Mountains May Depart

Name: Mountains May Depart
Genre: Drama, Romance
Released: February 12, 2016
Duration: 131 min
Rating: 79

2016

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Generally favorable reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Ratings

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7.6

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7.6	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Ratings

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Mountains May Depart

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Movie Details & Credits

Kino Lorber | Release Date: February 12, 2016 | Not Rated

Summary: At once an intimate drama and a decades-spanning epic that leaps from the recent past to the present to the speculative near-future, Jia Zhangke's new film is an intensely moving study of how China's economic boom and the culture of materialism it has spawned has affected the bonds of family, tradition, and love. [Kino Lorber]

Director: Zhang Ke Jia

Genre(s): Drama, Romance

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 131 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Matt Hoffman

Sep 19, 2016

Zhao Tao’s awe-inspiring performance and the pure audacity of director Jia Zhangke make Mountains May Depart the auteur’s best effort to date. Read full review

The Film Stage Giovanni Marchini Camia

Feb 9, 2016

If A Touch of Sin expressed Jia’s rage at the contemporary impact of capitalist progress on Chinese society, Mountains May Depart is his lament over the direction in which it is headed. Read full review

Manohla Dargis

Feb 11, 2016

Mr. Jia’s approach means that you have to do a certain amount of interpretive work, though mostly you just have to pay attention and be a little patient. If you do, you will notice that Mountains May Depart is a movie of threes: its main characters, moments in time, narrative sections, historical symbols and even aspect ratio come in triplicate. Read full review

Gregory Ellwood

May 22, 2015

Jia probably made a mistake directing the 1999 sequence in such an over-the-top and stilted tone (it also feels more like 1989 than the turn of the century), but the rest of the film is incredibly well done. Read full review

The Telegraph Robbie Collin

May 24, 2015

Its generation-spanning story has serious power, and, in its masterful opening chapter and final sequence, brushes against greatness. Read full review

The Guardian Peter Bradshaw

May 24, 2015

The pure work-in-progress energy of all this is exhilarating, and if the resulting movie is flawed in its final act, then this is a flaw born of Jia’s heroic refusal to be content making the same sort of movie, and his insistence on trying to do something new with cinema and with storytelling. Read full review

The Playlist Oliver Lyttelton

May 24, 2015

Zhangke's always had a throughline regarding economic inequality and the 21st century-style Chinese capitalism in his work, but Mountains May Depart might be the director's defining statement on the way that his nation has changed over the past few decades. If only he were a touch subtler about it. Read full review

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User Reviews

EpicLadySponge

Jul 14, 2016

Mountains May Depart is not the best in romance, but it still works as a movie itself. I'd never thought I was watching a film worth a chance to see on DVD/Blu-ray and whatever it is, still better than any movie being released tomorrow.

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LeZee

Nov 23, 2016

Like a changing urban landscape, the humans as well!

When everybody around me liked the director's previous film 'A Touch of Sin', I didn't. As a film fanatic, reject such kind of film is not an easy job without giving a proper reason. I thought that was a missed opportunity. I surely likeLike a changing urban landscape, the humans as well!

When everybody around me liked the director's previous film 'A Touch of Sin', I didn't. As a film fanatic, reject such kind of film is not an easy job without giving a proper reason. I thought that was a missed opportunity. I surely like art films, not the boring one like those aimlessly narrated. I really loved some of the scenes there, but here it was completely different. Most importantly, anybody would understand what the film is trying to say without trying too hard.

This is a theme where the China's rise was revealed from the three people's personal life perspective that was categorised to the three generations or the timelines. That's not it, the communism was also highlighted, how it held back the people's freedom. The writer was really smart to smoothly disclosing that to the world. I mean the film never dragged the China's ruling party or its system, but all were told from its character who struggled and if you use your brain, you will get it why.

The narration was divided into three episodes. The first one takes place in the year 1999, in a small town somewhere in the China which is economically backward. The story follows a young woman named Tao, who is caught in a love triangle. But for the practical reason, she has to choose one of them and when she does, the other guy leaves the town with the heartbroken. This is the foundation, that dragged for nearly 40 minutes. Obviously slow, but very realistic approach.

I grew up in the 90s, my country was not much different than what's in this film was shown. So I liked the atmosphere, all those the 90s set, the automobiles, lifestyle, the landscapes of the small towns et cetera taken me back to that time. But the thing is, it was China, society and culturally different. Anyway, it was past and what follows are totally flips the narration, including the perspective.

"You know the hardest thing, about love is caring."

The second episode takes place in the year 2014, which is something like the present. It reveals what's the status of all the main three characters, like where they're economically standing and the personal life struggles. Tao's married life did not go well and her son is around ten years old who visits her from Shanghai. The one who left the town is now returned and battling for his life for some reason.

In the last 15 years, the China significantly changed and still, this entire part is set in the same town which is now economically moved forward. Like the changing urban landscape, how these characters too changed were what focused on this section.

Then comes the final episode where it is now in the year 2025, that takes place somewhere in the Australia. The perspective was changed, the little boy is now in his 20s, seems lost is root. With his behaviour, you would notice that his lack of knowledge about his ancestors. He who has the differences with his father, decides to make his life as he wanted. That is why the parents should take responsibility to teach their children all the good things about their culture and traditions, and to carry on, it's up to them. Because losing one's identity could lead to the failures in the life.

This is the part I liked better. Because it was something like what I encountered in my life. Most of the childhood memories that returns after we're grown-up as the deja vu, like the history repeating itself. Here for pointing out the freedom one to buy a gun was indirectly hit the communism. I mean gun was not a threat, it was just an expressed how it affects people in all the similar circumstances. I meant, what something was hidden brings more eagerness for us to know about it than those are in the out. So forcing something on people is sometime is a bad idea.

All the actors were good, but apart from the slow screenplay, I liked the idea of this film. There are some other similar films, like how different generations behave and now this is among them, yet not the best out of all of them. Very much watchable, only if you are capable of handling slow drag. If you know this director very well or the fan of his works, you will find it a pretty interesting film. I won't recommend it, but I also won't either suggest you to skip it.

7.5/10… Expand

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