LONG DAYS JOURNEY INTO NIGHT

“Long Day’s Journey Into Night” (China, 2018) by Bi Gan brings Luo Hongwu back to his hometown of Kaili in Guizhou province after his father’s death. There the memories catch up with him: of his friend Wildcat, who was murdered, and of Wan Qiwen, a woman in a green dress with whom he had an affair years earlier and who disappeared. Luo sets out to find her, through decaying houses, flooded rooms and fragments of memory. In the second half he puts on 3D glasses in a cinema – and the film glides into a single, almost hour-long shot that carries him through a nocturnal village, a cable car and a billiard hall.

Bi Gan’s second feature has nothing to do with the play of the same name by Eugene O’Neill; it is a film about memory, in which film noir and dream merge into one another. It became famous for its 3D long take. It premiered in the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes in 2018. It was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2018.

Shown at the 2018 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2018 · Film Archive