Our take
A man returns to a town chasing the memory of a woman he loved years ago.
Poet turned filmmaker Bi Gan coats his idiosyncratic filmmaking with a thick layer of neo-noir in this sumptuous follow up to his remarkable debut Kaili Blues. This time around, Kaili City is a neon-drenched dreamscape dripping in style and calling to mind the work of Tarkovsky and Wong Kar-wai.
He may wear his influences on his sleeve, but Bi Gan keeps his trademark moves like the bravado long takes and a poetic disregard for past and present, reality and dreams. This leads to an explosive and unforgettable sequence in the second half that while originally intended for 3D loses little of its mind-bending power when watched at home.
What it won
Oscars
1 nom
Cannes
2 wins
Golden Globes
1 nom
DGA
1 nom
Nat. Board of Review
2 wins
The story
Luo Hongwu returns to Kaili, the hometown from which he fled many years ago. He begins the search for the woman he loved and whom he has never been able to forget.
Elsewhere
"The Chinese director's sophomore effort is a fascinating application of filmmaking innovation toward expressionistic ends."
— Eric Kohn
Streaming arrival
"...[It] is an all-enveloping experience that genuinely approaches the condition of hallucination: one steeped both in anxiety and in rapturous eroticism."
— Jonathan Romney