Long Day's Journey Into Night

After being away for many years, a young man returns to his hometown in search of his long-lost love. This theme is at the center of 29-year-old Chinese director Bi Gan’s second feature film. Inspired by Billy Wilder’s classic Double Indemnity, this is film noir in which the cinematic gaze, exemplary cinematography, and audio-visual devices draw us into a dark and hypnotic world. The film reaches its climax when, in its second half, the viewers are asked to put on 3-D glasses for which they are rewarded with a virtuoso, mesmerizing 1-hour-long shot. One of the most revered films of the past year, it was rated 5-stars in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and IndieWire, which aptly referred to Gan as the unforeseen descendent of Wong Kar-Wai and Andrei Tarkovsky.