Jia Zhangke on the ‘Stargazing’ Mysteries of Caught by the Tides

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For quite some time, Jia Zhangke envisioned that the film which eventually turned into “Caught by the Tides” would be his final creation. Since 2001, he had been accumulating and archiving vast amounts of footage – everything from random snippets to documentary images to loosely scripted fictional scenes starring his actors. He intended to continue gathering this material until his retirement, at which point he planned to produce a retrospective work. However, as Jia, now 54, rose to prominence as one of China’s most notable filmmakers and a significant figure in international cinema, a different concept began to emerge. There were whispers of an extensive project – a large-scale picture that Jia was constructing piece by piece while working on his other films. After the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill in 2020, the director reevaluated not only his footage but also how the world around him was evolving. The “retrospective work” transformed into a movie that reflects as much about the current state of things as it does about the past.

Now, the film “Caught by the Tides,” which made its debut at Cannes last year and is now opening in U.S. cinemas, defies simple categorization. It’s a unique blend of narrative, documentary, and collage that focuses on a complex romance between characters Qiaoqiao (played by Zhao Tao) and Brother Bin (Li Zhubin). The storyline, spanning several decades, meanders in various directions with no strict plot. The film is set in the industrial coal-mining city of Datong, located in China’s Northern Shanxi Province. This setting, along with the actors, particularly Zhao, are familiar from many of the director’s previous works.

Initially, the tumultuous bond between Qiao and Bin is disrupted when he unexpectedly departs from their town to seek wealth elsewhere. He promises Qiao that he’ll summon her later but fails to do so. In the subsequent chapter, set a few years down the line, a resolute Qiao searches for the elusive Bin in Fengjie near the Yangtze River, where the Three Gorges Dam was being built – a colossal project in central China that displaced approximately 1.5 million people. The movie culminates in a final encounter in 2022, with China still under stringent lockdown due to the pandemic: The long-absent Bin, now humbled and struggling with health issues, returns to Datong to mend fences with Qiao. The first two acts primarily feature footage from Jia’s archive, allowing us to observe both characters aging naturally and witnessing China undergo significant transformation as the excitement of the new millennium transitions into a phase of swift development and eventually an era dominated by technology-induced seclusion.

In his own words, the director embarked on this project without having a clear idea about its final destination or method. Following the completion of his initial two films, Xiao Wu (1997) and Platform (2000), which were shot using 16mm and 35mm, he opted to work with digital video for Unknown Pleasures in 2002. This movie, a loosely structured story about a group of discontented young people in Datong, was easier to shoot due to the affordability and compactness of digital cameras, as well as their ability to capture images in low-light conditions without extensive setup times. Jia utilized these cameras in nightclubs, karaoke sessions, and secretive meetings. The convenience of this new technology also helped him bypass the administrative hurdles often encountered during film production in China. Being an independent filmmaker in a country where the government tightly controlled movie production, Jia frequently faced challenges related to processing films that weren’t officially approved. This would change with his subsequent feature, The World, which was the first of his films to receive an official release in China.

In today’s setting, Jia notes that digital filmmaking stood apart from the conventional film production methods in the movie industry, as he relaxes in a conference room at Criterion’s New York offices (with Sideshow-Janus, their theatrical distribution arm, releasing “Caught by the Tides” in the U.S., and the Criterion Channel streaming a collection of Jia’s earlier works, including previously unseen shorts). “In the digital realm,” he explains, “you didn’t need a script, funding, investors, or extensive pre-production. Instead, you could gather a compact film crew and a handful of actors, then head out to shoot.” Consequently, Jia ventured into the streets and among the people of Datong, aimlessly capturing whatever caught his eye without any specific objective in mind. At first, he contemplated whether this footage might be incorporated into a project entitled “Man with A Digital Camera“, inspired by Dziga Vertov’s silent Soviet masterpiece “Man with a Movie Camera“.

