CAUGHT BY THE TIDES
Director Jia Zhang-Ke delivers a masterful portrait of romantic destiny, over 20 years in the making. Caught by the Tides follows its perennial heroine, Qiaoqiao, over decades as she traverses the profound social transformation and turbulent changes of contemporary China.
SHOWTIMES
MAY 23 | FRI
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SYNOPSIS
The preeminent dramatist of China’s rapid 21st-century growth and social transformation, Jia Zhang-ke has taken his boldest approach to narrative yet with his marvelous Caught by the Tides. Assembled from footage shot over a span of 23 years—a beguiling mix of fiction and documentary, featuring a cascade of images taken from previous movies, unused scenes, and newly shot dramatic sequences—Caught by the Tides is a free-flowing work of unspoken longing, carried along more by music than dialogue as it looms around the edges of a poignant love story. The film mostly adheres to the perspective of Qiaoqiao (Jia’s immortal muse Zhao Tao) as she wanders an increasingly unrecognizable country in search of long-lost lover Bin (Li Zhubin), who left their home city of Datong seeking new financial prospects. The always captivating Zhao carries the film with her delicate expressiveness, while Jia constantly evokes cinema’s ability to capture the passage of time and the persistence of change: of people, landscapes, cities, politics, ideas. (Courtesy of NYFF)
Director
WITH
Run Time
1 hour, 53 minutes
Released
May 9, 2025
Distributed by
Sideshow / Janus Films
HEARING AND VISUAL ASSISTANCE
Assisted Listening
Subtitled / Open Captions
Country
China
SUBTITLES
NOT RATED
Many of the films shown at The Ross are not rated due to the prohibitive cost of acquiring a rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. Consequently, as many of these films contain graphic content, viewer discretion is advised.
REVIEWS
“The film is glued together by Zhao, one of cinema’s most enthralling actors, accomplishing the herculean task of creating a coherent character out of multiple disparate and decades-old performances.”
“This dreamy, arresting, dialogue-light latest from Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke is a poetic, musical and reflective portrait of one woman’s journey to find an old lover.”
“It’s an achievement by turns fleeting and monumental: a series of interlocking time capsules, a wrenching feat of self-reflection, and a stealth musical.”