Haunting Yangtze journey is not to be missed

Like a Chinese Heart of Darkness, the elegiac Up the Yangtze captures an apocalyptic journey along a ghostlike mythical river that leads to Three Gorges Dam, the largest hydroelectric project in the world--the weight of which, scientists fear, may tilt the Earth’s axis, activating a global eco-disaster. Blurring the lines between documentary and narrative, Canadian director Yung Chang serves as our off-camera guide aboard a luxury cruise ship (part of a fleet of “farewell” ferries)--replete with its upstairs/downstairs culture/class dramas--as it glides past the once-thriving Fengdu, now a ghost city. Yangtze deserves an extended run at filled-to-capacity theatres, and it could get it. Word-of-mouth recommendations and outstanding reviews will put it over the top and, in this reviewer’s opinion, position it as an early Oscar contender.

Central to Chang’s storyline, Yu Shui and Chen Bo Yu provide two characters that humanize and reflect the two million people who have now been displaced from their homes and moved to insular, nature-deprived, concrete apartment modules that seem about as appealing as solitary confinement. (During my interview with him, the director calculated that the figure is expected to double to four million by the end of the relocation process.) But, not to worry, as a bus tour guide assures us, the government bestows a refrigerator, color TV and an air conditioner on every fortunate family. Really, what more could one ask?

From opposite ends of the tracks, as it were, the tall, good-looking, English-speaking, middleclass Chen Bo Yu--typical of an over-indulged generation of young men, “the little emperors,” who have come of age since the implementation of China’s one-child-only policy--hires on as a host/bartender/entertainer. It doesn’t take long for Jerry, as he’s now called, to get the swing of things and soon he’s earning $30 merely for carrying a middle-aged woman’s baggage. “I’ve learned how to handle them [the American tourists],” he boasts. Sensing where the money is, he ignores the thrifty, elderly and younger folk and orbits around the freehanded middle-aged. But the exchange also diminishes Chen Bo Yu: “I commend you,” the woman tells him. “You’re less obtrusive than I thought you’d be.”

Down below, Yu Shui (now Cindy), essentially a scullery maid and the oldest of three children, has left her peasant family on the banks of the Yangtze in order to earn money to send home. She and her parents provide the film’s emotional core, and it is indeed wrenching to watch as they scramble to save their few tattered possessions. The silent scene of the father carrying an impossibly large armoire uphill on his back--as the family shack disappears under water--has truly Sisyphean dimensions.

During the current hullabaloo surrounding the Summer Olympics, foreign trade agreements and tainted tooth paste and toys, we are fortunate to have a film of this caliber: A soulful, generous, gorgeous meditation, a piece of poetic cinema that embraces the human condition--even as it presents a dispiriting preview into a future world that awaits us all. The haunting Up the Yangtze should not be missed.

Distributor: Zeitgeist
Cast: Cindy Shui Yu, Jerry Bo Yu Chen and Campbell Ping He
Director/Screenwriter: Yung Chang
Producers: Sally Bochner, Daniel Cross and Ravida Din
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Unrated
Running time: 93 min.
Release date: April 18