A film by Yung Chang

“An astonishing documentary of culture clash and the erasure of history amid China’s economic miracle.”
-Stephen Holden, The New York Times

“Mandatory viewing for anyone interested in the grim flipside to China’s rise to economic power.”
-Flaunt Magazine

China’s Yangtze River—and all of the life that surrounds it—is undergoing a truly astonishing transformation wrought by the largest hydroelectric project in history, the Three Gorges Dam. Canadian documentary filmmaker 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 touching humanism and wry wit, Chang follows the microcosmic society of the luxury liner and the bitter irony of a young girl sent to work as a dish-washer aboard the ship—to provide for her peasant family as the river’s floodwaters drive them from their home. Up the Yangtze gives a human dimension to the wrenching changes facing not only an increasingly globalized China, but the world at large.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Gorgeous anamorphic master, created from Hi-Def elements and enhanced for widescreen TVs
- Twelve deleted scenes
- Time-lapse flooding footage of the Yangtze River
- 2006 research demo exploring the city of Zhaojia
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
- Optional Traditional Mandarin subtitles
- Original stereo and optional Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks

We can ship within USA only. In Canada Up the Yangtze is released by Mongrel Media.