Now Playing
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

38 12 Rounds
48 17 Again
76 Adventureland
48 Angels & Demons
54 Battle for Terra
xx Bruno
80 Coraline
40 Dance Flick
83 Drag Me to Hell
72 Earth
45 Fast & Furious
61 Fighting
34 Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
72 Gran Torino
73 Hangover, The
47 Hannah Montana: The Movie
51 Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
54 Imagine That
41 Knowing
32 Land of the Lost
56 Monsters vs. Aliens
34 My Life in Ruins
51 My Sister's Keeper
46 Next Day Air
42 Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
54 Observe and Report
25 Obsessed
48 Proposal, The
70 Public Enemies
61 Soloist, The
83 Star Trek
64 State of Play
55 Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, The
52 Terminator Salvation
35 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
77 Under the Sea 3D
88 Up
43 X-Men Origins: Wolverine
34 Year One

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

sort by name

sort by score

67 $9.99
75 24 City
66 Adoration
74 Afghan Star
48 Alien Trespass
56 American Violet
82 Anvil! The Story of Anvil
57 Away We Go
81 Beaches of Agnes, The
62 Big Man Japan
28 Big Shot-Caller, The
78 Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, The
55 Brothers Bloom, The
82 Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
xx Call of the Wild
63 Cheri
62 Cherry Blossoms
63 Dead Snow
65 Departures
18 Downloading Nancy
58 Easy Virtue
70 End of the Line, The
77 Every Little Step
64 Examined Life
80 Food, Inc.
38 Gigantic
56 Girl from Monaco, The
67 Girlfriend Experience, The
87 Gomorrah
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Great Buck Howard, The
79 Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
xx Home
82 Hunger
91 Hurt Locker, The
16 I Hate Valentine's Day
81 Il Divo
54 Is Anybody There?
71 Jerichow
58 Julia
74 Lemon Tree
36 Life is Hot in Cracktown
40 Limits of Control, The
42 Little Ashes
64 Lymelife
50 Management
57 Merry Gentleman, The
66 Moon
35 New York
62 Not Forgotten
xx Offshore
78 O'Horten
64 Outrage
40 Paris 36
54 Pontypool
71 Pressure Cooker
52 Quiet Chaos
83 Revanche
67 Rudo y Cursi
86 Seraphine
65 Sex Positive
70 Shall We Kiss?
77 Sin Nombre
59 Sleep Dealer
74 Song of Sparrows, The
54 Stoning of Soraya M., The
82 Sugar
84 Summer Hours
61 Sunshine Cleaning
28 Surveillance
42 Tennessee
63 Tetro
64 Throw Down Your Heart
80 Tokyo Sonata
63 Tokyo!
70 Tony Manero
74 Treeless Mountain
88 Tulpan
74 Two Lovers
83 Tyson
83 U2 3D
60 Under Our Skin
69 Unmistaken Child
69 Valentino: The Last Emperor
22 What Goes Up
45 Whatever Works
57 Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Up the Yangtze
Zeitgeist Films


9.1

based on 17 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 11 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Jerry Bo Yu Chen, Campbell Ping He, and Cindy Shui Yu

In China, it is simply known as 'The River.' But the Yangtze—and all of the life that surrounds it—is undergoing an astonishing transformation wrought by the largest hydroelectric project in history, the Three Gorges Dam. Chinese-Canadian director Yung Chang returns to the gorgeous, now-disappearing landscape of his grandfather’s youth to trace the surreal life of a “farewell cruise” that traverses the gargantuan waterway. With a humanist gaze and wry wit Chang’s Upstairs Downstairs approach captures the microcosmic society of the luxury liner. Below deck: a bewildered young girl trains as a dishwasher sent to work by her peasant family, who is on the verge of relocation from the encroaching floodwaters. Above deck: wealthy international tourists set sail to catch a last glance of a country in dramatic flux. The teenage employees who serve and entertain them—tagged with new Westernized names like “Cindy” and “Jerry” by upper management—warily grasp at the prospect of a better future. "Up the Yangtze" gives a human dimension to the wrenching changes facing not only an increasingly globalized China, but the world at large. (Zeitgeist Films)

GENRE(S):	Documentary
WRITTEN BY:	Yung Chang
DIRECTED BY:	Yung Chang
RELEASE DATE:	Theatrical: April 25, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	93 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Canada
LANGUAGE(S):	English / Mandarin

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Variety John Anderson

A gloriously cinematic documentay of epic, poetic sadness.

