the Yangtze. There was for instance not a single bridge over China’s longest river, the Yangzi (Yangtse, Chang Jiang 长江 or ‘Long River’). In the 19 th Century it was also one of the basis for the imperial and foreign investment in China, especially Shang Hai. The film is a co-production between the National Film Board of Canada and Montreal's EyeSteelFilm with the participation of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, National Geographic Channel, P.O.V., SODEC, and Telefilm. A luxury cruise boat motors up the Yangtze - navigating the mythic waterway known in China simply as "The River." The United Kingdom distributor is Dogwoof Pictures.[1]. Director Yung Chang uses the construction of China's massive Three Gorges Dam as a springboard to better understanding the social hierarchies and changing times in his homeland in this documentary focusing on the luxury cruise ship that carries predominately Western tourists down the Yangtze River. At the edge of the Yangtze River, not far from the Three Gorges Dam, young men and women take up employment on a cruise ship, where they confront rising waters and a radically changing China. The theme of the film is the rapacious transition towards consumer capitalism from a traditional farming and peasant-based society…, Consumerism and the Limits to Imagination, Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse, Park Avenue: Money, Power & The American Dream. Up the Yangtze was very well received by film critics, and was described as "astonishing" documentary which "refuses to editorialize" by The New York Times. The Yangtze is about to be transformed by the biggest hydroelectric dam in history. Retrieved on 16 November 2019 from, San Francisco International Film Festival, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, "Metacritic: 2008 Film Critic Top Ten Lists", The Inquiry Film: A Report on the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. The Yangtze or Yangzi (English: / ˈ j æ ŋ t s i / or / ˈ j ɑː ŋ t s i /) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. This movie is a beautifully filmed first-hand look at just what and who has had to pay the biggest price for China’s move into the 21st Century. I took a multi-day Yangtze cruise four years after seeing this documentary. 4 DiscussionGuide|UptheYangtze Introduction S e a s o n 21 (2007). A luxury cruise boat motors up the Yangtze - navigating the mythic waterway known in China simply as "The River." In fact, the … We arrived at night and it was lit up in neon lights. Chen Bo Yu shows a different perspective from Yu Shui as he tries to earn cash on the ship as a porter and singer. Follows the 3,900 mile river from start to finish, exploring the flora, fauna, human activity and the effects of the controversial dam. Up the Yangtze from Chungking, vessels proceed to Luchow, 135 miles away , and on to Suifu, sixty-six miles farther. "Yung Chang Resume". Yung Chang's Canadian-produced documentary Up the Yangtze benefits from just such an element. UP THE YANGTZE focuses on The Three Gorges Dam, which symbolizes China’s great economic advancement. She is the daughter of poor farmers and grew up in an illegal settlement on the banks of the Yangtze River in Fengdu, Sichuan province. The film is a co-production between the National Film Board of Canada and Montreal's EyeSteelFilm with the participation of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Nati… Countless ancient villages and historic locales will be submerged, and 2 million people will lose their homes and livelihoods. The documentary, Up In the Yangtze, reveals the life of one particular family that was extremely affected by the dam project. 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