Caught By The Tides

Saw this at the Lincoln Center theatre with Annie, last minute invite.

I read up what little I could on Jia Zhangke in the afternoon, but honestly, I could not really get a handle on what to expect. I was vaguely prepared for a lot of visually striking and maybe some mundane BTS stuff. But somehow, I felt hooked for basically the whole time.

It starts of with a mishmash of older clips, probably from the beginning of the two decades worth of footage. The content itself felt a bit awkward and stilted, interview with a business owner, women singing for money, a man (Brother Bin) and a woman (Qiao Qiao) caught in a weirdly entangled relationship.

But then it follows the woman in her journey to find that same man, seemingly years later. This section had the most gorgeous scenes. I felt compelled to follow along with this woman in her pale sunflower yellow blouse, her plastic water bottle, texting on her tiny phone asking again and again where her leading man is, and not once uttering a single word. I was definitely keying in to how it seemed like she was kind of free to wander around with not much on her and take in the views of the Yangtze River and the construction ? demolition ? in making the Three Gorges Dam.

The final part was jarring because damn, seeing COVID-19 in media, huh. But even that felt endearing, in large part because it was older people interacting with new technology and practices. It made me nervous. Will I adapt as easily or need help from younger people still? Why does that scare me? Seeing the woman age and work, seeing the man age and navigate a new city in a new era. Their reuniting felt heavy thought it was only briefly on screen. But then light very quickly too after the woman finally says something and damn, cut to black.

Honestly not straightforward at all, and I wouldn’t say it’s easy to watch, but I enjoyed it ! Mostly, I spent the hours after coming home listening to Omnipotent Youth Society because their song 杀死那个石家庄人 was featured in this movie. I haven’t listened to them in over 10 years I think, so I’m so glad it’s back on my radar. Woo !