Odd little film. This was meant to showcase the dramatic changes currently wrenching China as it rockets into the modern age after centuries of sleep. It succeeded in doing this but there was a strong sense of artificiality here.
It focused on several individuals and their families which certainly lent a human touch but it was immediately obvious that these people, some of whom were illiterate peasants, had a camera crew following them around as they went about their business. Sometimes they, or bystanders would be staring at the camera which made me feel uncomfortably voyeuristic. Maybe a generation raised on "reality" shows are used to this. I found it distracting.
That being said the film accomplished what it set out to do. It uses the flooding of the Three Gorges Dam project as synecdoche. A 16 year old girl gets a job on a luxury ship plying the river for well-heeled Western tourists. While she is introduced into the greater world her family home is slowly engulfed by the rising river. In her case, you really can't go home again. The theme of the film is brought out vividly in the scene where she shows her parents the dining room on the ship, which contrasts starkly with the decrepit hovel she left weeks before. She's moved from the 17th century to the 21st in a blink.
A nice subtle scene showed one of China's "little emperors" getting his comeuppance in his first work experience outside the coddled confines of his home. These young men, a product of China's dubious one-child policy will be a societal problem for many years.
For some reason the cameraman uses many close tracking shots of peoples' feet as they go from one place to another. Made me wonder if he had a fetish although occasionally the shot conveyed information worth having.
Overall, this was well enough done to justify the time spent. Financed by the Canadian Film Board.
5
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