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.

An excellently researched, made and produced film that shows categorically the egotistical, uncaring attitude of politicians (around the world) as regards their own citizens lives! We are all aware of how the WHO (World Health Organization) and the CDC (Centre for Disease Control) lied to everybody almost from the very beginning; instead of admitting they did not have a clue about COVID-19 - or any other COVID man made disease's!

As regards the China part of the story. I think anybody, with a modicum of common sense, knows that China cannot be trusted and they lie about everything and so, we more or less knew what to expect from them. A lot of China's health problems (a lot of you will remember SARS - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - doing the rounds of the world back in 2002) stem from the fact that China is a very congested and poverty stricken nation. They will deny this of course but, it is a fact! Because of this and the way its people in poverty exist day to day there are many health violations (I have witnessed some of the things they get up to in my own country, because they are totally without consideration for other people). Not all Chinese are like that in my country I am glad to say.

If I was a world leader I would call for non trading with China altogether! Things are going to get worse with this country!

Americas politicians and medical experts are seen to be just as dishonest as their Chinese counterparts in many, many ways. Again though, the American people are beginning to be aware of what self centered liars their voted representatives are...its only taken them a century or so to wise up to the fact. This film will make many aware of just what really went on and is still going on.

Much of the problem that the world has had with this pandemic, is having been lied to about it from the very beginning! People were thinking of how they could make money from it and, how they could fool populations into going back to work by playing the seriousness of it down...so the economies would not suffer too much! Lives did NOT matter to the people in control, the elite power-mongers etc. Our lives mean nothing to them!

WEAR A MASK (even if you have Asthma) and you women forget about smudged make-up etc and think about other peoples health - and your own - instead of being so vain. And you younger people stop being so arrogant and stupid, as it will kill you just as easily as its killing millions of other people like you! Our air is polluted, some areas worse than others!

Firstly, I'm from Liverpool, UK. Which pretty much means that I'm neither for the U. S, nor China. I'm somewhere in the middle and have as much respect as disdain for these two leading superpowers.

I watched this documentary and if you are reading this, it means that you're either looking to see if this is worth your hard-fought time, or you're someone linked to the project looking for kudos.

Like the above statement, I'm neither going to recommend that you do or you don't, and I'm not about to praise or diminish the work.

What I will say is that, in this time of 'fauxness', I'm not actually sure what was real or fake in this production. It was hard to tell at time and whilst I'm fairly sure (as both a critic and sometime filmmaker myself) that there are portions that are somewhat fictional, whilst there are some portions that are reality.

What this film does, as you can probably tell from the front cover, is draw similarities between these two nations and their respective responses to the pandemic. It isn't a new concept and has been done for years by the likes of Brecht, Ibsen and Mike Leigh (albeit in fictional works).

I'm not equating Wang to the likes, but the concept still stands - it is a game of wag the dog - or in this case, Wang the dog.

Crafting a documentary isn't that hard in the grand scheme of things - you create a timeline from point A to point Z, amass your media, and tell a story. It's such a simple concept, a kid could do it.

The hard part is telling your story... filling in the rest of the alphabet. This is usually done by media and narration. Both are well done by Wang and she does a good job of internalising and externalising her story to suit the needs of the film.

Some of the footage is a bit dicey at times and their origins aren't really cited - some for obvious reasons. But one thing does trouble me. There is footage presented that was shot in a Chinese Doctor's surgery which just looks bizarrely edited. Hardcoded are English dates and times (CCTV dates and times),and these are usually hardcoded by the camera's software.

But if this footage was captured in China by Chinese cameras and Chinese softwares, wouldn't they be in Chinese? I am not sure - but I figured they would be (just as in other segments of footage).

Therefore - I spent the rest of the documentary questioning what was real and what wasn't?

It's a given that the "hospital" footage was a honeytrap for reporters in order to keep the eyes of the press away from the real problems. It just looked like a fake hospital and I'm no expert here, but I was sure that there was footage released by the CCP which had obviously been staged - and this hospital looked very similar.

So, again, it is hard to filter out the agenda here and when that happens the film actually starts to resemble a film and not an expose or even documentary.

Wang gives details of her motives a number of times and I respect that! Yet, there are just certain parts which makes you wonder what the superagenda is here and whilst any good documentarian will say "You are supposed to make up your own mind" (to an extend for such subject matter),I was waiting some big reveal.

This is worth your time if you're someone in the future looking for context on Corona. Yet, make no bones about it that this documentary is not the be all and end all just because HBO picked it up.

You won't really learn much that you can't from Wiki and/or the history books (unless someone rewrites it). But it is an interesting citizen journalism piece from someone who has obvious pulls towards both the U. S and China.

With that in mind, it is interesting to view a tale woven from someone with dual citizenship and obvious leanings towards both cultures and countries. She does a good job of epitomising the title of the film and walking you through her points of view on both sides of the fence.

But as I've said - don't take it as read and don't take it as a given that the whole unfettered truth is presented here. Truth is - I doubt any of us will ever know the 'tru faz' of what happened here.

All we can do is tell our stories and hope the chips fall on the table. One thing is apparent though, it's all about the numbers and different representations of those numbers.

Watch if you will, or don't. But if you're a follower of Rona (as I am),you probably won't learn much outside of the sphere of what you already know.

However - one take you will take is that the U. S and China are two cheeks of the same butt. We (UK) are somewhat the crack and we take all the wipings and whatnot and keep the clangers. We have a hand in both countries and craftily wipe our cracks with variable degrees of success.

With that in mind, go forth and watch. But watch our for the clangers.