Up the Yangtze (2007)

Director:

Yung Chang

Writer:

Yung Chang

Release Date:

11 July 2008 (Poland)

Genre:

Documentary

Tagline:

The river that erased her past will write her future

Plot:

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.

Plot Keywords:

China | Three Gorges Dam | Cruise Ship | Hydroelectric Dam | Modern China

Awards:

12 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Jerry Bo Yu Chen	...	Himself
Campbell Ping He	...	Himself
Cindy Shui Yu	...	Herself

Directed by
Yung Chang

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Yung Chang

Produced by
Mila Aung-Thwin	....	producer
Sally Bochner	....	executive producer
John Christou	....	producer
Daniel Cross	....	executive producer
Ravida Din	....	executive producer
Lixin Fan	....	associate producer
Li Li	....	associate producer
Germaine Wong	....	producer

Original Music by
Olivier Alary

Cinematography by
Shi Qing Wang

Film Editing by
Hannele Halm

Production Management
Gary Evans	....	post-production supervisor
Li Li	....	production manager

Sound Department
Cory Rizos	....	dialogue editor
Cory Rizos	....	supervising sound editor
Kyle Stanfield	....	sound editor

Camera and Electrical Department
Yung Chang	....	camera operator

Music Department
Johannes Malfatti	....	music arranger: musician
Johannes Malfatti	....	orchestrator

Other crew
Li Li	....	lead translator
David Magdael	....	publicist
Michael Siu	....	production supervisor

Thanks
Eriko Miyagawa	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Eye Steel Film
• National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

Distributors

• National Film Board of Canada (NFB) (1980) (Canada) (all media)
• Antidote Films (2007) (Australia) (theatrical)
• Kinosmith (2007) (Canada) (theatrical)
• National Film Board of Canada (NFB) (2007) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Zeitgeist Films (2008) (USA) (theatrical)
• Against Gravity (2008) (Poland) (all media)
• Antidote Films (2007) (Australia) (DVD)
• Mongrel Media (2008) (Canada) (DVD)

Other Companies

• CBC Newsworld  production assistance provided by:
• Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit (CPTC)  production assistance provided by:
• Crédit d'Impôt Cinéma et Télévision  production assistance provided by
• Global Vision  subtitles
• GlobalEx Risk Management  insurance provided by
• HSBC Bank Canada  financial services provided by
• Heenan Blaikie  legal services provided by
• Les Productions Zéphyr  titles
• National Geographic Channel International  production assistance provided by
• Programme d'Aide aux Jeunes Créateurs  production assistance provided by
• Radio Canada  production assistance provided by
• Société de Développement des Entreprises Culturelles (SODEC)  production assistance provided by
• Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF)  production assistance provided by
• hotel2tango  score recorded in Montreal at

Also Known As:

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English | Mandarin

Color:

Color (35 mm version)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:M | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

China

Company:

Eye Steel Film

Quotes:

Confucius:By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the bitterest.

Nicely done narrative about a poor family -- the rest is backdrop

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.