Chinese ‘Caught by the Tides’ Flows to Digital, VOD on August 5
Years after her boyfriend left her for the big city and promised to bring her there after he’s settled down, a Chinese woman sets out on a journey to be reunited with him. Premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
Directed by: Jia Zhangke
Starring: Zhao Tao, Li Zhubin, Pan Jianlin
Written by: Jiahuan Wan, Jia Zhangke
Rating: NR
Running time: 111 minutes
Genre: Drama
Streaming: August 5, 2025
Theatrical Release: May 9, 2025
US & Canada Boxoffice: $277,594
Worldwide: $309,137
Country: China
Studio: Janus Films/Sideshow
Website: https://caughtbythetides.com/
The preeminent dramatist of China’s rapid 21st-century growth and social transformation, Jia Zhangke 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 (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. Premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
