Caught By The Tides is definitive Late Style, with beloved Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke plowing through his career to produce something deeply romantic and contextual. The movie stars Zhoa Tao, Jia’s wife and creative muse, and the main star of nearly all his films. Their partnership is true collaboration. Her performances – exclusively good, often great – bring the humanity and warmth to perfectly counterbalance Jia’s formal rigor. So his films become this haunting mix of melancholy and nihilism, anger and sadness.
This latest film definitely fits the description of experimental. A large chunk of the film is made up of spare footage, outtakes, and alternative clips from his previous films. Jia basically did a Boyhood on his own filmography. The result is something that’s part documentary, part doomed romance, with a sprinkling of memoir. With this unorthodox structure, Jia does little in the way of crafting forward narrative propulsion. There’s more impromptu musical performances than there are dialogue scenes. There are large chunks from his 2006 film Still Life shown here, re-contextualized under the specter of 2024.
The story, such as it is, involves a woman (Zhao Tao) in love with a volatile man (Li Zhubin). Their relationship is defined by his severity and her subservience, but when he leaves her to pursue business opportunities, she searches through China to find him, including communities being destroyed for the Three Gorges Dam. As time passes, more and more chances of rekindling their love fall away. When they eventually reunite in 2022 (the only new footage that Jia shot for the movie), they’re much older, and their country has been overtaken by COVID-19 protocols.
The effect of seeing Zhoa and Li grow older over the course of the movie is Jia’s greatest dramatic trick, and a wonderful argument for the movie’s conceit. It does test the patience of its audience, as long (sometimes very long) sequences go on without direct relevance to the love story. It’s a worthwhile effort for those willing to meet Jia on his level, but the aggressiveness of its artistry might test the meddle of those unfamiliar with his work. The deep longing hidden underneath the scenes between the two actors carry more heft than perhaps Zhangke really constructs.
Caught By The Tides feels dismissive of those who may find themselves caught within their own tide of confusion. The movie seems to require past knowledge of Zhangke, as well as context of his relationship with Zhao. It doesn’t make for the most exhilarating movie watching experience. One can admire a filmmaker as acclaimed as Zhangke making a movie for the smallest audience possible. Perhaps I fall outside of that. Zhao continues her exemplary work as an actor, giving Tides a much-needed touch of humanity.
Directed by Jia Zhangke