100

The New York Times Stephen Holden

An astonishing documentary of culture clash and the erasure of history amid China’s economic miracle.

100

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Chang's images of the Yangtze and the new megacities replacing the villages on its banks are spectacular, and his cast of characters rival any fiction film I've seen recently.

100

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Filmmaker Yung Chang finds a sad and beautiful way to glimpse the big picture of dislocation through an exquisitely poised small study.

100

Boston Globe Ty Burr

In his masterful and haunting documentary Up the Yangtze, Yung Chang shows the old China drowning helplessly under the weight of the new.

100

San Francisco Chronicle G. Allen Johnson

Remarkable.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Before that marvel of human engineering - China's Three Gorges Dam - completes its legacy of human upheaval, there are vanishing sights to be seen.

TV Guide Ken Fox

May be the best film to date about the humanitarian and environmental impact of China's enormous Three Gorges Dam project.

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

Trained in Sanford Meisner's acting techniques, the director wrests surprisingly emotional disclosures from his subjects.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

One of the real pluses of Up the Yangtze, aside from its empathy with its subjects, is its striking visual quality. Beijing-based cinematographer Wang Shi Qing has an impeccable eye, often coming up with haunting images that show both the beauty and uncertainty of this pivotal time.

Village Voice Scott Foundas

By journey's end, Yung has found, in the Yangtze, a brilliant natural metaphor for upward mobility in modern China: Whether they hail from the lowlands or the urban centers, everyone here is scrambling to reach higher ground.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

By focusing on his two young protagonists, Chang is able to explore the cultural differences between China and the rest of the world, resulting in sequences that are alternately humorous and eye-opening

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

If, like me, you're both desperate to see new public-works systems in our own country and sensitive to the possible human and ecological damage, Up the Yangtze provides a devastating view of top-down, broad-stroke social programs.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

Goes from sleepily hypnotic to riveting over the course of 90 minutes.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

The disparity between Cindy and Jerry is itself obscene, but less so than that illuminated by the customers of Farewell Cruises, whom Yung shows to be almost parasitic in the way they feed off the misery (albeit without knowing it) of those who serve them.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

When the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River began construction in the early Nineties, an estimated 2 million people's lives were impacted. That's a staggering number to contemplate, but Up the Yangtze effectively personalizes that near-meaningless number by putting a face on at least a few of those 2 million.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

China's public image suffers another blow with Up the Yangtze, a documentary by Chinese-Canadian Yung Chang.

The average user rating for this movie is 9.1 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

David gave it a10:
The father is one of the most interesting, but tragic characters I have ever seen caught on film. His recognition of change, and his responsibilities outweigh any anger he has about relocating. Simply a stunning documentary, one that should be seen by anybody who has bought a product from China, aka everybody!

Annie S. gave it a10:
Devastatingly haunting, heart-breaking, and beautiful. One of the most stunning and important films of our time.

Gabriel gave it a9:
Very powerful film. I'm not sure what Dyna is talking about, of course the subject outweighs the film, the subject matter is heavier than lead.

Robert I. gave it a9:
An affecting documentary, witnessing the rise and fall of contemporary China. By focusing on a young woman's wrenching away from her precarious family home, we get an intimate glimpse of her expanding universe, at once thrilling and somehow sooty and spoiled. Sadness and loss teeter on the brink of the rising waters, which bear prosperity, hope, and our imperfect world to China.

J D. gave it a10:
Whenever the focus switches back to Yu Shui's saga, the film quickly regains its affecting resolve. No more so than in the long, lingering shot of her peasant father who, as the water level rises, is carting off what's left of his home, bearing the load on his back, trudging step by weary step up the steep incline of the riverbank. In mid-climb, the man pauses and, in that frozen instant, belongs both to tomorrow's uncertain world and to yesterday's harsh myth – he's modern China and he's Sisyphus.

Dyna M. gave it a5:
Filmmaker doesn't have a steady balance of form or style. Unevenly audition different methods of filmmaking into one piece. Subject outweighs the film.

Up the Yangtze Zeitgeist Films

Up the Yangtze
Zeitgeist Films