[caymanjim]

Why did they do this backwards? It sounds like they took the trip in reverse. I thought they recorded it forward (tracking an actual object the whole time) and presented it in reverse, but it looks like they didn't actually follow a real object. They just chose a path and took the path in reverse, using the types of transportation that such an object might in theory have taken:

> They write that, “Four years later we found ourselves on the largest container ship in the world on our way from Sweden to China.” As per the trip: “We had started the journey by truck to Middle Sweden, then by freight train to the port of Gothenburg, and after four weeks at sea, we filmed from a truck again, this time from the port of Shenzhen to a factory in Bao’an.”

The idea of following a single, real object from point of manufacture to destination--documenting all the transfers and hiccups along the way--is interesting to me. Presenting it in reverse chronological order is an artistic decision I'm ambivalent about. But it doesn't sound like that's what they did. They didn't track a pedometer; they just took freight vehicles along a path that maybe the thing went on, without following the actual transfer of the item from box to container, from truck to ship, etc.

I'm disappointed. I was ready to actually watch the whole thing. But it's contrived.

[logisticsfilm]

Absolutely, the best thing would have been to actually follow a specific, unique product. We tried for one and a half years to get the company where we bought the pedometer to cooperate with us. It was impossible. But we managed to get the company to tell us which route they used in most cases.

[alexvoda]

In that case, since the ship sailed to China not form China, I find it surprising that the ship arrived full in China. I thought China exports dwarf their imports, and there would have been plenty of times a ship returns below full capacity to China.

I wonder what were they importing on that ship.

[chtitux]

If you want goods imported in containers from China, you have to have empty containers in China.

The ship may be full of empty containers.

[jtc331]

Are the containers actually full? Or just the empty containers ready to refill?

[b1ue64]

China imports 80% of their oil, IIRC it's the bulk of their imports

[stevage]

You can't transport oil on a container ship though.

[b1ue64]

I'm talking about the "exports dwarf their imports" bit

[fullshark]

Your ideal film is the opening of the film Lord of War (edited for time).

https://youtu.be/VHn1zogeyO4

[RoundBlocks]

Same intro but in 4K HDR (or it will be once YouTube finishes processing it) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGLBvQ0mvb0

Disclaimer, I cut this clip.

[reidjs]

One of the most entertaining intros of any movie, ever.

[gizajob]

It's only contrived in the way all art is contrived. The very idea of an 857 hour move mostly filming the bridge of a containership is a contrivance in the extreme.