By Kyle Flynn

When I was much younger and far more enthusiastic as a moviegoer, I watched Bi Gan’s 2018 film Long Day’s Journey Into Night. In my honest assessment, it remains one of the best films of the decade. What stayed with me most was the lingering feeling it left behind, something that settled deep in my core and refused to fade. With Bi Gan’s newest film, “Resurrection,” I was grateful to experience that same feeling all over again. Truly, no other filmmaker working today is doing anything quite like what Bi Gan does.

Resurrection is Bi Gan’s newest epic, an ode to cinema and to our dreams. It is set in a landscape where Deliriants are the only ones still capable of dreaming after humanity has seemingly given up on the act altogether. The simplest way to convey just how powerful this film is would be to say that, out of the six parts the film is divided into, the very first part had me on the edge of my seat in the theater. It felt like an unreal simulation inside the mind, a piece of cinema that quietly questions everything you think you know about film itself.

For me, it may be the best cinematic bookend of the entire year. The final of the six sections feels like a dream within its own dream; it is weightless, hypnotic, and completely transporting. It contains one of the greatest oners I have ever seen, a stretch of filmmaking so fluid and enveloping that it seems to remove any sense of time or space. It is the kind of sequence that lingers long after the screen finally goes dark.

The all-encompassing massive ensemble performs the material at a level many top actors would only dream of. Bi Gan finds a way to capture striking images of numerous actors, making this visually interesting spectacle hold equal weight in terms of the quality of the performances and writing. I am still baffled and surprised by what the entire cast and crew achieved. It is a never-ending testament to what an artist’s ambition can do. 

Director of Photography, Dong Jimsong, should be winning the Oscar for best cinematography this year if there was any justice in the world. A shoo-in for some of the most outstanding work this decade. Bi Gan, in addition to Xue Bai, manages to make the film just as sharp and well-cut as any of Bi Gan’s previous works. I haven’t even mentioned the stunning costume and production design, which were done by Huang Wen-Ying and Tu Nan, respectively. Each brings their own magic to “Resurrection,” the picture stands out visually on screen in a flushed and unique way. 

Leaving the theater, my mind replayed over and over what I had experienced and sat through. I’m afraid this review simply would not do it justice. Resurrection needs to be experienced on the big screen as soon as you can. The best thing any work can do is change your perception, and that was accomplished with “Resurrection.” 

4 1/2 stars