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Bi Gan\u2019s\u00a0Resurrection\u00a0<\/em>opens with a title card that sets the scene for his third feature: we\u2019re in a future where the secret to eternal life has been discovered. It\u2019s simple \u2013 don\u2019t dream! Humans who give up dreaming can live forever. But there are some hold-outs who choose to dream in secret at the risk of having shorter lives and going mad in the process. These \u2018fantasmers\u2019 are assisted by \u2018Big Others\u2019 who wake the dreamers, keeping them from being lost to the dream realm forever. The life of one fantasmer plays out across five chapters in Gan\u2019s film (co-written with Bai Xue), a sensory odyssey spanning the history of cinema, with more references than it\u2019s possible to comprehend in a single viewing.<\/p>\n Since he began his filmmaking career in 2015 with\u00a0Kalil Blues<\/em> Bi Gan has been establishing quite a reputation for himself on the global film stage \u2013 in 2018, when his second feature Long Day\u2019s Journey Into Night<\/em> premiered at Cannes, the audiences arrived to find 3D glasses placed upon their seats, to be used half-way through the film. It\u2019s quite astounding that at just 35 years old Bi Gan is operating at such a level of ambition and scale \u2013 in\u00a0Resurrection\u00a0<\/em>he doubles down, condensing a century of film history into a 160-minute epic. It\u2019s obvious from the start that \u2018dreams\u2019 here are representative of \u2018films\u2019 \u2013 the \u2018fantasmers\u2019 are the wily, reckless visionaries who think them up \u2013 but Gan does help out the clueless with a late mention of the \u2018forgotten language of cinematography\u2019 which feels like a cheeky sideswipe at the content mill mindset of the modern film industry.<\/p>\n Gan traces the life of one fantasmer \u2013 a monster made in the image of F. W. Murnau\u2019s Nosferatu <\/em>or Robert Weine\u2019s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari<\/em> played by young heartthrob and skilled physical performer Jackson Yee \u2013 across five dreams, from a wartime noir to a vampire nightclub at the dawn of the new millennium, each with its own distinct visual identity. The fantasmer, played by Yee, takes on a different identity each time, but there is inevitably some conflict that plays out. He\u2019s a wanted murderer in one dream; then a thief confronting the Spirit of Bitterness; a card shark teaching a young girl the art of the con in another; a young punk who falls in love with a vampire in the stunning 40-minute one-take finale. (Resurrection\u00a0<\/em>operates with such a deluge of ideas and themes it\u2019s quite baffling that Cannes chose to programme the film in a 10pm slot at the end of festival when audiences were already jonesing for a decent\u2019s night\u2019s sleep.) He is looked after by his Big Other, played by the seemingly ageless Millennium Mambo<\/em> star Shu Qi (the casting of veteran Shu Qi and newcomer Yee feels like another Bi Gan easter egg) who develops an almost maternal tenderness towards him as the film progresses, promising the fantasmer a gentle death as he lives out his final handful of dreams.<\/p>\n As well as the vastly different tonal and narrative beats\u00a0Resurrection\u00a0<\/em>hits, Gan encorporates different styles, from the silent-era style of the film\u2019s opening with its paper puppetry and title cards displaying dialogue through to the bold and brash neons of the final Y2K segment, where he delivers some solid camera wizardry in a \u2018single take\u2019 cribbing from his own\u00a0Long Day\u2019s Journey\u00a0<\/em>playbook. It\u2019s a staggering feast for the senses (each segment revolves around one of them) but even more so a true love letter to cinema written bold and brilliant. Despite its inconsistencies \u2013 the noir section in particular feels incomplete, as though it was shaved down to meet a mandated runtime \u2013\u00a0Resurrection\u00a0<\/em>has to be seen to be believed, and Bi Gan continues to ascend in both his imaginative and filmmaking capabilities. It\u2019s as thrilling to watch\u00a0Resurrection\u00a0<\/em>as it is to imagine what the director might do next.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nGet more Little White Lies<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n