An ambitious contemporary Chinese tale of intertwined lives spread over three decades as romantic melodrama gives way to geopolitical melodrama.
With the acclaimed director Zhangke Jia chosing to unfold his narrative over three separate time periods (1999, 2014, 2025), we are witness to the spanning of emotions by its main characters over time. In 1999 and the city of Fenyang, Tao (Tao Zhao) choses to marry aspiring entrepreneur Zhang (Yi Zhang) rather than the gentle and sensitive coalminer, Liangzi (Jing Dong Jiang). Fifteen years later, the two are separated with their seven year-old son Daole chosing to live in Shanghai with his father. The boy travels to Fenyang to attend the funeral of his grandfather.
Intimate and melancholic, the first two chapters of Mountains May Depart are nuanced and understated as change within the everyday of Chinese social mores are touched upon. Sadly, as Zhangke Jia looks to emphasise the enormous social and technological advances made in recent years, the odd, unsubtle tale of an 18 year-old Daole living in Australia and involved with the much older Mia (Sylvia Chang), his Chinese language teacher, undermines much of what comes before it. Intimacy is replaced by remoteness, empathy by distance.
Rating: 50%
Director: Zhangke Jia (Ash is the Purest White, A Touch of Sin)
Writer: Zhangke Jia (Ash is the Purest White, A Touch of Sin)
Main cast: Tao Zhao (Ash is the Purest White, Shun Li and the Poet), Yi Zhang (Cliff Walkers, Cock and Bull), Sylvia Chang (A Light Never Goes Out, Love Education)
An Opinion or Two 