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- 2019
- Kino Lorber
- 2 h 18 m
- 2019
- Kino Lorber
- 2 h 18 m
Summary Bi Gan follows up his knockout debut, Kaili Blues, with this noir-tinged stunner about a lost soul (Jue Huang) on a quest to find a missing woman from his past (Wei Tang). Following leads across Guizhou province, he crosses paths with a series of colorful characters, among them a prickly hairdresser played by Taiwanese superstar Sylvia C...
- 2019
- Kino Lorber
- 2 h 18 m
- 2019
- Kino Lorber
- 2 h 18 m
Long Day's Journey Into Night
7.3
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Summary Bi Gan follows up his knockout debut, Kaili Blues, with this noir-tinged stunner about a lost soul (Jue Huang) on a quest to find a missing woman from his past (Wei Tang). Following leads across Guizhou province, he crosses paths with a series of colorful characters, among them a prickly hairdresser played by Taiwanese superstar Sylvia C...
Where to Watch
Coming Soon
Not available in your country?
ExpressVPN
Get 3 Extra months free
$6.67/mth
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim Based on 23 Critic Reviews
88
96% Positive
22 Reviews
22 Reviews
4% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim Based on 23 Critic Reviews
88
96% Positive
22 Reviews
22 Reviews
4% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Dec 23, 2019
There is such artistry and audacity in this new film by the 30-year-old Chinese director Bi Gan. Long Day’s Journey Into Night, a hallucinatory experience whose sinuous camera movements take you on a long journey into memory and fear and a night full of dreams.
May 18, 2018
A sense of disorientation is a wholly appropriate response to a movie in which the past is both irretrievable and unshakable. But even at its most openly baffling, “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” never loses its seductive pull.
User Score
Generally Favorable Based on 43 User Ratings
7.3
77% Positive
33 Ratings
33 Ratings
14% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
9% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable Based on 43 User Ratings
7.3
77% Positive
33 Ratings
33 Ratings
14% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
9% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
Apr 13, 2019
This thin, invisible thread draws you along, luring you into a dream you weren't expecting to have. While it's easy to focus on the stellar cinematography, it is the narrative, the lull of the sad feeling of longing that remains. The longing for that which has been lost, that which cannot be, that mystical connection we seek when it becomes difficult to hold back those tears another day. That is what the Long Day's Journey Into Night is. Let yourself be absorbed and take in every beautiful bite.
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May 18, 2018
Those who have the patience to go with its ravishing flow will find ample rewards, as Long Day’s Journey is a beautiful, smoulderingly romantic film.
Apr 18, 2019
Puzzling out the reality and meaning of Long Day’s Journey into Night’s second half is as involving and absorbing an experience as watching the thing itself. And by the time Luo makes his way to what seems like the end of his journey, it is hard to not similarly feel transformed, or at the very least shaken.
Dec 29, 2019
Throughout Long Day’s Journey into Night, there is reference to a spell which makes a house spin, and in many ways, the technical accomplishment (cinematographer David Chizallet) of the second half puts the viewer under a spell of joy: this smooth-flowing dreaminess combined with the mystery of the first half makes for a sensuous, visually stunning, eerie tale, and it is compelling viewing.
Jan 15, 2020
In the end, while I did struggle to follow its central narrative, Bi Gan has my admiration as a filmmaker, though I was hoping it would be a little more profound as it was artful in the end. He connects with you from an emotional standpoint
May 19, 2018
Plunging viewers into an extended dream sequence in the name of abstract motifs such as memory, time, and space, the film is a lush plotless mood-piece swimming in artsy references and ostentatious technical exercises, with a star (Tang Wei, “Lust, Caution”) as decoration.
