02-07-2020, 07:21 PM
I've been waiting to get a gawk at this one, and it's short, only 2 hours and 20 minutes. But a third of the way in I'm so lost that I pause the movie and go check IMDB, just for it's capsule description (and also to beat Halvah with a newspaper while she peekaboos out of the carpeted tunnels I built for her). As it turns out, I'm mostly aboard with understanding things.
So I resume, and I get to a point where the protagonist sits down in a dark trashy movie theater, and he notes someone else in the audience putting on 3D glasses, so he puts on a pair too, then props his head against the wall next to him. Then it's fade to black, after which we get the title card with music, and I'm thinking, Is this the end? So I pause the movie and see that I'm pretty much at the midpoint, so I keep watching, and the protagonist is now in a cave system of tunnels, and as it turns out, he fell asleep in the theater, woke with everything pitch-black, and he stumbled about and down this passage to find find himself in this cave system.
So, what the fuck? I watched the rest of the movie. I mean, I'm not going to piecemeal a movie with a mere 2 hours and 20 minutes running time. Enough of that shit. And afterwards I read up some more on what I've watched.
Long Day's Journey into Night was promoted as a love story and drew large crowds on opening night. It made for a big box office. The next night the attendance dropped by 97% due to word of mouth. Because what the studio and ads hadn't made clear was that this is an art-house film. And by art-house I mean largely impenetrable. Which is not to say it's bad. It's brilliant in its own way. Very dreamlike. And I liked it a lot. But it's a hard slog for a general audience. Still, it's now regarded as China's greatest art-house film -- with the emphasis on art-house.
Oh, and it has an hour-long shot, which I didn't notice. Am I really that dense? It's something Bi Gan is known for. Previously he'd done it in Kaili Blues. Of course, he wanted to outdo himself this time. As it turns out, after the protagonist falls asleep in the movie theater, all that follows is a single shot, which involves all kind of activities, from a ping pong match, game of billiards, riding down a zip line, eating a whole apple (twice!), and all sorts of events involving an assortment of people, and crowds. It's mesmerizing. Bi Gan did 7 takes before he got what he wanted.
Oh, one more thing. When the protagonist puts on the 3D glasses at the mid-point of the movie? That's when the audience is supposed to don theirs. Because that hour-long shot that makes up the last half of the movie is in 3D. Yes, he shot it all using bulky 3D camera equipment.
Recommended for people exactly like me -- though I suppose that leaves out a lot of people.
So I resume, and I get to a point where the protagonist sits down in a dark trashy movie theater, and he notes someone else in the audience putting on 3D glasses, so he puts on a pair too, then props his head against the wall next to him. Then it's fade to black, after which we get the title card with music, and I'm thinking, Is this the end? So I pause the movie and see that I'm pretty much at the midpoint, so I keep watching, and the protagonist is now in a cave system of tunnels, and as it turns out, he fell asleep in the theater, woke with everything pitch-black, and he stumbled about and down this passage to find find himself in this cave system.
So, what the fuck? I watched the rest of the movie. I mean, I'm not going to piecemeal a movie with a mere 2 hours and 20 minutes running time. Enough of that shit. And afterwards I read up some more on what I've watched.
Long Day's Journey into Night was promoted as a love story and drew large crowds on opening night. It made for a big box office. The next night the attendance dropped by 97% due to word of mouth. Because what the studio and ads hadn't made clear was that this is an art-house film. And by art-house I mean largely impenetrable. Which is not to say it's bad. It's brilliant in its own way. Very dreamlike. And I liked it a lot. But it's a hard slog for a general audience. Still, it's now regarded as China's greatest art-house film -- with the emphasis on art-house.
Oh, and it has an hour-long shot, which I didn't notice. Am I really that dense? It's something Bi Gan is known for. Previously he'd done it in Kaili Blues. Of course, he wanted to outdo himself this time. As it turns out, after the protagonist falls asleep in the movie theater, all that follows is a single shot, which involves all kind of activities, from a ping pong match, game of billiards, riding down a zip line, eating a whole apple (twice!), and all sorts of events involving an assortment of people, and crowds. It's mesmerizing. Bi Gan did 7 takes before he got what he wanted.
Oh, one more thing. When the protagonist puts on the 3D glasses at the mid-point of the movie? That's when the audience is supposed to don theirs. Because that hour-long shot that makes up the last half of the movie is in 3D. Yes, he shot it all using bulky 3D camera equipment.
Recommended for people exactly like me -- though I suppose that leaves out a lot of people.
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