In China it’s known simply as “The River.” But the Yangtze, and all of the
life that surrounds it, is undergoing a truly astonishing transformation wrought
by the largest hydroelectric project in history, the Three Gorges Dam. Canadian
documentary filmmaker Yung Chang explores the 21st century Chinese dream as
it looks aboard a luxury “Farewell Cruise,” where international visitors get
a final glimpse of a gorgeous and rapidly disappearing world, and the Chinese
staff make a living from the apocalyptic tourist trade. Yu
Shui is the teenage
daughter of peasant farmers, among the two million Chinese being displaced
by the dam. Too poor to go to college, she is encouraged to find work on a
Farewell Cruise. Director Yung examines the “upstairs-downstairs” lifestyles
of the haves and have-nots as a mirror of the hierarchy of the wider world,
and with stunning photography he captures the grandeur of the ancient sites
that will soon give way to the candy-colored neon of China’s future. In English,
Mandarin and Sichuan with English subtitles. Writer/Director:
Yung Chang. (Canada
2008) 93 min.
In China it’s known simply as “The River.” But the Yangtze, and all of the
life that surrounds it, is undergoing a truly astonishing transformation wrought
by the largest hydroelectric project in history, the Three Gorges Dam. Canadian
documentary filmmaker Yung Chang explores the 21st century Chinese dream as
it looks aboard a luxury “Farewell Cruise,” where international visitors get
a final glimpse of a gorgeous and rapidly disappearing world, and the Chinese
staff make a living from the apocalyptic tourist trade. Yu
Shui is the teenage
daughter of peasant farmers, among the two million Chinese being displaced
by the dam. Too poor to go to college, she is encouraged to find work on a
Farewell Cruise. Director Yung examines the “upstairs-downstairs” lifestyles
of the haves and have-nots as a mirror of the hierarchy of the wider world,
and with stunning photography he captures the grandeur of the ancient sites
that will soon give way to the candy-colored neon of China’s future. In English,
Mandarin and Sichuan with English subtitles. Writer/Director:
Yung Chang. (Canada
2008) 93 min.
