"I made this movie with the mindset of 'quantum mechanics'."

JIA Zhangke, director of Caught by the Tides, visited Hong Kong for the HKAFF screening and was warmly welcomed by the audience. Filmed over a period of 20 years, JIA said the title of the movie comes from a Chinese poem, which refers to the young people in the late 70's. They belong to the generation that yearns for personal freedom, and with the aspirations of changes and restlessness. They have experienced the past and the present era of artificial intelligence. Although the movie captures the past, JIA is not nostalgic, instead he looks at the past with contemporary eyes.

Zhao Tao plays a quite protagonist. JIA revealed that he has filmed Zhao Tao speaking, but in the editing stage, he found it superfluous and deleted it because the character already had a thousand words in her mind.

He laughed and said that he has adopted a “quantum mechanics” mindset in making this movie, trying to discover the hidden connections between different things and people. Asked by an audience about the long history of filming, what ideas have changed and what remained the same, JIA frankly answered, “My concern and love for the unidentified remains unchanged." He also said, “Some people say that the protagonists of JIA Zhangke's movies are the times, but that's partly true, the protagonists of my movies are the people of the times." Citing his favorite author Kenzaburo Oe, he said that he hopes to become a “messenger” and will stay at the place he cares most about, not leaving it, observing it and presenting his observations to the audience. Upon hearing this, audiecne gave a round of ethusaistic applause.