China, 1999. As the new millennium approaches, Tao is courted by two childhood friends: Zang, the owner of a service station who is determined to get rich, and Liang, a humble man who works in a coal mine. Tao’s choice will affect the rest of her life and that of her future son. Over a time spread over a quarter century, her life takes an unexpected direction in a changing China ...

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Mountains May Depart is a strange film. Beautiful but flawed, grand (it spans three periods from 1999 to 2025) but simplistic, it interweaves the fates of its characters. Within the China of yesterday, today and tomorrow, it draws a romantic family portrait of absence and forgetting – but something is lacking: the movie’s emotion remains fragile, characters are opaque and the story advances without subtlety, with a discussion that is not very deep or new (it is even embarrassing at times) about capitalism and modernity, as well as some odd style choices (different formats for each character, the titles). Despite its ambitions, its perpetual motion, the wide-open spaces of the setting, Mountains May Depart seems frozen, as evidenced by the actors and dialogues, which are recorded in the same tone. Although he gained praise for Still Life, 24 City and A Touch of Sin, this may be Jia Zhang-ke’s most accessible film, but also the least striking.