Supelice
Dreadfully Boring
Chirphymium
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Melanie Bouvet
The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.
Sabrina G
Initially, when I saw China Blue, I was impressed with the filmmaker's access to the factory and the young girls who worked there. I was terribly moved by the plight of these young women and I still am but for a very different reason. When I had the chance to meet with the director, Micha Peled, at this year's INPUT, an int'l public TV conference, in Lugano, where he showcased Chinca Blue, I learned that he staged many of the scenes and wrote the script for the subtitles. In fact, I understand there are subtle nuances with some of the Chinese spoken by the character, Jasmine, and if you listen very carefully, at times, the voices are also slightly different. Lastly, I learned that the girls were paid a pittance, not for their time, but to act out their stories. That is why if you inquire about the girls' whereabouts in this day, the answer is that contact was lost with them. How do I know all of this? Well, the filmmaker was quite proud and he bragged of his deception. If anything, I would be interested in the expose of this documentary and maybe this director's previous films -- that is where the true story lies -- no pun intended.
karild
CHINA BLUE, which examines the harsh reality of mass production of blue jeans in China's garment factories - jeans that are ultimately sold in America - is an amazing, insightful and profoundly moving film. It follows some of the young girls who find their way to the factories to get menial, slave labor jobs, then struggle to survive in the terribly harsh conditions that would be criminal in this country. The use of something very close to a dramatic structure, more typical of feature films, which weaves seamlessly with the documentary exploration, creates a new approach that tells the story with amazing power and involves the viewer completely. The surprise ending was so human, so unexpected, and so filled with hope. I kept thinking that someone or something might come to rescue the factory girls as a result. My mind constructed various possible scenarios of what might happen, but the truth is that the film itself may be what saves them, by bringing their plight to the attention of Western consumers who, it is hoped, will be outraged by the indentured servitude forced upon these young girls, and be unable to ignore the fact that their clothing purchases contribute to such misery and injustice. Shot over a 3-year period, often with an undercover camera smuggled into the Chinese factory, the terrible slave labor conditions endured by a small army of teenage girls is revealed. Through an accident of birth these young workers were born into abject poverty in rural Chinese villages. To try for a chance at a better life and to be able to send a little money back home to their starving families, they make the long and arduous journey to the factory towns, where they work under impossible conditions for a few cents an hour. If they had been born in America they would be attending school, listening to music, partying with their friends, attending sports events, thinking about their hair, makeup and boyfriends - just being normal teenage girls. But as Chinese factory workers with not even enough time to sleep well between excruciatingly long shifts, their lives are an endless drudgery and their teen years are stolen from them. When evaluating a film I want to see how long it stays with me, and this film and the situation that these young girls live in, with no chance of escape, has stayed with me ever since I saw it. I just can't get them out of my head. Their youth is being stolen from them and they are forced into a brutal and inhuman system that rejects their rights and their humanity. Hopefully the spotlight that CHINA BLUE shines on these injustices will lead to real changes. There is plenty of blame to go around for this outrage. In addition to the manufacturers who out-source the clothing production to China and call for ever-lower prices and ever faster delivery, the big stores who retail these jeans are guilty too. If only the labels and the retailers in the western world who contract with the Chinese factories would insist on dealing solely with factories that guarantee fair pay and humane working conditions, this form of slavery would be eliminated in short order. All they would have to do is be just a tiny bit less greedy, and give up just a little of their considerable profit. -- Review by Karil DanielsMicha X. Peled - Producer/Director/CameraSong Chen - Associate Producer/Translation Supervisor/Sound/Hidden Camera
hrabinowitz
"China Blue" is an engrossing documentary that tells the story of 3 teenage girls who leave their rural homes in China to come work for a factory that makes blue jeans. The movie also presents at some length a portrait of the factory owner, and draws him as a sympathetic character (though not entirely). The factory owner believed that he ran an excellent factory and had nothing to hide--he gave the documentary makers extensive access to the factory and to the workers. In fact it was only the Chinese government that hassled Peled--their rule is that all foreign journalists must have a government minder, and any filming without government approval is illegal. Big chunks of the film were lost as a result. Peled said in discussion afterward that the moral of the film is not "don't buy Chinese jeans". He said that conditions would be similar in any factory in Sri Lanka, El Salvador, or the Mariana Islands. In fact, conditions in the factory of the film are said to be relatively good. Nonetheless, the workers (mostly teenage girls) work 7 days a week, often getting only 2 or 4 hours sleep. They are paid irregularly, when it suits the owner, and the costs of the dormitory and kitchen (and "fines") are deducted from their pay. Their wages average 6 cents an hour. The factory owner sells the jeans for $4.20 (or $4.10) each. Of that, $1 is labor cost, the cost of about 25 peoples' labor for one hour. The owner claims to make only 20 cents profit on a pair of jeans. The documentary asserts that the big name brands push costs to be so low that they know that the factories cannot be paying minimum wage, but they look the other way regarding proof of factory conditions. Walmart, for example, allows factories 3 reports of non-compliance with basic humanitarian rules before it will consider going elsewhere. And there are consultants who specialize in teaching factories how to fake their inspections. It's cheaper than paying decent wages. The documentary is not a crude polemic. It lets the girls speak in their own voices, relying on a charmingly written diary by the main character, Jasmine, which is read in a voice-over. The film shows the girls in their daily routine, 8 of them sharing a room and a toilet, brushing their teeth and getting ready for work at the same time. Although I've read much about globalization, this film brought home the reality of its results in the lives of the girl workers, who marvel at the huge girth of the jeans they are making and wonder what kind of people must be wearing them. The conditions are both shocking and matter-of-fact in the way everyone takes them for granted. I highly recommend this movie.
tanguero17
This movie made me reflect for the first time in my life who are the people making the clothes that I and my family wears. My daughter was so moved that she went home and threw out of her wardrobe everything with a "Made in China" label. Now she wants to write a letter back to Jasmine, the heroine of the movie.If all teenagers see this movie something will change in the whole globalization/outsourcing system.After reading in the end credits that the film crew was arrested in China while shooting this movie I am wondering what else is going on in China that we don't know about. You keep hearing the media about human rights abuse in China, but I've always thought it was only done to individuals who dare to protest. This film shows it's systematic and millions of people suffer as a result.
