The Three Gorges Dam is one of the most impressive architectural projects of this decade. I've never been to China, so I've been forced to appeal to various Western resources about it. All sorts of environmentalist critiques are available, even from such mundane places as youtube. Those of that viewpoint lament the loss of habit for the Chinese river dolphin and other typical claims. This view doesn't require much thoughtfulness to reach and ignores China's economic struggle for modernization. The libertarian viewpoint harshly condemns forced relocation of millions of peasants. I find the latter an issue irrelevant to those living in community-centric China. The business manager (of my university organization) is a Chinese citizen and once told me that her people "conform," for lack of a better word, to what others expect of them. She cannot wear a tank top in public because everyone will stare questioningly at her. So, from her stories, and my own off and on research, I wanted to learn about Chinese citizens' reaction to Three Gorges Dam. I didn't think it would bother people in the way Westerners claim. I never expected to find such an illuminating answer so quickly. It's like how I felt the first time I watched Batman Begins.Most residents, by the time Up the Yangtze was filmed, had already relocated. The project was completed October 30, 2008, so no one still lives along riverside like previously. Director Yung Chang, also narrator, tells us how he realized a while ago that old China is dead. What people see in their mind's eye, as they board river cruise boats, is China as depicted in Hong Kong martial arts movies and wuxia pictures. The Yangtze project is complete and China is modernizing. You can still travel luxuriously; getting service from young people like those shown in this movie, but you won't see what you want. China itself isn't sure of its future. One man interviewed says that he isn't sure if China is capitalist or communist now. As long as society progresses forward, its path is unimportant. A black cat or a white cat is fine, as long as it can kill mice.Most of the story follows a single impoverished family who lives in a hut beside Yangtze. They send their daughter to wait tables on a tour boat. Yu Shui doesn't adjust well to her new robotic life as maid. Other children don't either. Middle class kids are on board to advance themselves, while Yu Shui is on board to survive. Mr. Chang suggests that China's one child policy permits parents to mollify their male children. While what we see indicates this, I found similar effect in young women. While they were harder workers, they were more withdrawn. Everyone on that boat has to be from a small family, so they're sense of family community must be incredibly strong. Perhaps China's one child policy may have larger negative effect on human capital than it has positive environmental impact.When we aren't on deck, Chang shows us various clips of Chinese urbanization. Government officials show dumb Westerners new housing projects, built to accommodate relocated persons, and acknowledge that everyone residing there is "happy." Of course people are happy; they are still alive. Chang's documentary can be summarized by my preceding statement. It's like The Grapes of Wrath or Doctor Zhivago. The characters in both those books (and films) experience tremendous hardship. When your family is tossed around, all you care about is keeping it intact. Chang does show us that older, single people do feel nostalgic regret at having to leave their ancestral homes. Even then, they aren't rallying against their government.Up the Yangtze is too limited to be the authoritative "Three Gorges Dam" documentary. By following Yu Shui's family, Chang shows us what we could probably have deduced from reading an amateur film review. I hope his next project will be more inclusive of all people affected by "an issue." A documentary about middle class people living in Shanghai would be unique but not inspiring.

For such a slow paced documentary, you might at first doubt it's ability to draw you in. Initially, I watched the film because I somehow expected it to be one man's journey into the depths of China. But, no, it's not really about that. Instead of diving into China as a geographical location, "Up the Yangtze" concerns itself with the culture and politics of modern China as it affects the average citizen.Two characters are central to this documentary's narrative. 'Cindy' who lives with her family in a shack beside the rapidly rising river, and 'Jerry' who comes from a higher standard of life in the city. They both find themselves working on a cruise ship which goes up and down the Yangtze river. The passages which deal directly with the ship and ship's passengers are rather revealing. The tourists come off largely as self-absorbed and unimaginative people with far too much money. They seem to all share peculiarly uninterested attitudes. This comes in rather stark contrast to the locals' acute awareness of their situation.There are several interviews throughout the course of the film that reveal a darker side than might first be visible. This is particularly poignant during an interview carried on with a shopkeeper while a heated argument goes on outside.Certain limitations are apparent in such a focused documentary, but it's very interesting and more than worth your attention.RATING: 7.0 out of 10

Don't think that at the end of this film, you will understand the complexities of industrialization and modernization of China. Don't think it will lay out for you the ways in which trade and capitalism exploit (or help, depending on your view) the world's poor.This film isn't that story. Instead, what we get here is a beautifully drawn and complicated portrait of one poor family, and their ambiguous relationship with the Three Gorges Dam project.I would argue that the opening quote is very telling -- Confucius offering the three different ways of learning wisdom -- as the film then shows you that the Chinese people are apparently going to have to learn about the wisdom or not of modernization (at the expense of fulfillment and connection to nature) for themselves, rather than reaping the benefits of others' experience.But that's my take on it, based on my value judgments as a person. The joy in this movie is that you can decide how the Confucius quote applies for yourself. The story isn't simple, and the filmmaker doesn't hit you over the head with some narrowly tailored point. Instead, it shows that the real world is interwoven in ways that don't always make easy moral judgments.And ultimately, this is a movie about a family. It's a human narrative, and all the other themes are simply woven in as a beautiful backdrop.

Don't ask an affluent person to offer their opinion about matters that concern the disadvantaged. Without having the breadth of their degraded experiences, without meaning to, the proffered observations by the socialite, the privileged, or in the case relating to the relocated victims of Hurricane Katrina; Barbara Bush- famously quoted for having said that the displaced New Orleans families would benefit by a change of scenery- may amuse, outrage, or sadden those who had to make do without a silver spoon throughout their quotidian lives.In "Up the Yangtze", a tour guide shows a bus load of Americans the living arrangements that the government is providing for the victims of a man-made flood created by the Three Gorges Dam. Judging by the lilt in the woman's voice and corresponding enthusiasm from the tour group, you can tell that a formed consensus among the well-attired men and women about the future prospects for these Chinese river dwellers. Like the former-First Lady, they readily assume that the loss of their homes and culture will turn out to be an unexpected blessing."Up the Yangtze" follows two service industry workers: one, a thirteen-year-old girl from one of those "lucky" rural families, and the other, a self-centered older boy from the city, as they learn how to interact with English-speaking tourists on a ship that traverses up and down the famous Yangtze River. The boy will be fine(he's a cocky son-of-a-bitch), we sense, but the fate of the girl is another matter. Denied the opportunity to further her comprehensive studies, the sheltered girl leaves home because her illiterate parents need the extra income to support their new lifestyle, one that isn't centered around sustenance farming, we suspect. The peasant couple also have two smaller children. Although the exposure to new people and places are beneficial to "Cindy", the central image of "Up the Yangtze" foretells her potentially dire future. The ship moves forward, but the ship always retraces its progress; the ship is going nowhere. When a co-worker takes the girl shopping for clothes that's more suitable to city life, and introduces her to make-up, we see a possible future in store for this uneducated young woman should she ever tire of washing dishes and making beds.