Mountains May Depart

Mountains May Depart opens with star Zhao Tao cheerfully dancing to Pet Shop Boys’ “Go West” in an exercise class. It’s a lively and entertaining start to the film, regardless of the delightfully infectious song underscoring the film’s central theme all too precisely. Writer-director Jia Zhangke’s 2015 feature contains his usual investigation of China’s rapid globalization in a pointed narrative, deploying a glossy melodrama to create a moving portrait of his country’s embrace of Western capitalism. The result is not unlike the song: it’s effective despite its obviousness. Jia’s narrative unfolds over a quarter-century, broken into three distinct parts, each reflected by distinct formal flourishes, framed by not one but two leitmotifs—Pet Shop Boys’ 1993 cover of the Village People’s hit and Sally Yeh’s Canto-pop ballad “Take Care.” These structural pretenses and a shifting aspect ratio to represent three distinct points in time suggest Jia’s considerable complexity as a filmmaker. They also contribute to the film’s shift away from Jia’s purely aesthetic and philosophical ambitions. Mountains May Depart tells a sweeping story of history and change, with pronounced feelings and big emotional scenes. And while its dramatics present an unexpected deviation in Jia’s filmography, it’s also part of a mounting evolution. 

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