Caught by the Tides

A mesmerizing work that spans 20 years yet challenges the idea of time, Jia Zhang-Ke’s latest masterpiece is a reimagining of his cinema, the rewriting of his career, and a lucid portrait of China’s recent history. A countercurrent film that sweeps away the dust settling on the images of memory, Caught by the Tides is a love letter to actress Zhao Tao, the very embodiment of Jia’s cinema. She has shaped it, and continues to define and inspire his films, with the beautiful power of her performances.

In the first part of Caught by the Tides, Jia revisits footage filmed from the century’s start to today. He then unravels the thread of the relationship between Bin (Li Zhubin) and Qiaoqiao (Zhao), and follows the woman’s journey in search of her lost love, from Datong to the banks of the Yangtze River, where millions face relocation and where the Three Gorges Dam is about to submerge cities, memories, and histories.

Here, Jia retraces the leitmotifs of his cinema, from social changes and modernization, to memory and nostalgia, in a captivating cinematic experiment that recontextualizes familiar scenes and outtakes from his previous films.

Capturing the emotional and historical trajectories of his characters, the film serves as an active chronicle, leading, in the second part, into the pandemic era of 2022, where societal fractures could be seen most vividly.

As Jia interrogates the power of images and their capacity to shape truth, Caught by the Tides emerges as both a meditation on moviemaking history and a testament to the enduring relevance of storytelling.

GIOVANNA FULVI