Long Day's Journey Into Night (2018): Bi Gan's New Film Is Visually Dazzling, Technically Accomplished and Emotionally A Transportive Cinematic Experience

Bi Gan's new film Long Day's Journey Into Night is wonderful follow-up to his knockout debut 'Kaili Blues'. The film is grandeur of achievement in technical aspects but technique never overwhelms the feeling. This is most immersive cinematic experience at the movies for me. I've never experienced anything like this before.

Long Day's Journey Into Night tells the solitary life of Lu Hongwu (Huang Jue), who is haunted by lost-love and regret. He embarks on a journey of finding his lost love where his past and present merged in a dream.

In the first hour of the film, we explores the journey of the protagonist in a neon-soaked world, in two timelines switching between present and past. The atmosphere in Kaili is dense with neon lights, raindrops and smoke. Throughout the film, the aesthetics - the location, colours, lights plays the important role in mood of the film.

Seventy minutes in, we get a cue from protagonist saying put 3D glasses on and we see the title card appears in green font and it's floating (one of my favourite part in the movie). Now the extended single take begins. The new world that we see here, we don't know whether this is a dream? Or story of Luo's quest of his long-lost lover. I find this more interesting as we don't know what we are exploring here. But on rewatch, I'm able to see little details that I've missed in first watch and I felt that second half is slightly connected to the whole plot.

When end credits starts rolling, I felt like I went on journey in neon-soaked world and then woke up from a dream in an alternative world. It's a transportive experience as I entered to one world where I met Luo and Wan Qiwen and then explored completely alternate world where we go on rollercoaster ride during the night with protagonist through dark funnels, then crosses valley by cable car and ends at outdoor singing festival. The whole journey takes us through time, memory, melancholy in a dreamy way. This whole experience is Bi Gan's spell on me and don't want to come out of it.

LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT is masterful, unique and memorable cinematic work by Bi Gan. It's pure cinema.