‘Ascension’ Review: Oscar-Nominated Doc Will Change the Way You Look at China

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No matter what your image of modern China, it’s nowhere near complete until you’ve seen it through New York-based, China-observing director Jessica Kingdon’s eyes. Working in the mold of photograph…

,” leaving audiences with striking and frequently absurd scenes burned into their imaginations. Without contextualizing what we’re seeing, the hi-def collage asks us to make sense of a society even more stratified and excessive than our own.

Over a mesmerizing 95 minutes — condensed from visits to more than 50 locations around the country — the director works her way up the social ladder, while never losing sight of the laborers toiling at the bottom of this putatively communist society’s booming hyper-capitalist economy.

Early on, she shows outdoor billboards touting the “Chinese Dream,” President Xi Jinping’s abstract term for the people’s collective and individual improvement. “Work hard, and all wishes come true,” reads another banner — whereas a giant digital screen scolds jaywalkers at an intersection, publicly shaming those who take shortcuts. The carrot and the stick. But who among the laborers recruited to earn $2.

The midsection of the film focuses on those enrolled in various seminars and coaching sessions to improve their standing. Women learn business etiquette, including when to hug and how to smile , while men study to become butlers or bodyguards.

 

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