Caught By the Tides (China, 2024)
Original title: 风流一代
Director: Jia Zhang-ke
Writer/Screenplay: Wan Jiahuan e Jia Zhang-ke
Main cast: Tao Zhao, You Zhou, Zhubin Li, Zhoy Lan, Changchu Xu, Maotao Hu and Jianlin Pan
Runtime: 111 minutes (1°50’)
In addition to the already well-known found footage genre, which emulates a recording found recounting completely fictional events, Jia Zhang-ke seems to be inaugurating a version in which a film is found within its own cinematography. Jokes aside, the director stated in the commented session that during the Covid-19 pandemic, unable to film, he decided to access some of the materials present in his productions from recent years. And, considering China’s radical change in the context of international politics over the last 20 years, it would be inevitable to realize that time alone would tell a story.
But there is still a main narrative, of the character Qiao Qiao (Tao Zhao) and the relationship with her agent Bin (Zhubin Li). At first they separate due to Bin’s decision to leave for another province in search of more money, and then Qiao Qiao starts looking for him in a region that is being cleared to become a gigantic hydroelectric plant. However, the narrative is one of the least important elements of this plot, which is actually addressing the change of the country itself over time and of this character created almost generically by images of the past and who becomes a new person in the most current moments.
The director manages to show that, even when filming at different times and with different objectives, there are elements that have never been overcome by the country, such as artificial nationalism and female resilience. Of course, it’s difficult to watch the older scenes and Bin’s treatment of Qiao, but this also ends up being a report of a reality that is no longer portrayed in cinema in the same way, even though we know that it continues to happen. The director’s own way of filming the actress, who is also his wife, is a report of how times have changed, as have the tides, over time.
Little by little, the movie becomes a very successful language challenge. We enter a trance with what is being shown on screen and we also ignore the barriers of different filming techniques or small changes in continuity due to the impossibility of filming in a past time. Experimentation is used precisely to provoke reflection on the costs of the process of modernization and accumulation of Chinese capital, with desperate scenes of seeing cities being swallowed by water. Furthermore, this thought is supported by the unfolding of the plot itself, with Bin occasionally becoming a criminal and Qiao gradually losing her dreams and becoming a hardened woman, barely able to dream and convey her emotions due to decades of omissions.
Even though some of the sensitivity cannot be felt by a Brazilian viewer who, from the first scene, wonders what Women’s Day is in China or what is the extent of the damage caused by patriarchy to these women, the film resonates as a unique event, possible only due to very rare conditions. And it’s fortunate that this encounter takes place, making us reflect on an art that is built over time.
Translation by: Renata Torres
