Dream Empire - Review
Billed as a documentary about the Chinese trend of using non-asian people as props for promoting new developments, Dream Empire in reality maps the apex of the Chinese building boom. The remarkable access gained translates to a film that shows great detail across an incredible amplitude of scales. In covering global macro economics, the resultant cultural change, and the personal scale that these effects, Dream Empire deftly explains a complex contemporary global problem.
The film focuses on Yana, giving her the opening lines of dialogue. An economic migrant, Yana moved to Chongqing city to make enough money to buy her parents a house, and pull herself into a better standard of living. Her words are interspersed with imagery of the city she lives in thus establishing a sense of scale, which is readily interpreted both physically and socially. She has drive, determination, and belief - she also has an idea. With the property market booming in China in 2012 developers were seeking ways to make their projects stand out to investors and buyers, and Yana believes that using foreign, specifically western, actors to entertain at open house events will give the projects an international feel and improve the apparent legitimacy of the investment.
By following Yana’s company, the film charts the apex and decent of the Chinese property bubble, and the growing problem of ghost town developments left in its wake. Rather than the whimsical tale of faking it in China you might expect, Dream Empire exposes the Chinese Dream as defined by home ownership, how this dream led to over development, and the resulting spiral of events that results in the manifestation of racism, sexism, and exploitation.