Long Day's Journey Into Night is a 2018 Chinese experimental drama film directed by Bi Gan. The movie takes place in the small city of Kaili, where the protagonist Luo Hongwu returns after many years, wishing to find his former lover Wan Qiwen. Luo revisits his memories and explores the city's places and people, seeking clues that would lead him back to her.
During his quest, Luo meets a man named Wildcat, who introduces him to various interesting characters, including a woman named Lulu, who he sees as a mirror image of Wan. The film is full of surreal and dream-like sequences, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy, and heavily draws on Chinese mythology and symbolism.
Halfway through the movie, the story takes a turn when Luo falls asleep in a movie theater and dreams about his past and an alternate reality where he meets Wan again. The dream sequence lasts for an hour and is shot in a single, impressive take in 3D, following Luo on a journey through unreal spaces and fantastic landscapes, and ultimately leading him to a confrontation with himself.
The movie's dreamy quality, slow-paced narrative, and emphasis on visual storytelling have been compared to the works of Wong Kar-wai and Andrei Tarkovsky. Long Day's Journey Into Night premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018 and was later released worldwide to critical acclaim.