The ultimate experience of People's Republic of Desire is exhausting, eye-opening and slightly terrifying. I'll fully admit, I didn't really care what happened to these self-obsessed dopes, but that doesn't make their journey any less fascinating.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 7, 2020

Wu edits their stories into clean, rags-to-riches-to-rags narratives, and doesn't have to do much when it comes to highlighting how strange the whole situation is

| Jun 5, 2019

At a time when Americans are more concerned than ever that social media platforms such as Facebook are exerting too much influence over people's lives, this eye-opening film features China also grappling with the same issue.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 25, 2019

...tellingly spry and insightful. Slickly produced, energetic and intrinsically revealing...an intriguing documentary about online entertainment in China.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 27, 2019

For the winners, like karaoke singer Shen Man, this can result in an income of $40,000 per month, some of it coming from displaced urban workers longing for connection in a world that's changing too fast.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 26, 2018

It's surreal. While the director seems to be unable to land on a subject, the spectacular strangeness of the way people interact on YY is enough to earn viewers' attention.

| Dec 19, 2018

In this thematic emphasis, Wu points to the hollowness of a lot of Internet culture-his subjects are bound by a desire to lose themselves in a fleeting sense of fame.

| Dec 19, 2018

It's all a little dizzying, and truly dispiriting. Wu unpacks a heady system and makes sense of it for newbies.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 13, 2018

Markedly depressing... The competition is ultimately the same bread and circuses humans have engaged in since boredom was invented.

| Dec 6, 2018

Equally fascinating, sad and scary...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 5, 2018

... examines the socioeconomic consequences of such pursuits, which make it a cautionary tale both intriguing and unsettling.

| Dec 1, 2018

People's Republic of Desire is equal shares fascinating and depressing, often at the same time.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 30, 2018

Shocking docu reveals dangers of China's live-stream trend.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 30, 2018

The People's Republic of Desire is a psychological treatise on self-worth, and the lab rats are the citizens of China. YY could be signs of what is to come in our world of internet celebrity.

| Original Score: 8.5/10 | Nov 30, 2018

The ability of "People's Republic of Desire" to show these familiar desires playing out in futuristic surroundings is invariably surprising and never less than compelling.

| Nov 29, 2018

A chillingly sad document of where the human spirit is at, and where it may be going.

| Nov 29, 2018

You don't wait for what comes next in "People's Republic of Desire" as much as you watch and wonder why any of it is happening.

| Nov 29, 2018

As People's Republic so deftly explains, the livestreaming trend in China straddles the line between democratic art form and capitalism at its most voracious.

| Nov 26, 2018

It's the massive number of fans, coupled with the obvious catastrophic loneliness and blind devotionalism, that makes Wu's film so haunting.

| Nov 2, 2018

As director and editor, Wu shows a keen eye for human drama, but still gives viewers a good summary of the bigger picture. He vividly illustrates the disparity between migrant workers and the oligarchical patron class, without belaboring the point.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 2, 2018