Caught by the Tides

Drawing from nearly 25 years of footage, including images from his most acclaimed films, Jia has crafted a poignant new story with an assist from fragments of old tales.

This is a quietly brilliant film, one that blends a personal story, about two young people trying to make their mark, with a more global one, about a country that, a little more than 20 years ago, began changing drastically by the minute.

Caught by the Tides suggest that it’s being built on the ruins of a pastoral idyll. The past wasn’t that great, [Jis] implies, but if you’re going to replace it then make it something better – and that applies to Qiao Qiao and Guo Bin.

It would be reductive to call a movie as expansive and Caught by the Tides a downer; if anything, the final moments vibrate with curiosity about what lies beyond the frame, and where Jia and Zhao might go next.

Jia’s recycling is not haphazard or mistaken. He’s an artist squeezing all the juice from his lemon.

As emotionally effective as it is formally brilliant, it draws on a trove of material — both fiction and nonfiction — that Jia began shooting in 2001 while working on another movie.

[Caught by the Tides is] an act of love for its actors, but also for a China that was building its own history and was never just a backdrop. [Full review in Spanish]

Jia Zhang-Ke composes a fascinating puzzle with the wrecks of his filmography to create a mural of his country and our century. [Full review in Spanish]

Caught by the Tides is a desolate and beautiful reflection on what remains when everything changes. [Full review in Spanish]

Jia Zhangke at his finest. In other words, a great movie. [Full review in Spanish]