Long Day's Journey into Night

Long Day's Journey into Night (, literally "Last evenings on Earth") is a 2018 Chinese drama film directed by Bi Gan. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. Despite the film's English-language title, it is unrelated to the 1956 Eugene O'Neill play of the same name. It is notable for its final 59 minutes, which consists of one unbroken long take in 3D. Plot In the opening scene, Luo Hongwu (Huang Jue) remarks to a prostitute after intercourse how he is haunted by the memory of a woman who disappeared. The story of his involvement with that woman is then told in a chiefly non-linear, out-of-order series of scenes that resist easy explanation. Luo's hometown is Kaili, where he and his friend Wildcat grew up. Wildcat was to sell a quantity of apples to the sadistic gangster Zuo Hongyuan (Yongzhong Chen) and enlisted Luo's help, but Luo forgot and Wildcat was later murdered by Zuo for failure to deliver. Luo eventually discovered the apple sale was a means to smuggle a gun. Luo, himself connected to organized crime as a casino manager, attempts to track down Zuo through his girlfriend Wan Qiwen (Tang Wei). Wan had been a cat burglar and had broken into a home with another woman, but they were distracted by a book with a poetry spell that could make the entire house itself spin. The inhabitants returned unexpectedly causing them to flee with the most valuable item they could grab; when they made it to the woods, the only thing Wan had was a green book with the poem. Luo finds her on a train and their initially brutal meeting turns into passion. The green book enters his possession when she leaves it on a wall; it is unclear if she meant to give it to him or discard it.