Excellent, a Must See

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

I had initially thought that I would be watching a National Geographic film about the Yangtze river and the Three Gorges Dam project, and the introductory scene of the film suggested just that, until it dawned upon me that the subject matter goes beyond the mighty river and the world's largest hydroelectric project, and follows something more intimate, that of how a decision made by the powers that be translated to the relative hardship of people directly impacted by that decision.Any layman would know that with a dam means the rising of waters behind it from accumulation, and the damming of any large river spells disaster for the village and townsfolk which have settled along its banks. 2012 suggested that only China had the means and resources to build those arks in record time, and undoubtedly such a reference holds true in their attempts to relocate millions of people and settlements along the Yangtze, to the detriment of the poor being uprooted from their livelihood, and into the great unknown.Curiously, with such a massive landscape change, and the inevitable prospect of having everything today buried 175 meters deep under water, it gives rise to opportune river tours aboard luxury cruise ships, and here's where the documentary embarks upon its examination of two main characters, the village girl Cindy, and the arrogant Jerry, both of whom work aboard such a cruise ship, pandering to the whims and entertaining the tourists, most of whom are foreigners wanting to catch a glimpse of a certain aspect of China through the riding down the signature river.Through the eyes of Cindy and Jerry, the film provides a look at how change has impacted the lives, dreams and hopes of its people, which a funny anecdote told in the film seem to sum it all up pretty nicely, where the road to Capitalism is followed wit the signal light toward Socialism turned on. This cannot be more keenly felt through Jerry, whose arrogance of youth spells his primary dream in life, and that's to make a lot of money, in stark contrast to another group of folks represented by Cindy, the village people who are yearning for the simpler life, but are always getting the shorter end of the stick due the inability to break out of the poverty cycle, made worst now with massive migration programmes that forces them to adapt.Granted there are enough scenic shots to wow you, and even astonish, such as the "ghost" towns created when the community had to abandon to avoid the eventual flood waters from enveloping its surroundings. I can imagine Atlantis in a smaller scale, brought about by the slow and unavoidable build up of water volume. This is not just a documentary on the river or the dam, but more importantly about the people and how change had been forced unto them. Recommended!

I was very puzzled by Up The Yangtze and upon reflection; I must admit that I don't like this film. It feels dishonest and seems to be nothing more than a wishy-washy environmentalist's nightmare showing poor people being displaced by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam in China.The film simply wallows in an atmosphere of negativity about this massive dam project and the people who will be affected by it. I'm all about saving the planet, but does that mean there should NEVER be any kind of large construction project anywhere?I have been accused of being callous before and I expect I will be again, but I found it hard to feel sorry for the family about to be displaced in Up The Yangtze.The father is this mopey peasant who sits by helplessly while his shack, with dirt floors, no running water and a wood-burning stove slowly gets inundated by the rising waters from the dam.Excuse me; Three Gorges Dam began construction in 1994, it is now 2008. This peasant has had 14 years to consider moving and now, just as the water begins lapping around his shack does he suddenly come to the conclusion he better leave?Far from ignoring the plight of the people in the flood plain, in this man's case, the Chinese government moves him and his family to a nearby apartment with floors, electricity and modern marvels like flush toilets and indoor plumbing.And I'm supposed to feel sorry he lost his primitive shack?Up The Yangtze takes the position that the Three Gorges Dam is an ecological nightmare and will only serve to displace poor people and there is truth in this. But any large construction project displaces people; consider the Hoover Dam here in the USA. A person can argue that the growth of Los Angeles and Las Vegas were not improvements, but I would disagree.In my own city of Philadelphia, lots of ramshackle slums and poor people were moved to build the Ben Franklin Parkway which led to the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art where Rocky Balboa eventually jogged to the top of. You have to admit, sunrise on the open Philadelphia skyline is a better visual than poor crowded tenement buildings and slums.I was also confused by the formal aspects of Up The Yangtze. It seems to be the opposite of a "mockumentary". A "mockumentary" uses documentary techniques to tell a fictional story. Up The Yangtze seems to uses dramatic narrative techniques to tell a realistic story and it is very disconcerting.Up The Yangtze does this by focusing on two young people who get jobs on a riverboat that takes tourists (mostly Westerners) on sightseeing trips up and down the Yangtze. They are Jerry, a likable 19-year-old boy from a nearby city and Cindy, who is the daughter of the dipstick peasant who is awaiting the slow inundation of his shack.Genial, good looking and whip smart, Jerry is a most attractive and energetic person, but Up The Yangtze ultimately turns this hard working kid into the villain of the film because he DARES to hustle at work and provides extra good service for tips.Jerry quickly learns that he can make more in tips in one day than his grandfather could earn in a month. And we're supposed to dislike him because he is capitalizing on his youth, good looks and charm? I wish him all the success!The film seems to want us to root for Cindy, the wish-washy, peasant girl who breaks down crying every five minutes because she misses the dirt floor of the shack she has left to work on this riverboat.Let me see if I understand Up The Yangtze's attitude toward these two young people correctly. Jerry is good looking, neat, self-confident, hard working, speaks English, loves to meet new people, is extraordinarily friendly and thrives in his job as combination porter, waiter, bartender and entertainer.But, because one cheapskate, old-biddy from the USA accuses him of "expecting" a tip, he gets fired. For the record, Jerry denies the charge and seeing how he handles other passengers, he may be a bit over-friendly, but that is certainly not uncommon in the service industry.But looking at the arrogant, Western jerks that populate the cruise ship, I tend to believe he's innocent of the charge. It's not his fault if dumb-ass Westerners feel obligated to give him money to assuage their own guilt.So poor Jerry finds himself in the unenviable position of being too self-confident for his Chinese bosses, but not subservient enough for his Western guests.On the other hand, little Cindy gets to keep her job in the kitchen of the riverboat even though she is an annoying little wimp who cries every five minutes because she is so far away from her mopey father who is back home waiting for the water to rise and drown his shack.Maybe it's me, but promoting the weak subservient Chinese girl as an ideal is all wrong. Showing the mopey Chinese peasant waiting for the water to drown him while wearing the blank look of a dumb "coolie" from an old western is a portrayal of the Chinese people I find insulting and more than slightly racist.Like it or not, things are changing in China. Their economy is going global and the people will have to make adjustments. But if they are going to clamp down on the dynamic "Jerry's" who want to succeed and encourage the wimpy "Cindy's", then it will be no surprise that the "Jerry's" will leave China and probably come to America where they will embody a hard work ethic that will make them prosper in fields of business that many Americans would consider beneath them.And I say, Welcome!