Jul 7, 2019
What a film! The style over substance case is pushed into the pro section in the yellow pad. Di Qui Zui Hou De Ye Wan (Long Day's Journey Into Night) Bi believes in the physicality of the storytelling. Visually, the writer and director, Gan Bi may hide plenty behind the curtain but it certainly oozes sexiness like I haven't seen in films, lately. Split into two acts, the first one has an inspiring filmmaking style to learn from. In each frame the world seems resisting or rushing towards something. It is perpetually vibrating and sensibly the camera are told to be still. This attention towards peace isn't forced but calls for it with a disturbing behaviour. Tricking us into believing how edgy or shady or abnormal the acts are. The food eaten isn't enjoyed or dives are taken dutifully instead, luxuriously. There is often something flowing, blinking, moving, rotating, floating, burning, humming or blowing behind the staged set. This metaphor of continuation or even capturization is also transferred, latter, into audio. And when the camera stands still, the close up of someone's face mourns, silently. Now, this tells you how difficult it could be to go through a process like such. Yet, you are hooked, intrigued by not the mystery it spirals out but the romance. The romance between the objects around it, a clock or a letter or a photograph or a book or a glass of water or a even a bat. Now as much as hefty this first act is, the second half is equally lofty and light on its feet. And I might not be the proper observer to scale that part of the film. I am gullible for one take shots. And imagine my feeling when I hit this gold mine that lasts for more than an hour. No matter how many detours then is taken I don't want this Long Day's Journey Into Night to end.
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Jul 3, 2020
An excellent art movie destroyed by wrong marketing methods in China. The ambition of BI Gan, the best young art film director in China. You can see the shadows of various film masters, such as Tarkovsky and Bellatar. Amazingly long shots are unique in the history of Chinese cinema.
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Jun 27, 2019
A new wave experience with a really good technique behind the camera but lacking in a less impressive use of narrative, Kaili Blues was better trying to connect with the language of mind being more connected and coherent. In Long Day's Journey Into Night the motive was blurred with a treatment of time near to the liquid, but maybe a different use of montage benefits the really impressive use of photography.
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Jun 23, 2025
Long Day’s Journey into Night is a slow, dreamlike film where memory blurs into story. Luo returns home, searching for a woman from his past—but really, he’s chasing who he was when he loved her. The plot is deliberately disorienting: places shift, objects repeat, time folds. The hour-long single take in the second half is stunning and surreal. It won’t be for everyone, but if you surrender to it, there’s something quietly moving underneath it all.
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Feb 24, 2021
So, you are looking at those glowing reviews and thinking that maybe you'll have a go at this movie. Think again, it's not for everyone. Actually, it's almost for no one.
If you are familiar with David Lynch, just expect something similar. "Mulholland Drive" makes sense once you understand the core concept. "Inland Empire" does not make any sense whatsoever, it's just a sequence of oneiric sequences. "Long Day's Journey Into Night" sits somewhere in between. There is some semblance of a story, namely the search for a woman whom the protagonist loved years earlier, and some things even make some sense when put in the correct temporal sequence. Don't expect a conventional story anyway, the search is not as much for a physical woman as for an ideal that can never be found... or something. Dreams, reminiscences and maybe some real occurrences are indistinguishable (ok, I'd say that when the protagonist falls asleep in a cinema and wakes up in a mine, meeting a ghost shortly thereafter, it definitely does qualify as a dream).
Expect a lot of sequences that go nowhere, like a guy slowly eating an apple while crying. Scrap that, just expect the movie to go nowhere, you are in for the sequences. I guess to an artsy type, the aforementioned apple sequence could appear touching. Or the naked feet of a beautiful actress walking on a broken brick wall. Any number of dilapidated locales. The actor screwing a bulb into a lamp, in a flooded house. A house that is supposed to revolve if you pronounce the right incantation.
To me, it all looks like a dream where you are trying to do something but are constantly hindered and end up running in circles, there are few consistent rules and little to no sense in anything. Yes, I'll admit that the movie did manage to conjure some feeling now and then, hence the middling rating, but more than two hours lost in a dream is probably way too much for most people.
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Production Company
- Zhejiang Huace Film & TV
- Dangmai Films (Shanghai)
- Huace Pictures
- Beijing Herui FIlm Culture
- CG Cinéma
Release Date Apr 12, 2019
Duration 2 h 18 m
Awards
Golden Carp Film Award
• 3 Wins & 10 Nominations
International Online Cinema Awards (INOCA)
• 4 Wins & 7 Nominations
Golden Horse Film Festival
• 3 Wins & 5 Nominations
