VIFF Review: Caught by the Tides

China's fast progression to modernity is captured in this film

The last film I caught at the Vancouver International Film Festival was one from China called Caught by the Tides by Jia Zhangke. The screening I saw was in the afternoon on a weekday but there were a lot of people there, particularly mainlanders which made me wonder if they were skipping work or school to watch it.

For the first 30 minutes viewers are wondering what is going on. The film opens in the late 1990s with a scene of women bundled up in a bare room in Datong, Shanxi province singing songs on Women's Day -- China actually celebrates this day by giving women a half day off work. 

Qiaoqiao and Bin have a relationship in Datong

Then the scene suddenly jumps to a nightclub with young women wearing skimpy clothes dancing with men, and viewers are wondering who the main characters are and if this movie is going anywhere.

Finally it zeroes in on two people, Qiaoqiao, an attractive woman and a man named Guo Bin, but their relationship isn't clearly established at first. It is only when he sends her a text message on his phone (several years before smartphones came out) that he was going away and that he would come and get her later.

It is unclear how long she waits because soon after he's gone she has a backpack slung over her shoulder and takes a boat along the Yangzte River just before areas along it would be flooded because of the massive Three Gorges Dam.

Qiaoqiao wanders where buildings are being demolished, the bricks sorted by peasants to repurpose and used to build other constructions elsewhere, while families with their worldly possessions wait for the ferry to move them elsewhere and they proudly explain they are making this sacrifice for the good of the country.

Director Jia wanted to capture China's changes

Meanwhile Bin seems to be caught up in some corruption scandal involving real estate, but it seems karma has come back for him. Years later he seems to have had a stroke, his left hand immobile and he walks with a bit of a limp.

Caught by the Tides is about this couple, but more interesting is how China has changed around them in the years and decades. There are news reports of China entering the World Trade Organization, and later Beijing is chosen to host the 2008 Olympics.

The film finally catches up with them in 2022 during the Covid-19 pandemic, wearings masks, lining up for mandatory swab testing, and how people make money by making silly videos online. It's a far cry from the room full of women in the opening scene.

Except for the first 30 minutes of the film, Caught by the Tides is interesting to watch; however, there is only a tenuous link between Qiaoqiao and Bin, and so the film doesn't explain her motivation to deliberately go out of her way to find him.

Caught by the Tides

Directed by Jia Zhangke

111 mins

2024