Perhaps I am the dam, as I was unmoved by this film. The promotional material I received prior to the showing of the film had prepared me to see a story about a huge dam project, with serious environmental and human consequences. So I was disappointed that the dam itself was not a major feature of the film, and no environmental issues were raised. But I can't really fault the film itself for the people who promote it, so I'll try to leave that aside. I was impressed with the access that the filmmakers had to get frank comments from a variety of people in the film, and for me that was something new that I enjoyed for a film from China. But still I found it to be a slow film of two kids who are sent by their families to work serving foreign tourists on a river tour boat, and the difficulties that first-time jobs, especially away from home, can bring to anyone. It was also about a very poor family having to move from their shack to a more densely-populated place where they will need to learn a different way of living. In both cases, I found that I was admiring people's ability to find ways to move forward, but I felt that the movie wanted me to believe that this was bad. Some scenes appeared to be included randomly, as they did not fit in with the rest of the film, such as the creepy stop-motion dancing kid, or the praying woman. On the flip side, the story of the two kids working on the boat seems to just stop without explanation after something significant happens to one. I wanted to know more about what happened to each of them. That it was in China, or on the Yangtze, seemed insignificant to the story itself. I don't feel that I know much more about life on the Yangtze, or the Three Gorges Dam, than before I saw the film. Seeing that a documentary of this type can be made in China, I feel this subject is therefore still ripe for someone else to make a more informative documentary about the Yangtze and/or the Dam.

I would consider this to be a perfect documentary for its technique and narration.The movie's account of the massive three-gorges project is quite detailed. But without letting viewers loose attention to its subject, the movie takes us through the history of China, the paradoxes of its "modern" path of development and even the myths and goddesses associated with the river. The movie aptly exposes and questions the "tourist" nature of our own interests in the vast orient unveiled to us. The satire in the film (which may not be all non-fictional) is sharp and quite funny. Overall, the story telling is so fluid that it may feel to be a fictional account altogether.Like any other documentary this is a movie replete with the accounts of lives of the people associated with the project. However this movie accomplishes much more by reevaluating our own ideas of economic development; by showing us the two sides of it – fulfillment of a dream of progress and loss of an environment that constitutes the being.Lastly, owing not just to the country of landscapic beauty that china is, there are some captivating shots in the movie that stay in memory long after the movie is over.