In the Same Breath

Sometime in late 2019, and January 2020, a newly discovered virus, now known as COVID-19, quickly grew into a respiratory illness pandemic. There would be much debate on how it was born, or where it began. However, we now have learned that the virus can be especially deadly to humans with underlying medical problems such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer.

Moreover, the world has learned the hard way how easily the COVID-19 virus spreads, primarily through droplets of saliva or discharge from the nose when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Hence, the inconvenient yet prudent use of masks and "social distancing."

Nanfu Wang's "In the Same Breath," is a cutting look at this devastating pandemic. She neatly weaves the political narrative with the personal suffering of people first hand after she flew to China with her infant to visit her family for the New Year.

This is her story, told through a documentary film that immediately fills the eyes with images of hospitals, medical personnel, Chinese and US news reports, fear, denial, and other visions of pure disbelief even as the virus continued to quickly spread beyond China and across the globe.

What may transpire from this documentary is that the world was unprepared for such a catastrophe, and the strong leadership that was necessary to form a reaction plan simply didn't come to pass.

As of August 20, 2021, 4,417,500 people have died from the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak.

This documentary tells the untold stories in Wuhan. Its a hard to watch, seeing people who are about to die in the hospitals. It also shows the contrast between the response of China and US against the pandemic. Freedom VS political system. Sad to say both can have done better. Such an excellent film.

Excellent documentation of events. Must watch. The show should get an award for exemplary reporting.

Since these reviews stay posted pretty much forever, it may be commonplace in 2026 or 2031 to show footage inside of Wuhan, China when Covid hit in 2020. But in 2021, to see a film like this showing scenes of what was going on in Wuhan in 2020 is really amazing and cutting edge. Bravo to director Nanfu Wang for getting footage like this out to the world.

I also appreciated that when it came to showing the American response, that Wang showed equal culpability among both Republicans and Democrats alike on the things they did wrong in trying to manage Covid when it hit us in early 2020. Hindsight is 20/20, and even though mistakes were made, I honestly think that both sides of the aisle were trying to do what they thought was the best thing for a situation that was unprecedented. Later on, how to manage Covid became way too posturing and political, but that's another movie to be made at a future date, I suppose.

As "In The Same Breath" opens, we are in Wuhan, where there is a massive celebration for the new year. On January 1, President Xi speaks to the nation that 2020 will be a special year. In the very same news broadcast, the news anchor mentions that "8 people have been punished for spreading rumors about a new pneumonia". It will be another 22 days before Wuhan goes into lockdown. By then it is too late...

Couple of comments: this is the 3rd documentary from Chinese (but now US resident) film maker Nanfu Wang ("One Child Nation"). Here she carefully reconstructs what actually happened in December 2019 and the early months of 2020 in Wuhan (a city of 13 million), and how the Chinese authorities dealt with it. Suffice to say that it ain't a pretty picture, and that would be the understatement of the year. In fact, this documentary is a blistering indictment of the sheer manipulation of the Chinese people by the propaganda apparatus used by the Chinese Communist Party. If it wasn't clear yet, this documentary proves with devastating evidence that in China the well-being of its people is, at best, the third highest priority of the authorities. The first and foremost concern is the Chinese communist Party. The second concern is the "Motherland". Then, trailing far behind, is the Chinese population. Hence, the Chinese authorities cover up and deny or outright lie, time an d again, showing no empathy for the plight of those infected. Deep into the film, Wang also looks at the early response to COVID in the US, and finds remarkable parallels to the Chinese early response. We are of course not surprised, given the sheer and complete incompetence and worse by Trump and his cronies (this is examined in greater detail in documentaries like "Totally Under Control" and "The First Wave"). Bottom line: I don't know that "In The Same Breath" is the definitive account of China's early response to COVID-19, but it certainly is very revealing and damning in every which way. OF course since those early months, the Chinese response has been to crush the virus, no matter at what cost, human or otherwise. As of today, China is the only country in the world that still clings to a "zero COVID" policy, Why? Not because it's the best policy for its people of course. Far more important are the Beijing Winter Olympics, which must and shall succeed no matter what, so that President Xi comes out looking good and he can be re-elected this Fall to an unprecedented third term, unofficially making him President for life.

"In The Same Breath" premiered at last year's Sundance film festival to immediate acclaim. Now a year later, it remains rated 96% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. The film started airing on HBO last Fall and remains available on HBO On Demand and HBO Max (where I caught it). If you have any interest in the seemingly never-ending coronavirus, or are curious about China in general, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.