Caught by the Tides

One of Jia Zhangke's best movies. The best of his works are mainly those documentary-like films with deep reflections on modern China and its ordinary, often invisible people caught in the tide of the country's transformation over the past four decades. I spent over 30 years in China, from 1980s to early 2010s. You may not find dramatic plots in this movie, but many of the scenes reflect what I experienced and witnessed there. This movie feels like a collage, bringing back memories of my life over the past three decades.

Most of the scenes feel both real and surreal from today's perspective-especially when you think about how fast and dramatically Chinese society has evolved, along with how people's lifestyles and mindsets have shifted with the tides of time.

What I like about Jia Zhangke is that his works of Chinese cinema is highly interesting and something that feels so different to any other filmmakers in China. In many ways, using strange digital camera approaches, approaches on themes, the music, the characters and setting. This movie feels like a statement of his career, in a documentary and fiction fashion, it's a mesmerizing experience.

Using archive footage and blending both non-linear fiction and non-fiction, Zhangke presents a melancholic and avant-garde narrative and atmosphere that is filled with wonderful presentations and themes explored. Presenting characters, performances, music, and dialogue that feels realistic and almost as if you are observing the daily lives of an individual and nature of human beings.

Zhao Tao continues to shine with her natural performance and language with each scene she is displayed on, the soundtrack choices are interesting, and the whole fiction vs nonfiction scenario, while it will put off many viewers, I found it to be interesting and a great experiment of a story.

I don't suggest this as the first movie to watch for Jia Zhangke though, but I say it's amazing.

The photography was superbe, grandiose or intimate, always striking. OTOH, I (and my date) was unable to follow the story at all. Perhp[as if I knew more about Chinese geography and social customs it would have made more sense, but as it was it left me with nothing more than a huge dark question mark covering over any thought I might have had about the film, a physical rejection of the sound level of ports of it, but also with a trove of images - both nature, man-made, and of haunting faces that will not soon fade away. The one thing that provided some unity came to me afterward when I thought about the title and realized that the movement of the film is analogous to the tide -- washing out to sea bringing all kinds of things from elegant boats to detritus with it, then flowing back upstream.

I never tell about the plot on my review, you can find it everywhere! I watched this movie without knowing Nothing about it. So i thought "oh he is very clever ,he is using lots of old stock film to make it look like it was shot 20 years ago" and I thought "uhm this movie is way more experimental and artsy compared to his other movies". I watched this movie because I really enjoyed Mountain Might Depart and Ash Is Purest White and A Touch of Sin. And this one feels more like a collections of scenes, different styles all put together. It has somehow a dreaming, floating quality, it feels like a documentary and then it is also fiction, But it works, mostly because Zhao Tao has this magical presence on the screen and you look at her wondering what will she do next. After I finished I went online looking at reviews and discovered it is actually made with material the director shot before. If you are looking at this title it means that you are already open and ready to watch something different from USA mainstream movies. So I would definitely recommend this.

Plot: Qiaoqiao and Bin, deeply in love, enjoy city life together through singing and dancing. Their happiness is cut short when Bin suddenly departs to seek opportunities elsewhere. Determined, Qiaoqiao sets out to find him.

Cannes film festival 2024 palme d'or nominee

A tranquil tale of loneliness,industralization through snippets of changing cities,depleted landscapes,strucures,songs,personal aspirations engraved deeply in the heart of China and it's people.

Jhangke juxtaposes scenes from his previous films to comply with the timelines covered in the film which fits in the narrative perfectly.