The film explores the pursuit of the “Chinese Dream.” Driven by mesmerizing—and sometimes humorous—imagery, this observational documentary presents a contemporary vision of China that prioritizes productivity and innovation above all.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.0/10
IMDb: 7.0/10
Letterboxd: 3.62/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
Metacritic: 84
TMDB: 6.9/10
Director
Jessica Kingdon
Production
XTR, Field of Vision, Mouth Numbing Spicy Crab, The Gotham Film & Media Institute, Chicken & Egg Films, Cinereach
Where to watch
Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential
Curator Review
Verdict
A striking observational documentary that turns industrial labor, consumer desire, and the mythology of the “Chinese Dream” into something hypnotic and unsettling. Its strength is the visual rigor: it finds eerie beauty in repetition, scale, and systems, even when its distance from subjects can feel intentionally cold.
Best for
Viewers who like observational documentaries with minimal narration
People interested in labor, manufacturing, and modern China
Fans of visually precise, meditative nonfiction cinema
Audiences open to ambiguous, essay-like political filmmaking
Skip if
You want interviews, clear argumentation, or historical context
You prefer character-driven documentaries with emotional intimacy
You’re looking for a fast-paced or conventionally structured nonfiction film
You dislike detached, process-focused filmmaking
Overview
Ascension is less a report than a mood piece about the machinery of aspiration. Jessica Kingdon builds a portrait of contemporary China through factories, training centers, consumer spaces, and leisure industries, letting the rhythm of work and production suggest the social order beneath it all. The result is often mesmerizing, sometimes funny, and quietly alarming.
Worth noting
What stands out most is the film’s visual discipline. Static frames, precise compositions, and patient observation give ordinary labor an almost ceremonial quality, while the editing turns repetition into a kind of trance. It’s a documentary that trusts images to carry the argument, which makes it unusually immersive but also deliberately elusive.
Bottom line
That elusiveness will be the film’s dividing line. Some viewers will find its distance revealing; others may feel it hovers over workers and systems without fully confronting them. Even so, it’s one of the more memorable nonfiction films of its year, especially for anyone drawn to documentaries that are as formally ambitious as they are politically suggestive.
Top Letterboxd reviews
{Todd} (4★) · 166 likes
"I'm a member of this company... I have great responsibility for this company" - Morning Worker Chant.
- 2021 Ranked: boxd.it/aL2Ys
China... they're just like us... except with jobs.
This is a powerful documentary highlighting China's, and Chinese people's, pursuit of a dream life through productivity and innovation. It's a lot of footage of people working leading into a lot of people benefiting from the work. It sounds like a propaganda film but it's all presented without commentary so it… more
Jake Alda Coffey (3★) · 162 likes
Well at least now I know how sex dolls are made
Marianna Neal 🇺🇦 (4★) · 138 likes
I love observational documentaries like this. Humans are interesting to say the least, but also kind of terrifying. Oddly, seeing mass production is simultaneously meditative to me, and makes me not want to buy a mass produced, soulless product ever again.
Quintin (3★) · 110 likes
The documentary Ascension is a great depiction of the Chinese Dream with fantastic visual representations of the themes it's addressing.
One 30 second clip I keep thinking about is three separate shots. The first shot is the entrance of a water slide. The framing and colours make the entrance so gorgeous and appealing. We watch four people in a tube enter the slide which cuts to the second shot. We are in the tube with the four people and they… more
George Ehret (3.5★) · 93 likes
We should use this film as a case for why documentaries should be considered for Best Cinematography because apparently the Academy doesn't think documentaries have cinematography