Long Day's Journey into Night

2018 / 138min / DCP

Bi Gan, the Chinese poet and filmmaker whose commanding debut Kaili Blues opened at Metrograph in 2016, returned with a second feature that is every bit as original as his first, while far more expansive in scope. Beginning as a kind of atmospheric, neon-drenched film noir fever dream, Long Day’s Journey into Night follows Huang Jue as he returns to his hometown of Kaili for his father’s funeral, then sets off on the trail of an old flame (Tang Wei). After traveling down a winding road into the past alongside our protagonist, the viewe enters the movie’s startling hour-long centerpiece shot, a technically astounding feat that redefines the bounds of narrative cinema. With Sylvia Chang, subject of a 2018 Metrograph retrospective, in a delicious cameo.