- At the edge of the Yangtze River, not far from the Three Gorges Dam, young men and women take up employment on a cruise ship, where they confront rising waters and a radically changing China.
- A luxury cruise boat motors up the Yangtze - navigating the mythic waterway known in China simply as "The River." The Yangtze is about to be transformed by the biggest hydroelectric dam in history. At the river's edge - a young woman says goodbye to her family as the floodwaters rise towards their small homestead. The Three Gorges Dam - contested symbol of the Chinese economic miracle - provides the epic backdrop for Up the Yangtze, a dramatic feature documentary on life inside modern China.—National Film Board of Canada
- The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China - the largest hydroelectric dam project ever constructed at the time - would ultimately displace over one million people as cities, towns and villages and thus homes would be submerged underwater at the dam's completion, all in an effort to satisfy the growing and seemingly insatiable quest for energy. In many respects, the dam would change the face of China for good and bad, the bad including the loss of tradition and culture. During one of the dam's mid-phase construction stages, one family, the impoverished Yus, are followed, they a microcosm of the overall effects of the dam on the Chinese way of life. Despite the central government providing citizens relocation funds, most of those funds would be siphoned off by corrupt government officials at every level by the time they would trickle down to people like the Yus, forcing the Yus to figure out where they would move on their own, they who just want a plot of arable land near the river on which to farm. At the same time, the Yus' sixteen year old daughter, Shui Yu, who ultimately wants to attend high school (the Yus who do not have the money yet for her to be able to do so), is sent to work on one of the river cruise ships catering to western tourists, most who arguably will have the impression that what they will be witnessing is their traditional view of China. Like many of Shui Yu's colleagues aboard the ship, she is unwise to the ways of the outside world, she and they who are taught to put forward the best face of China, which in such a service industry means being forced to learn the global language of English.—Huggo
- This movie might be called Up the Yangzte without a paddle. or The Good Earth 2007
Father leads a poor family that squats near the river in a handbuilt shack. He no longer has steady work since the coming of the massive 3 gorges dam that will soon flood his modest home and farm. At least his family has good food from his little field. Daughter can't go on to college because they have no money, so she will work on the cruise boats that go up and down the river with foreign tourists. At first, she struggles and cries, but her supervisors assures her it will get better. Management says that they must train this generation, mostly single children to serve other people. One boy from a rich family finds he can get massive tips from tourists, but his workmates shun him as arrogant, and at the end he is sacked because he does not care enough about his customers or co-workers who say he carries himself like a movie star, not someone who show up to work. Finally the river reaches the house, and father has to move massive pieces of furniture up the riverbank to the ramp by himself with no help, and they push their belongings to new assigned housing, but he despairs he now has to pay for water and food. Tourists are shown how well the relocated families are doing, they have TV and air conditioning, but a shopkeeper breaks down in tears explaining how he was beaten because he did not have enough money to bribe the SOB officials that forced him to move away, and father finally gets a tour of the massive dam that has so affected his life, perhaps the best for china, but he can't see how it is doing his family any favors.
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