A noir Chinese dream world
Think of this review of the new Chinese art-house film “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” as my Mueller report.
An excerpt: “After investigating, probing and questioning this frustrating but undeniably fascinating work, we cannot say we didn’t see a good movie. If we had confidence after a thorough viewing of the film that ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’ is clearly a bad film, we would so state. However, we are unable to reach that judgment. A good film may have occurred.”
At issue is China’s rising 29-year-old art-house auteur, Bi Gan, a man who regularly commits narrative obstruction but has clear talent. “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” is a gorgeous-looking, noir-tinged dream world that floats, sometimes soars and sometimes crashes. It is more long-form poem than novel, like the films of Thai master Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
And it is capped by a bravura, 50-minute-long take that is in 3-D in participating theaters. The sequence is said to look stunning in 3-D; however, a 3-D version was not made available to San Francisco critics. The film plays at Landmark’s Embarcadero Center Cinemas in San Francisco only in 2-D, but there is a 3-D option at Landmark’s California Theatre in Berkeley. It might be worth wandering in for a look-see. The long take is not flashy in the sense of classic long takes by Brian De Palma or Orson Welles, but it does force the actors into real-time performances, and events include a trick pool shot and a slow, scenic ride down a zip line.
By the way, the film has nothing to do with Eugene O’Neill’s play. The original Chinese title, “Di qiu zui hou de ye wan,” translates roughly as “Last Evenings on Earth,” which sounds like a gangbusters title to me.
The story, as much as there is one, is about a former gangster — he says he’s now a casino manager — who returns to his small province after his father’s death. Luo Hongwa (Huang Jue) drops in on his father’s widow (Sylvia Chang) — his stepmother — and finds a hidden photo of Wan Qiwen (Tang Wei, best known for Ang Lee’s “Lust, Caution”). He sets off looking for her, remembering their love affair of two decades ago through flashbacks.
But a thriller this is not. There are digressions, pauses, ruminations. Occasionally, a narrator reads a poem. Soon, you wonder if any of it is real. Is this movie all Luo’s dream?
One thing is for sure, and that is “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” is Bi’s dream. Or, at least, straight out of his id. As years go by, I more and more appreciate films that come from the id — our base desires, fantasies, dreams and fears. They can be messy, but they have a truth to them.
Visually, Bi is already a master. There are amazing shots that recall Tarkovsky (especially “Stalker,” an acknowledged influence), or early Wong KarWai.
It’s almost pointless assigning a rating to this film, but unfortunately, a critic must. If seeing something out of the Marvel Universe is your idea of the peak of cinema, you are probably not reading this right now. But if you’re the adventurous type and like boundaries to be pushed, “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” might be worth a shot.
Results are not guaranteed.