Criterion Premieres: Caught by the Tides

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Ribs · #1 Post by **Ribs** » Tue Jun 25, 2024 1:45 pm

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired Jia Zhangke’s Caught By The Tides

Walter Kurtz · #2 Post by **Walter Kurtz** » Tue Jun 25, 2024 2:49 pm

I probably have the smallest physical media collection of anyone who has ever posted here. But Jia's film will make my 2024 score---- Janus: 3 Criterion: 0 Everyone else: 0. So props to Janus/(Criterion)/whomever.

ryannichols7 · #3 Post by **ryannichols7** » Tue Jun 25, 2024 8:07 pm

Ribs wrote: Tue Jun 25, 2024 1:45 pm Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired Jia Zhangke’s Caught By The Tides

this is awesome news, hopefully showing they're maintaining a good relationship with Jia and will get around to releasing the four other movies of his they own the rights to. also means I'm more likely to see it in a theatre

brundlefly · #4 Post by **brundlefly** » Fri Apr 18, 2025 3:44 pm

Hogfather wrote: Sat Apr 05, 2025 11:21 am Caught by the Tides

Trailer.

The Fanciful Norwegian · Fri Apr 18, 2025 4:01 pm

Disappointing that the listed runtime for Platform (154 minutes) is exactly the same as the standard version that's been around for 25 years, and not the 193 minutes of the Venice cut or something in between (which is what I had expected when Tony Rayns wrote ages ago that Jia was working on a "definitive cut"). I'm also curious if Unknown Pleasures has been Inland Empire-fied—the footage used in Caught by the Tides is upscaled to fit better with the later, higher-def material (you can see examples of this in the trailer, e.g. at the 25-second mark) but I'm a little concerned that Jia might've decided to do the entire restoration that way. The stills on the Janus site look like the original DV-to-35mm, so that's a good sign. My guess is that one or both will be in the Cannes Classics lineup.

(Another good sign for a completely unrelated reason: the Caught by the Tides trailer includes a shot 19 seconds in that was censored for the Chinese release—that version crops out the slogans on the left and right sides of the frame referring to Marxism-Leninism and the Communist Party, since someone didn't appreciate the juxtaposition of those concepts with a liquor ad. The domestic release made a lot of other changes from the festival cut but I'm assuming the latter is what Janus is distributing.)

#6 Post by **swo17** » Wed Oct 15, 2025 4:09 pm

Jan 20

Red Screamer · #7 Post by **Red Screamer** » Wed Oct 15, 2025 5:07 pm

This is a (very good) meta-textual and historical film that really calls out for a critical perspective, but I’ll probably get it anyway. Jia is a good interview subject.

Zot! · #8 Post by **Zot!** » Wed Oct 15, 2025 6:08 pm

Wasn't the hope that this was going to be packaged with some of the Jia back catalogue? Is there still a chance we see those again in this lifetime?

The Fanciful Norwegian · Wed Oct 15, 2025 7:11 pm

Janus has his first four films, but the problem seems to be that Jia wants to restore the Venice cut of Platform and they haven't found suitable elements yet. I hope they can do a full restoration the Venice cut, but at some point they either need to go with the elements they have or release these films separately instead of letting Platform hold them all back. They had a good opportunity to release two of them in January (Xiao Wu could've been in the WCP set and Unknown Pleasures would've been a no-brainer alongside Caught by the Tides), so I suspect either Criterion or Jia is still intent on keeping them together.

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