X
- 2019
- R
- Amazon Studios
- 1 h 23 m
- 2019
- R
- Amazon Studios
- 1 h 23 m
Summary China’s One Child Policy, the extreme population control measure that made it illegal for couples to have more than one child, may have ended in 2015, but the process of dealing with the trauma of its brutal enforcement is only just beginning. From award-winning documentarian Nanfu Wang (Hooligan Sparrow, I Am Another You) and Jialing Zh...
Directed By: Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang
- 2019
- R
- Amazon Studios
- 1 h 23 m
- 2019
- R
- Amazon Studios
- 1 h 23 m
One Child Nation
6.7
Where to Watch
Summary China’s One Child Policy, the extreme population control measure that made it illegal for couples to have more than one child, may have ended in 2015, but the process of dealing with the trauma of its brutal enforcement is only just beginning. From award-winning documentarian Nanfu Wang (Hooligan Sparrow, I Am Another You) and Jialing Zh...
Directed By: Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 25 Critic Reviews
85
92% Positive
23 Reviews
23 Reviews
8% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 25 Critic Reviews
85
92% Positive
23 Reviews
23 Reviews
8% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
In a very full and riveting 85 minutes, One Child Nation assembles a huge story together from many small, crucial pieces.
This is a documentary that is very difficult to stomach.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 31 User Ratings
6.7
71% Positive
22 Ratings
22 Ratings
10% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
19% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 31 User Ratings
6.7
71% Positive
22 Ratings
22 Ratings
10% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
19% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
Brutally honest, be it the subject of the movie or it's cast. It doesn't leave you with the right answer, but with your, answer, which is it's answer.
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If you think for a moment that any "anglo-Americans" are delighting in this crushing story you are sadly mistaken. But go ahead Sunnylee and wag your finger at the Americans and deflect the attention from what could be the biggest holocaust the world hasn't ever seen. And they were BABIES! Shame on you. Does your self-righteous indignation have no bounds. Oops! I've committed another microaggresion.
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One Child Nation is an utterly compelling documentary that examines the consequences of this staunchly enforced ‘social experiment’. If it stops short of making an explicit political statement, a series of powerful testimonies leaves a harrowing micro-level impression.
What it lacks in formal finesse or educational scope, the film more than compensates as a taut illustration of the profound disconnect between high-level social engineering and the lived social realities that totalitarian policies entail. It’s quiet, feminist rage against Big Brother.
Shocking as it may be, One Child Nation needs to be seen. It’s a document that deepens our understanding of the totalitarian state that China was, not that long ago, of the enormity of the inhumanity that the central government visited on its most vulnerable citizens.
Wang and Zhang's film ends with an explication of a new “two child” policy, a celebration of the one-child-policy’s overall success. The propaganda for his policy is as cheesy as that for the old one. A sense of dread as to how this policy will be enacted intermingles with a strange feeling that a true reckoning with the old way is still very far off.
The revelations and images contained within are individually resonant and telling of a wider picture, but there’s a sense that Wang, or perhaps her financiers, are cautious of pushing too far. Unfortunately, this winds up leaving One Child Nation a muddle of confused half-messages which reach for and fall slightly short of an admirable goal.
An insightful, sometimes-gruesome, often-appalling look at China's failed one child only policy and all of the unexpected fallout to come from it. The film details the horrendous emotional damage inflicted upon all those the policy touched, as well as the negative social implications that arose from it both at present and for the future. A potent cautionary tale for anyone -- or any society -- contemplating wide-scale social engineering with no foresight for the consequences.
Report
Wang brilliantly plays to her audience by once again wagging her finger at China to the delight of Anglo-Americans. In the purest form of cinema entertainment, she invites you to forget about the problems in your local government and feel superior to the "backwards" policies in China. A feel-good event.
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Production Company
Chicago Media Project,
Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)
Release Date Aug 9, 2019
Duration 1 h 23 m
Rating R
Genres
Tagline The Truth Beyond the Propaganda
Awards
Critics' Choice Documentary Awards
• 5 Nominations
Gotham Awards
• 2 Nominations
Cinema Eye Honors Awards, US
• 2 Nominations