In the summer of 2001, I found myself photographing during a significant period in China’s history. It was in December of that year when China officially joined the World Trade Organization, an achievement that would be widely publicized and celebrated. Interestingly enough, Beijing had been selected as the host city for the 2008 Summer Olympics earlier that summer, marking the first time China would host such a global event. As depicted in “Caught by the Tides,” the nation was filled with pride and excitement, a mood that permeated everything around us. Reflecting on those times, I can say that China at the moment was both chaotic and vibrant, much like the digital images we were capturing.

Jia was among the rare filmmakers during that era who effectively leveraged the inherent qualities of video to revolutionize cinema, and a significant factor was the dramatic transformation occurring around him at the dawn of the new century. The illumination in homes transitioned from tungsten to ornamental lights and fluorescents. Fashion and home decor were evolving as well. “Much of the clothing took on a synthetic, nylon feel, and many household items began to be fabricated with plastic,” he reminisces. Simultaneously, numerous Chinese cities underwent swift urbanization, resulting in an atmosphere saturated with particles, air pollutants, and dust. Somehow, this environment complemented perfectly with DV technology, producing the captivating visuals I recorded.

Over several years, while working on various other projects, Jia accumulated approximately 1000 hours of footage. He explains, “I guess I just kept going because I hadn’t found a reason to stop.” Most of the content in the film “Caught by the Tides” was collected in 2001, 2006, and 2017 during the production of movies like “Unknown Pleasures“, “Still Life“, and “Ash Is Purest White“. Some of this footage was independently shot, while other parts were outtakes from those films. Jia captured material that could potentially form a narrative, but he wasn’t sure what the story would be. “We worked in such a loose and spontaneous manner that even with a script, there was no continuity or narrative arc,” Jia states. “I attempted to fictionalize things in a way that would let me capture a specific moment. I thought that perhaps during the editing process, I’d discover a way to make it cohesive.

In the making of the film, a freestyle approach led to significant aspects in its final version. Specifically, in 2017, Jia filmed a scene of Zhao’s character purchasing a meal on a boat sailing down the Yangtze River. Due to the deafening noise from the engine room, Zhao proposed that her character not speak and simply gesture instead. Consequently, this scene was shot without any dialogue. In the movie Caught by the Tides, Qiao remains completely silent throughout. Originally, Jia had filmed scenes where she spoke, but during post-production, he chose to eliminate all dialogue. He explains, “I wanted the audience to embark on this journey together with the female character.” He further notes that people can understand and empathize with her through her movements and expressions, fostering a deeper emotional connection. He also remarks, “Modern films often rely heavily on dialogue and words. Watching a movie by merely listening to it is almost like watching it in a lazy manner, which undermines the purpose of cinema as an art form.

In Jia’s photographs, the characters Qiaoqiao and Brother Bin frequently appear, but the director doesn’t view them as representing the same individuals. Instead, he considers Zhao Tao, one of these characters, as a symbol of all Chinese women. He recently shared this perspective with Filmaker Magazine, stating that in Chinese folklore, such as the tales of “Journey to the West,” the Monkey King can transform into 72 different forms. This concept isn’t unfamiliar to Chinese audiences, as they are accustomed to characters taking on various appearances and shapes.

In her recent review of “Caught by the Tides,” Madeline Leung Coleman notes that while the characters in Jia’s films may vary, they often explore significant stretches of modern Chinese history, depicting people yearning over extended periods. She explains that Jia’s approach is not careless or misguided; rather, he skillfully extracts all the essence from his creative resources, constantly seeking fresh ways to convey that China’s growth leaves many behind. Jia has repurposed footage from earlier projects at times and even contemplated using more in the past. However, he only used a minimal amount of it for his 2015 film “Mountains May Depart,” which is set in 1999, 2014, and a future 2025. Similarly, for the 2018 film “Ash Is Purest White,” he examined footage of the complex relationship between Zhao and Li Zhubin’s characters but ultimately had to replace Li Zhubin due to his stroke, with Liao Fan playing Brother Bin instead. Jia also edited together approximately an hour’s worth of outtakes featuring Qiao and Brother Bin from “Unknown Pleasures” and “Still Life,” but these scenes were not used in the final cut of “Ash Is Purest White.

