Resurrection
In a world where most can no longer dream, Miss Shu (Shu Qi) finds one who can, a Deliriant in the form of a monster (Jackson Yee) she brings to life by threading film through a projector to restart his heart, then experiencing his dreams throughout the twentieth century as he goes through a cycle of "Resurrection."
Laura's Review: A
The third film from writer/director Bi Gan ("Long Day's Journey Into Night") is a visually dazzling journey through cinematic genres following one protagonist who takes on five different identities. The film, therefore, has something of the feel of an omnibus, although each chapter here has the same author. That said, this Cannes Special Prize winner is so dreamlike, its logic can be elusive, something which occurred for this viewer in the middle segment. Still, the work of cinematographer Dong Jingsong ("Long Day's Journey Into Night") is so endlessly inventive and enchanting, you'll be carried along nonetheless.
The film opens in an old Academy style ratio, Miss Shu setting up her camera to look directly at us, silent movie style title cards explaining the existence of Deliriants. She begins a search which leads her through an M.C. Escher-like opium den, a stunning combination of matte work and live action, before crawling through a series of square holes in a series of walls, shadows of eerie hands creeping up them in German Expressionistic style. A round hatch in the floor bursts into a kaleidoscopic effect, then leads to another chamber where she'll find that Deliriant bent in half beneath a sheet, a white-faced creature with dark circles around its eyes like a cross between Nosferatu and Frankenstein. It tries to give her flowers, then expires.
The aspect ratio widens to reveal a film noir, the Deliriant awakening on a bench in a train station (shades of Lars von Triers' Europa trilogy). He is now Qiu (Yee), and will be tortured by The Commander (Mark Chao) in a circular space reminiscent of Gilliam's "Brazil" to reveal the whereabouts of a suitcase, glowing like the one in "Kiss Me Deadly" but revealed to contain a theremin. Their battle over it will result in a shootout right out of "The Lady from Shanghai."
Thirty years later in the ruins of a temple cloaked in silently falling snow, Mongrel (Yee) touches a statue of the Buddha and it crumbles. Picking up a piece of it, he dashes it against a rotten tooth, which apparently causes him to be joined by an old man (Chen Yongzhong) who looks like his father. Mongrel will use wood to make Chinese characters in the snow, first a Hanzi for 'sweet,' then one for 'bitter,' the sound of exaggerated snoring on the soundtrack referring to his father's, a sound he regrets he will never hear again. This sequence is the most difficult to grasp, perhaps for a Westerner, but its beauty still engages and continues Gan's use of doorways, arches, reflections, cigarettes and smoke.
Another twenty years pass and the Deliriant, now used to his changing identities, is con artist Jia (Yee), hoping to make good on a newspaper ad offering a reward to anyone with supernatural powers. After a stunning low angle shot of the man from within the perspective of a puddle(!), he connects with a little girl (Guo Mucheng) who wants to learn his magic tricks, while amusing him with riddles. Teaching her signals and giving her a story as 'The Nose,' the two manage to fool the mob boss (Zhijian Zhang) offering the reward, the girl sitting across from him poolside, but the mob boss will give her a seemingly impossible puzzle as Jia finds a bank note with the (amusing) answer to one of her riddles. This sequence feels like an homage to "Paper Moon."
Then we are catapulted into 1991, where a young tough, Apollo (Yee, now a bleached blond), connects with a singer, Tai Zhaomei (Li Gengxi) from Mr. Luo's (Huang Jue) karaoke bar in a two-part extended oner, the first section tinted red, the second blue. We meet Apollo standing beneath an arch, the silhouette of a woman eating an apple in shadow on a wall in the foreground. She enters the frame, playfully 'finger' shooting him, then warning him that the Rainbow gang is after him. Jingsong follows them up and down ladders, down alleyways and around corners. It is New Years Eve and Apollo asks Tai what she regrets. 'I've never bitten anyone,' she replies. 'I've never kissed anyone,' he counters. Jingson changes the point of view to Mr. Lou stalking Tai, all within the same shot, then heads into the karaoke bar where Apollo enters by kicking in a window. As the camera closes in on the window, revelers outside are sped into fast motion before streetlights go out, they disappear, and the camera floats through into a blue-hued dawn where the lovers, Tai revealing herself a vampire, escape on a boat piloted by Apollo.
Composer M83's ("Oblivion") score keeps changing its identity along with the Deliriant's current genre, from an early silent movie style piano score, to something more playful for Jia's sequence to the karaoke bar's dance music. Bi Gan has created a film to get lost in, one whose 160 minute running time seems to fly by, a magic trick of his own. He will wrap his film with a coda featuring Miss Shu using 'the language of cinematography' to speak to her Deliriant in his final moments, a beautiful and poignant ending.
Robin's Review: A-
Janus Films releases "Resurrection" in theaters on 12/12/25. It will have a special screening at Brookline, MA's Coolidge Corner Theater on 12/8 with the director present.
