Japanese director Ryo's docu on Yangtze hits cinemas in China

A special screening of the highly acclaimed documentary film "The Yangtze River" at the Shanghai Film Art Center on May 22 attracted around 1,000 movie buffs from home and abroad.

The latest offering by talented Japanese director Takeuchi Ryo hits cinemas across China today, following its successful release in Japan in April.

For a long time, director Ryo has been fascinated with the spectacular scenes, historical roots, and cultural connotations of the Yangtze River, the third-longest river in the world and one of the "mother rivers" of China.

It took him 10 years of traversing the 6,300-kilometer-long Yangtze River twice, where his camera lens captured the remarkable and tremendous changes that have taken place in the country.

Ryo compares China to a perpetual motion machine that is constantly running forward at full throttle. In the past decade, he has witnessed significant changes in China. He finds his life in China convenient and efficient with a range of online platforms for ride-hailing and food delivery, a mature high-speed rail network, and digital payment services.

"The environment here becomes much cleaner, Chinese people live in more spacious houses, and their lives become more prosperous," Ryo said. "Besides, Chinese people's thinking has also become more open and inclusive. This kind of change is particularly attractive to me. I really enjoy the vibrant changes in China and hope that through my documentary, more friends can get to know China, and then come to China to experience its development on their own."

Ryo manages to show the world the real China and the heartwarming stories and messages in the documentary are of universal appeal.

When the film was screened in Japan, it changed many Japanese people's stereotypical perceptions of China. A lot of Japanese viewers were so amazed at China's rapid development and the big changes that they said they hoped to pay a visit to the country.

"The joys and sorrows of the Chinese people in the documentary resonated well with them," Ryo said. "Japanese people were very touched after finding out that their emotions were connected and shared across cultures."

In Ryo's view, the power of a documentary is its authenticity, as the true emotions and instantaneous reactions of the characters are real and can never be portrayed simply through acting.

In 2011, Ryo shot his first documentary film about the Yangtze River. However, he was not satisfied with the production because at that time he could not speak Chinese, which caused obstacles in his communication with the people he filmed.

To learn more about Chinese people, Chinese society, and the brilliant Chinese culture, he spent years learning Chinese and moved to Nanjing.

Ryo has also appeared in a few Chinese variety shows and gained popularity with Chinese people. On the social media platform Weibo, he is an Internet celebrity with over five million followers.

In 2021, he started to shoot "The Yangtze River," his second documentary about the river. This time, he managed to trace and film the first drop of water from the Yangtze River at its source in Qinghai Province.

Characters who appeared in his first documentary about the river a decade ago also shared their new stories in the film.

One of the most touching stories is about Cimu, a Chinese woman of Tibetan ethnicity. In 2011, the then 18-year-old girl was invited by director Ryo and the crew to Shanghai from her hometown of Shangri-la in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Cimu's trip to the metropolis broadened her vision and encouraged her to bravely pursue her dream – running a homestay at Shangri-la. After years of effort, her dream came true.

"I am very thankful to director Ryo and his documentary," Cimu said. "They offered me an opportunity to meet many excellent people, see how big the world is, and find the direction of my life."

Ryo also focused his lens on the magnificence of the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydropower project, the poetic natural landscapes of mountains and rivers, and the lives of ordinary people along the Yangtze River.

"The Yangtze River is a 'mother river' of China, and a mother's love is often taken for granted," he said. "However, when facing difficulties, people are very grateful to their mother. The river has already become an integral part to many people's daily lives."

Inspired by his talks with movie buffs, Ryo revealed that next he wants to shoot a documentary film about the Yellow River, the other "mother river" of China and also the cradle of Chinese civilization.