Caught By The Tides Review: Jia’s Repurposed Film

Jia Zhangke repurposes his old films to chart the transformation of modern China in the disconnected but curious Caught By The Tides.

It is a recontextualization of Jia’s past work, an impressionistic blend of fiction and non-fiction that charts the economic transformation of China from the early 2000s to the present day. It leads to a curious film, though Caught By The Tides can feel disconnected at points.

Of course, Jia is trying to tell a story with all this repurposed footage. And it begins in 2001, in the mining community of Datong City. Zhou Qiaoqiao (Zhao Tao, Jia’s long-time muse and partner who has starred in all but one of his feature films) is a performer and model who supplements appearances at a new venue with work at promotional events. She has a turbulent relationship with her manager/partner Bin Guo (Li Zhubin, who also appeared in Unknown Pleasures and Still Life) until he suddenly leaves to find more fortune in another province.

The years pass. After no contact from Bin, Qiaoqiao decides to search for him. That leads her on a ferry in 2006 to Fengjie, one of many districts about to be swallowed by the new Three Gorges Dam. As the rubble piles up, she looks for Bin whilst he engages in shady deals. When they eventually meet, Qiaoqiao breaks up with him. More years pass as the film enters the pandemic era (this is where we get the new footage). An older and frailer Bin returns to Datong, only to suddenly reunite with Qiaoqiao at a supermarket.

Caught By The Tides is a story of longing over decades, where a lingering affection spans China’s vast regions and changes. Or, as an early song theorises, “Not even a wildfire can burn all the weeds.” Jia includes wide shots of his shifting landscapes, montage editing that fits pieces together like a puzzle and text intertitles, the latter of which does a lot of the heavy lifting regarding his new worldbuilding. So does Zhao, giving expressiveness to the mostly silent Qiaoqiao that remains through the years, whether it is a sadness sensed by others or a quiet, determined independence in her later years. It adds to a relationship with Li’s Bin that ebbs and flows but is left – perhaps purposefully –  undefined.

The three parts of Caught By The Tides have similar plots and strands to Jia’s previous films. Unknown Pleasures has Qiaoqiao (who is in the same profession), and Still Life has the character of Guo Bin and the story of a woman searching for her partner in a town slowly being destroyed. But this is not the first time the director has reused these two films. His last movie, Ash Is Purest White, also remixed them into a new story set over three parts. Here, Jia plucks elements, parallels and repetitions from his old films to look back at the modernisation and urbanisation that has occurred.

The genres of music in earlier chapters – a mix of techno, rock and Shanxi opera – fade into the background. Replacing it is technology, with DV (digital video) shots that become progressively more polished and the appearance of TikTok and Mother Teresa-quoting robots in modern times. Also notable is a scene where 2006-era Qiaoqiao sees a film about robots, partly made with AI.

Caught By The Tides is always an interesting watch, but mainly as an exercise in form and showing an evolving China. The memories of economic development and the generation left in its wake (Jia says in the press notes that the film’s Chinese title translates as ‘A Drifting Generation’ but it could also mean ‘Romantic Generation,’ which is in keeping with the main relationship at its core). The problem is that the film doesn’t form into anything until the third act when the older Qiaoqiao and Bin reflect on their collective pasts apart and together.

Perhaps the film works best if you know the ins and outs of Jia Zhangke’s wide body of work. Perhaps it is of greater benefit to be unfamiliar with his films, and therefore unaware of the patterns between them (especially Ash Is Purest White and its similar structure). However, the main question is whether it functions as its own thing, away from the old footage it features. The answer is only when it’s not just Jia reflecting on the past, but his characters too.

Caught By The Tides was screened at the BFI London Film Festival on October 13-14, 2024.