China’s quintessential indie film director Jia Jianku says the lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic has given him an opportunity to reconsider and revisit the vast amount of footage he has shot over more than 20 years of filmmaking. The resulting film, Caught by the Tides, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and was screened at the Busan International Film Festival this week.
In “Tides,” Jia mixes old footage with specially created new material to have his wife and muse Qiao Tao wander through 20 years of Chinese history. They document China’s recent socio-economic development, from the time China was admitted to the World Trade Organization, to the time it won the right to host the (2008) Summer Olympics, to the near present. It’s becoming a drama.
Gia’s approach is like that of a pulp fiction writer. Qiao, who spoke at an event in Busan, explained that “Qiao” is Jia’s favorite name and that she has used it for a character she plays before. “But this is not the same character. It is a different Qiaoqiao,” she said. Similarly, recent music is prominently used in “Tides.” “But we didn’t feel the need to use it sequentially. Using it in a non-linear way gave us more freedom,” Jia said.
Gia has unreliable words. “We are forgetful animals. The recorded sounds took me back in time more than the images themselves. The first third of the film is full of unrelated bits and pieces that don’t really connect. But our memories are always fragmentary anyway,” he said.
A willingness to travel through fact and fiction into the past and future simultaneously means Jia’s future projects could include both a film about Chinese history and a film about artificial intelligence. “I’m very interested in modern China, so I’m sure I’ll make other films on this subject. But my next film might be historical. And… “I’m studying the technology to make a film about AI,” he said. “Tides” is already leveraging AI in a new section where Qiao Qiao interacts with a robot.
Jia’s gaze is both sympathetic and critical at the same time. “People talk less than they did in 2000. Back then, women could sing along too,” he says of the film’s opening scene, in which a small group of women sing a cappella to celebrate Women’s Day. He spoke while referring to a fun scene. He said he voluntarily shot the video using live recording. “Now they can’t do that. Back then they were more passionate and enthusiastic. Now they only communicate through the Internet.”
When I asked her if her gaze had softened, Ji-ah almost admitted that she might have become calmer. “When I look back at my footage and other people’s footage, I see that my perspective has changed. In China today, there are more and more rules.”
Whether he has changed or not, Zhao describes Jia’s perspective as kind and influential. “When I started acting, I didn’t really care about people outside of my immediate family. But Gia is interested in other people. And through him, I started to understand their backgrounds. No matter what, they learned that we are lovable people,” she said. “This movie is [“Tides”] It’s a precious gift. I was able to depict the lives of Chinese women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. ”