UK, London: Monday 13th November 2017 – Arrow Films have announced the release of the critically acclaimed Mountains May Depart [Shan he gu ren] in UK cinemas from 15th December 2017.

From the multi-awarding winning director Jia Zhangke (A Touch of Sin, Still Life, The World), Mountains May Depart follows the life of Shen Tao (Tao Zhao), and those close to her, across three different time periods: 1999, 2014, and 2025. Fenyang, 1999, childhood friends Liangzi, a coal miner, and Zhang, the owner of a gas station, are both in love with Tao, the town beauty. Tao eventually marries the wealthier Zhang and they have a son he names Dollar. 2014. Tao is divorced and her son emigrates to Australia with his business magnate father. Australia, 2025. 19-year-old Dollar no longer speaks Chinese and can barely communicate with his now bankrupt father. All that he remembers of his mother is her name…

Starring Tao Zhao (A Touch of Sin, Still Life), Yi Zhang (I Am Not Madame Bovary, Dearest) and with a special appearance from Sylvia Chang (20:30:40, Eat Drink Man Woman) the film boasts incredible performances with Robbie Collin from The Telegraph describing Zhao’s performance as “the film’s racing heart” and that she “gives a performance of extraordinary detail and depth of feeling”. Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian also described the film as “…a mysterious and in its way staggeringly ambitious piece of work from a film-maker whose creativity is evolving before our eyes.”

Director Jia Zhangke said:

“It’s because I’ve experienced my share of ups and downs in life that I wanted to make Mountains May Depart. This film spans the past, the present and the future, going from 1999 to 2014 and then to 2025. China’s economic development began to skyrocket in the 1990s. Living in this surreal economic environment has inevitably changed the ways that people deal with their emotions. The impulse behind this film is to examine the effect of putting financial considerations ahead of emotional relationships. If we imagine a point ten years into our future, how will we look back on what’s happening today? And how will we understand “freedom”? Buddhist thought sees four stages in the flow of life: birth, old age, sickness and death. I think the ultimate point of this film is to say: Whatever times we live through, none of us can avoid experiencing those stages, those difficult moments. Mountains may depart, relationships may endure.”