The director asserts that it wasn’t until the lockdowns in 2020 that he truly delved into this material. He explains, “Everything came to a halt, leaving you with ample time to reflect and reminisce.” Prior to this, Jia viewed his work primarily through a character-centric lens, but now he began to perceive a broader, expansive view of life. The footage was no longer just serving as a means to develop a new narrative; it was telling its own tale. “In the midst of my personal struggles, I could step back and view things from a wider angle — contemplating the turn of the century until the present. It felt like the end of one era and the start of another.

the era of digital money, the demise of traditional stores, the rise of social media fame, and artificial intelligence. The close and lively atmosphere Jia had portrayed in those early digital explorations – the spontaneous camaraderie, liberation, and unpredictability that suited his affordable and adaptable cameras perfectly – is now absent, replaced by an unusual detachment between people. Masks are prevalent throughout the climax of “Caught by the Tides“, which mirrors pandemic safety measures but also underscores a widespread feeling of loneliness. Now employed in a supermarket, Qiao resides alone; the friendliest encounter she experiences in this part could be with one of the submissively polite robots that Jia mentions have become common in China.

He mentions that he began viewing her as someone without any online presence or data collectable digitally. Given her independent nature, it’s possible she forges friendships only with robots devoid of knowledge about her past. As his thoughts turned to artificial intelligence, Jia decided to revise some footage he had previously captured. In the Three Gorges segment of ‘Caught by the Tides’, set around 2006, Qiao enters a teahouse where a film is displayed on the wall. Originally, this was a Chinese action movie, but now, it’s a futuristic, artificial-looking sci-fi production. The action movie had no connection to robots initially, but Jia used AI and CGI to transform it into a science fiction film featuring robots instead. As a result, what once seemed like science fiction in the past is now a reality in the present.

In preparing for the final scenes of “Caught by the Tides,” I had previously edited a large portion of the first two archival sections. I shared this edited footage with Zhao, as he appreciates thorough preparation, but I decided not to reveal it to Li Zhubin. Over the years, his health challenges have taken a toll on him and aged him significantly. I chose to spare him the emotional burden, as he’s not a professional actor but a dear friend who occasionally helped me with these roles. I wanted him to simply be himself for this project, as the physical transformation was already evident. All he needed was to draw upon his current abilities to rebuild and redefine his character.

In the film “Caught by the Tides,” we witness not only characters aging and societal evolution, but also the transformation of an art form. The initial handheld digital images transition into more contemplative documentary scenes, which then shift to surveillance footage and brief, lively social media snippets. These transitions are not straightforward; instead, they create a rich, almost abstract cinematic experience. For instance, you might observe a 35mm shot of a character passing through a door in 2006, only to find yourself in a scene from 2001 captured on low-cost digital video. As Jia explains, he values the images he captures above the tools used to do so, stating, “I don’t really care about the type of cameras or devices I use; I just want to capture images that move me and store them in my archive.” This independent spirit remains consistent throughout, regardless of the production conditions or environment. At times, Jia even incorporates actual scenes from his previous works, giving them a new identity and treating them as mere fragments of the cultural memories he is collecting and reinterpreting.

For those acquainted with Jia’s cinematic universe, experiencing “Caught by the Tides” might evoke a hazy recollection. The settings, characters, and attire seem strangely familiar, and occasionally, the scenarios are reminiscent of past experiences. It’s this enigma that gives “Caught by the Tides” its unique strength and sets it apart from other films: this vague sense of recognition, as if we’re witnessing a continuous depiction of life, with characters arising naturally from the chaos and then fading back into it. Jia compares it to gazing at stars: “You look up at the night sky, searching for one specific star, believing it exists independently. But when you widen your gaze, you begin to see a whole cosmos. And in this film, I’m attempting to capture the human universe of the last two decades or so.

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2025-05-17 16:55