"I know it's because your father and I don't have the skills, that we have to exploit you. If we had a choice how could we do this to you?"
Up The Yangtze is a riveting, multi-award-winning documentary about the building of the Three Gorges Dam and the flooding that it required. It displaced over a million people, but the documentary focuses on the lives of two children, a young girl from a poor family who force her to leave education and get a job, and a boy from a more well-off family; both of whom are trying to get a job on a cruise ship for mostly western tourists offering a `farewell tour' to the valley which was slowly being flooded.
The film offers an insight to China's increasing reliance on consumer capitalism and tourism: a reliance which takes away as many opportunities as it presents. Coupled with beautiful panoramic shots, and an ending sequence which is both moving and reflective, this is a documentary that should not be missed. Granted it is a little slow, but it is never anything less than fascinating.
