Up The Yangtze Monday Night @ The Laemmle Royal

Hello Everyone... I am scheduling a new film for Monday night. The film is "Up The Yangtze"... and it is playing at 7:40 at the Laemmle Royal is West LA. Please read the summary and reviews below to decide if you would like to join me. I will meet you in front of the theatre at 7:15. Street parking is available. I would love to head to Dolores for coffee and a discussion after the film.

Film Summary
In China, it is simply known as ?The River.? But the Yangtze?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 Altmanesque narrative agility, a humanist gaze and wry wit, Chang?s Upstairs Downstairs approach beautifully 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: A phalanx of wealthy international tourists set sail to catch a last glance of a country in dramatic flux. The teenaged employees who serve and entertain them?now tagged with new Westernized names like ?Cindy? and ?Jerry? by upper management?warily grasp at the prospect of a more prosperous future.

Singularly moving and cinematically breathtaking, UP THE YANGTZE gives a human dimension to the wrenching changes facing not only an increasingly globalized China, but the world at large.

Official Selection Sundance Film Festival

Winner - Best Canadian Documentary
Vancouver International Film Festival

?BEAUTIFULLY OBSERVED PORTRAIT! 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.?-- Scott Foundas, The Village Voice

?A POTENT INDICTMENT OF THE DAM-AGE DONE! UP THE YANGTZE says more about what?s being lost?culturally, geographically, morally?than any parade of talking heads ever could.?--David Fear, Time Out NY

?ASTONISHING!? ?Stephen Holden, New York Times

?STUNNING!?? New Republic

?TOUCHING!...HAUNTING!??New York Magazine

?GORGEOUS...A GLORIOUSLY CINEMATIC DOC OF EPIC, POETIC SADNESS!?
?John Anderson, VARIETY

Synopsis:
Upon completion, China?s mammoth Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River will be the largest hydroelectric power station in the world. Progress, though, comes at a price: the dam will displace more than a million residents and destroy numerous cultural and archaeological sites, upending a... [More]
Upon completion, China?s mammoth Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River will be the largest hydroelectric power station in the world. Progress, though, comes at a price: the dam will displace more than a million residents and destroy numerous cultural and archaeological sites, upending a way of life. In Up the Yangtze, filmmaker Yung Chang sensitively examines the effects of this massive project on personal lives as he follows two young people, each one transformed by the construction.

Sixteen-year-old Yu Shui and her family are dismantling their tiny shack along the river?s edge to make way for rising waters. She longs to continue her education, but financial circumstances force her to work for Farewell Cruises, a company that ferries tourists to catch a glimpse of the river region before it?s too late. The irony of her employment becomes clear as the boat glides along the river, revealing a landscape changing at an alarming pace. Meanwhile, the journey?s significance is lost on her coworker Chen Bo Yu, whose good looks and English skills make him an ideal hire. He merely sees his job as an opportunity to make some money.

Beautifully photographed, the film provides a final snapshot of a rapidly disappearing cultural landscape. Juxtaposing the Yangtze?s stunning panorama with the reality of Yu Shui?s poignant story, Chang shows the tenuous balance between China?s rich cultural past and its modernized future. --© Sundance Film Festival [Less]