RESURRECTION (China/France 2025) **
Directed by Bi Gan
In a future where humanity has surrendered its ability to dream in exchange for immortality, an outcast (Jackson Yee) finds illusion, nightmarish visions, and beauty in an intoxicating world of his own making.
If the above premise sounds like an artsy-fartsy film. RESURRECTION, touted as a science fiction drama written and directed by Bi Gan, surely is, and a complete mess of a meandering narrative that it is. The film runs an unbearable 160 minutes, and though the cinematography is stunning, reminiscent of the Wong Kar-wei classics, the film is a chore if not a torture to sit through.
So who is this filmmaker known as Bi Gan? Apparently, he is a rising art and drama director. Bi’s feature directorial debut, KAILI BLUES (2015), earned him Best New Director at the 52nd Golden Horse Awards, Best Emerging Director at the 68th Locarno Film Festival (Locarno being a venue for a lot of art films), and the Montgolfière d’Or at the 37th Three Continents Festival in Nantes. His follow-up feature, LONG DAYS JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (2018), was selected for the Un Certain Regard section at the 71st Festival de Cannes and earned him a Best Director nomination at the 55th Golden Horse Awards. RESURRECTION is Bu Gan’s third movie, and despite its flaws, it premiered in Competition at the 78th Festival de Cannes and was presented with a Special Award by the jury.
The movie is set in a future world where humanity has abandoned the ability to dream. The beginning of the film is basically a silent film, complete with titles, to indicate what is happening. The central characters are Shu Qi as “Miss Shu” and Jackson Yee as a mysterious “inhuman creature” (or “dream-entity”). Miss Shu discovers that this creature is one of the few beings still able to dream — something lost to almost all of humanity. The film moves into romantic drama of an extra weird level, in which vampires suddenly appear on the floor.
The film, already at the 2-hour mark, stretches it way past the tolerance level with the two lovers on a boat moving off the dock and then goes on and on and on, as if never-ending.
The film’s narrative is not straightforward. Resurrection is divided into six chapters, each corresponding to one of the five human senses — supposedly, though never made clear, sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch — plus the “mind.”
RESURRECTION can be more accurately described as an experience than a conventional story: a “dream made film,” where one feels rather than one can understand. Act its best, it is a bold and ambitious film, successful or not, which is debatable.
The film is shot in Mandarin and a little Cantonese.
All flaws aside, Bi Gan is still a gifted filmmaker and a talent to be reckoned with. It would be excellent if he delivers a more disciplined work with a strong narrative, perhaps controlled by the studio executives.
RESURRECTION premiered in the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2025 — and won the festival’s Special Jury Prize. The film opens in Toronto on December 12th.
Trailer:
