Comments: Parts of this film are really bad, like filming a bunch of tourists on a small boat singing "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean", the whole damn song, but the subject matter trumps every bad directorial choice and this film will touch your heart. It's a sad story, and does, to be fair, have more good directorial choices than bad ones. The family is presented with grace and has a surprisingly universal appeal that reaches far beyond its own culture.
Summary: 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.