Chinese Canadian filmmaker Yung Chang joins a cruise up the Yangtze River carrying Canadian tourists. The river settlements are set to be flooded by The Three Gorges Dam. The tour shows the orderly move but the film also shows some of the locals struggling. Along with the ghost cities, the Yu family is about to be flooded from the river shore where they squeeze out a living growing food. The daughter Yu Shui wants to continue her education but the family has no money. She gets a job on the cruise and given the English name Cindy. She suffers home sickness. Another new worker Chen Bo Yu is given the name Jerry. He's a higher placed peasant who sees the cruise as a cash cow. The two new workers strike different paths culminating in a surprise ending.
This is a nice slice of life. The best thing that a documentary like this can do is to bring a different world to the audience. It shows our common humanity while keeping the individual personal stories. The two young people are very compelling and their changing world is fascinating. This is a movie at a personal level against a backdrop of an important time of change in China.
This is a nice slice of life. The best thing that a documentary like this can do is to bring a different world to the audience. It shows our common humanity while keeping the individual personal stories. The two young people are very compelling and their changing world is fascinating. This is a movie at a personal level against a backdrop of an important time of change in China.