‘Caught by the Tides’ of China’s historical change

Chinese independent director Jia Zhangke’s new film Caught by the Tides provides a unique vision of China’s rapid social transformation in the 21st century.

Using a combination of footage and scenes shot by Jia in the past 20 years from his earlier films, it follows Qiaoqiao (Zhao Tao) and her boyfriend, small-time hustler Bin (Li Zhubin).

Bin leaves their small town to make his fortune working on the Three Gorges Dam, and Qiaoqiao goes to find him, taking her on a journey through the changing landscape of contemporary China.

The film not only registers monumental transformations, like the building of the dam, but the minutiae of everyday details from fashion trends to altered streetscapes.

Jia’s film is a quiet and meditative affair which dwells on the passage of time in a fast-paced world. The film not only captures 20 years in a rapidly changing China, but also offers a reflection on Jia’s career as a filmmaker.

‘Hometown trilogy’

Jia was born in 1970. He grew up in the city of Fenyang in Shanxi province, and came of age during Deng Xiaoping’s economic liberalisation and “opening up” of the 1980s.

He studied at the Beijing Film Academy before returning home to shoot his first feature Xiao Wu (Pickpocket) in 1997. The films he made in Shanxi – Xiao Wu, Platform (2000) and Unknown Pleasures (2002) – have been dubbed his “hometown trilogy”.

Shanxi is known for its notoriously dangerous coal mining industry. Jia focused on the lives of those left behind by China’s “economic miracle” and life outside of the metropolis.

His use of non-actors, preference for street shooting and slow minimalist style set his work apart from commercial Chinese cinema.

The second film in the trilogy, Platform, includes a mesmerising performance from Zhao Tao, then an unknown actor who has since starred in all of Jia’s later films.

Zhao and Jia were married in 2012. She is a key artistic collaborator whose portrayal of strong female protagonists is central to all the director’s later work.

Jia’s international breakthrough came with Still Life (2006), shot in the ancient area of Fengjie on the banks of the Yangtze while cities were being demolished and thousands displaced to make way for the Three Gorges Dam.

Working on Still Life confirmed his belief in “cinema’s function as memory” which captures the present before it disappears.

Historic transformation

Still Life combined Jia’s early realist style with a new surreal approach, including a building taking off and a mysterious flying saucer zooming into the distance.

To him, this blend of realism and surrealism is essential for portraying China’s rapid historic transformation. To represent this, he has blended documentary, fiction, animation, pop music, Chinese opera and digital images.

Caught by the Tides continues Jia’s experimentation with cinema and history in his most ambitious work to date.

Production was influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic, when he was unable to start work on a new film. Instead, he began to review footage he and his director of photography Yu Lik-Wai had shot since 2001.

Jia described the process as “like time-travelling” as he returned to the beginning of the 21st century and his youth. The film is partly composed of a collage of documentary footage which he and his collaborators spent over two years editing.

We see excitement in the streets when Beijing is announced as the host city of the 2008 Olympic Games, before cutting to a montage of young people dancing in strobe-lit underground nightclubs.

This kaleidoscope of documentary footage is combined with scenes during the making of Jia’s earlier films. From this combination of archival footage featuring his regular stars Zhao and Li Zubin, a story emerges about China’s rapid change.

As Qiaoqiao guides the viewer through the chaotic transformations taking place, there is something particularly arresting about seeing places and actors change before our very eyes.

Melancholic view

The final scenes, shot with modern digital cameras, have a sleek and cold aesthetic in contrast to the pixelated early footage.

It is in part a reflection of Jia’s own melancholic view of historical change in which the past is forgotten, and the everyday lives of ordinary people disappear from view.

Yet as a whole, the film suggests cinema can preserve the past and give dignity and beauty to everyday experiences. Caught By the Tides provides viewers with a refreshing glimpse of Chinese life from within.

Thomas Moran is a Lecturer in the Department of English, Creative Writing and Film, at the University of Adelaide

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy of China Factor.