There is no film you’ll see this year, or even decade, quite like Bi Gan’s Resurrection, which finds the director following Kaili Blues and Long Day’s Journey Into Night with a dizzyingly ambitious anthology starring Jackson Yee and Shu Qi. Ahead of a December 12 release from Janus Films, the new full trailer has now arrived.
As Zhuo-Ning Su said in our Cannes review, “With this collage-like format, Bi Gan is obviously breaking from the narrative structure of both Kaili Blues and Long Day’s Journey Into Night. One could argue the impact of a continuous story is diffused by this change, but what he attempts to do here goes beyond building a single dreamscape; he’s also touching on the philosophical, existential subtext of dreams and treating the last 100 years of cinema as their chronicle. Through the film’s five parts (including prologue and epilogue), Bi showcases five distinct cinematic styles that confirm the silver screen has always been a portal for us to escape reality; and that, as creators and consumers of cinema, we are helping to keep the act of dreaming alive for our increasingly unimaginative species.”
Here’s the official synopsis: “In a world where humanity has lost the ability to dream, one creature remains entranced by the fading illusions of the dreamworld. This monster, adrift in reverie, clings to visions no one else can see—until a woman appears. Gifted with the rare power to perceive these illusions for what they truly are, she chooses to enter the monster’s dreams, determined to uncover the truth that lies hidden within.”
“Cinema will not come to an end,” Bi Gan told us at Busan International Film Festival. “This film isn’t about an ‘era of cinema’ as much as it’s about how audiences reminisce about their memories of film. After all, painting didn’t come to an end. Art does not end. There is still a reason for it.”
Watch the new trailer below:
