Long Day's Journey Into Night: Director Bi Gan's Subversive World of Dreams, Memory & Time
July 03, 2019
“Do we know when we’re dreaming?” — This line is not only an internal question
brought on by Long Day’s Journey Into Night’s bewildered protagonist, but an overarching
theme filmmaker Bi Gan directs his audience to ponder throughout the duration of his film.
Luo Hongwu becomes a detective in Kaili, China after the murder of his childhood friend
Wildcat. After initially nabbing the killer’s lover, Wan Qiwen (whose name alone has a rather dreamy connotation behind it: wan - 万 ten thousand, qi - 绮 beautiful/elegant, wen - 雯 multicolored clouds), in an attempt to extract information on his whereabouts, he finds himself in
a whirlwind romance and sudden desperation to leave the past behind. Qiwen’s disappearance
sends our hero cascading into surreal wandering in search of her. The dual structure of the film
alludes to the events of the past while setting up the premise of Hongwu’s investigation in the
first half, then navigates us into a taffy-stretched version of reality as we begin to question
what’s been true to Hongwu’s memory.
To craft the perfect dreamscape, Bi Gan has incorporated elements of both visual surrealism and sparse, poetic dialogue akin to its predecessor Kaili Blues. Taking the film in at surface level, it’s easy to walk out dazed and confused, especially thanks to the dizzying 59- minute 3D long-take of its latter half. But when prying at the many cogs that make up a seemingly convoluted plot, it becomes a treasure trove of symbolism that aligns with the director’s primary thematic obsessions. No one has said it better than Blake Williams of Cinema Scope while describing the notable references the 29-year-old director utilized in the making of this film noir fantasy land, “Long Days borrows from—even pays homage to—Bi’s fellow Somnambulists: the bifurcated structures of vintage Joe; Wong’s languorous rhythms and clocks (still stopped, as they were in Kaili); the decayed, tear-crusted interiors of Tsai’s Stray Dogs (2013).” (Williams, Apt Pupil: Bi Gan on Long Day’s Journey Into Night) These industry mavens laid the groundwork for Bi Gan to amplify their existing nuances for the sake of his own world-building.
To craft the perfect dreamscape, Bi Gan has incorporated elements of both visual surrealism and sparse, poetic dialogue akin to its predecessor Kaili Blues. Taking the film in at surface level, it’s easy to walk out dazed and confused, especially thanks to the dizzying 59- minute 3D long-take of its latter half. But when prying at the many cogs that make up a seemingly convoluted plot, it becomes a treasure trove of symbolism that aligns with the director’s primary thematic obsessions. No one has said it better than Blake Williams of Cinema Scope while describing the notable references the 29-year-old director utilized in the making of this film noir fantasy land, “Long Days borrows from—even pays homage to—Bi’s fellow Somnambulists: the bifurcated structures of vintage Joe; Wong’s languorous rhythms and clocks (still stopped, as they were in Kaili); the decayed, tear-crusted interiors of Tsai’s Stray Dogs (2013).” (Williams, Apt Pupil: Bi Gan on Long Day’s Journey Into Night) These industry mavens laid the groundwork for Bi Gan to amplify their existing nuances for the sake of his own world-building.
Color gradation is the entry level mood-maker for any cinematographer. The way color comes into play here is particularly interesting because of how they made use of the blues and reds traditionally associated with 3D paired with hints of jade green in nearly every scene of the film. Blue was rampant in Kaili Blues, almost posing as a character itself, and in Long Days returns to paint a picture of melancholic nostalgia. Red seeps in at times as an alert to the dangers of sinking further into thoughts of the past. 3D movies are the ultimate accessible fantasy experience so it’s only fitting that the red and blue sit side-by-side as viewers are unknowingly drawn into a mind-boggling vortex of surreality. Green was a unique choice to trail alongside the story’s femme fatale, Qiwen. Alas, Bi Gan’s decision was no secret, in an interview with Ethan Spigland of The Brooklyn Rail he spilled, “Guizhou is a very mountainous region with a lot of vegetation. So I thought that since this is a character who will disappear frequently, if she wears red, she will be very, very conspicuous. I thought that if she wears a green dress she will definitely blend in with the landscape, and this will create the feeling that she's frequently vanishing.” (Spigland, INCONVERSATION: Bi Gan with Ethan Spigland) Albeit a seemingly odd color to represent the female lead of a film noir-esque work, movies of the past such as The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Vertigo (1958) made this deep green shade a marker of mystery and the unknown.
“People tend to tell me that usually when people dream it’s very, very fragmented,” says
Bi Gan on how he decided to build the framework for the film. “But for me, the way I see a
dream is just the opposite. It’s this one continuous sequence.” (O’Falt, How the Gravity-Defying
59-Minute 3D Take in ‘Long Day’s. Journey Into Night’ Was Shot) Evident continuity in his
long-take and thematic elements aside, there was one more sequential component to Long Days
that (literally) housed the most mystical portion of all: The lovers’ house from Qiwen’s green
book. This story is fondly brought up again and again over the course of the journey and it’s led
me to believe what was in the book may not have been entirely fictional. When the house
manifests itself and Kaizhen gives Hongwu the grand tour, she begins to recall its fairytale
magnificence prior to it becoming the dilapidated unit we’re shown. Glittering chandeliers,
wardrobe packed to the brim with men and women’s attire, and jars of fresh honey lining the
dining room table — none of which feels remotely possible for this building or the surrounding
neighborhood. Was this a memory from her past that has only come back to her in pieces or the future life she dreamed of, just like Qiwen? Kaizhen feigned zero interest in Hongwu before
entering the house but kissed him without much thought the second he recited the spell and the
room began to spin. Maybe the spell brought back her memory as Qiwen. Maybe the room really
did spin. Maybe she just thought it was fate that he knew the spell she was going on about and in
the heat of the moment went in for the smooch. And lest we forget the Inception insert of the
sparkler that we never see burn out.
Keeping this in mind, zooming in on recurring objects in the film brings about another
layer of metaphors that even Dennis Lim cites in his article for Film Comment,
“Long day’s journey operates on a principle of vertiginous doubling. The figures who exert a pull on Luo in the first part materialize in different form in the second. Almost every last detail—the out-of-season pomelo Wan craves, the apple Wildcat devours whole, musical motifs, incantations, the pattern of a prison window grill—is reprised or transmuted in Luo’s movie-activated dream.” (Lim 40) Dissecting each of these details is important in gaining a deeper understanding of the characters’ fixations, desires, and downfalls.
“Long day’s journey operates on a principle of vertiginous doubling. The figures who exert a pull on Luo in the first part materialize in different form in the second. Almost every last detail—the out-of-season pomelo Wan craves, the apple Wildcat devours whole, musical motifs, incantations, the pattern of a prison window grill—is reprised or transmuted in Luo’s movie-activated dream.” (Lim 40) Dissecting each of these details is important in gaining a deeper understanding of the characters’ fixations, desires, and downfalls.
1) Water, often in the form of rain and the leaky
rooms of decrepit houses can be thought of here as the physical manifestation of ongoing misery.
Luo Hongwu’s life is a timeline of consistent loss; as a young boy his mother abandoned him, his
only friend was murdered before he could fully enjoy his youth, his star-crossed lover vanished,
and then he gets hit with his father’s funeral.
2) Clocks were a big deal in Kaili Blues too as a
blatant symbol of time. Hongwu kept a photo of his mother in his father’s clock and takes a
watch from a presumed mom look-a-like to gift Qiwen’s doppelgänger, Kaizhen by the film’s
end. Kaizhen tells Hongwu he shouldn’t just give people watches because “a watch is a symbol of eternity” to which he replies, “it’s broken.” This passing on of time could mean he’s finally
decided to move on from the past after realizing nothing in his life has permanence, which brings
us to...
3) Fireworks which Kaizhen pointed out “are a symbol of transitory” which is another
word for impermanence. This further presses the idea that there’s hope for Hongwu to escape his
comatose of memory preoccupation.
4) The green book that originally belonged to Qiwen haunts
both Hongwu and the audience like it’s her ghost. It withholds both memories for him and
Qiwen’s old friend in prison who’s reminded of their delinquent childhood along with her own
experience with Qiwen’s sudden disappearance from her life. The reiteration of the story in the
book is part of the dream element to the film as well — Two lovers live in the sweetest house
together and if they’re truly soulmates, saying this spell will make the house spin:
“Dipping water with the point of a knife, Examining snow with a microscope, Doing this over and over One still wants to ask,
Have you ever counted the stars in the sky? They’re like little birds, Ever parachuting through my chest.”
Bi Gan was a poet before becoming a filmmaker and this spell is one of his own writings.
5) Pomelos are the fruit Qiwen is always longing for although they aren’t in season and in Chinese culture are representative of the hope to have a good fate. She’s been threatened by her murderous gangster boyfriend and fears for the worst if she dares to run from him. The pomelo symbolizes the freedom and fruitful life she wants most and wishes to find with Hongwu.
6) Apples have famously biblical connotations of temptation and sin which could be why Wildcat painstakingly chews through one, core and all, while crying profusely, just before his dead body is shoved down a mine shaft. Being born the son of a criminal with ties to the man who later kills him was a poor fate already, but decisions he made down the road likely led to his premature death.
7) The mine shaft resembles both a rabbit hole and a grave in the sense that it’s where Wildcat dies but also where Hongwu gets lost while maneuvering around the darkness of the run-down movie theater.
The characters teetering in and out of Hongwu’s memory and reality present themselves
like ghosts, leaving us unable to determine who’s friend or figment. Bi Gan’s mirrored
characterizations in the film are not made to be easily understood, but instead further permeate a
foggy, hallucinatory atmosphere for anyone watching. Despite being played by the same actress,
Qiwen is elegant, feminine, and mysterious which juxtaposes Kaizhen’s brusque, rebellious
demeanor. Is Qiwen the idealized version of Kaizhen or are they in fact two entirely different people? Does Kaizhen truly have no idea who Hongwu is or is she pretending/lost her own
memory after disappearing from Kaili? These questions are left open for interpretation, of
course, but the conundrum further envelops these women in that age-old Hitchcock shroud of
mystery. Wildcat too is an enigma of sorts. The boy shacking up in the mine shafts reminds
Hongwu of his old friend, enough to pass on his nickname, so it’s hard to avoid delving into the
idea that this kid is sort of like the trapped soul of Wildcat’s unfulfilled youth. Or the mine shaft
is possibly a time warping black hole? Lastly, we fall upon Wildcat’s mom who reprises her role
as a red-haired stranger that leaves Hongwu in tears. At no point in the film do we get a good
look at his mother’s photo, so we can only guess she looks a bit like Qiwen and would’ve liked
to (or did already) dye her hair red. Could this be a reiteration of how his mother left him as a
child? This is the only viable theory I have to answer why after all he’d been through would he
only now upon following a random pedestrian break down crying.
As it’s said in the film: dreams are lost memories. Lines are blurred between what’s a
dream and what’s pure truth in all our lives, which Bi Gan beautifully develops into the surrealist
version of his hometown Kaili.
——
Blake Williams, Apt Pupil: Bi Gan on Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Cinema Scope
vol. 75) http://cinema-scope.com/cinema-scope-magazine/apt-pupil-bi-gan-on-long-
days-journey-into-night/
Ethan Spigland, INCONVERSATION: Bi Gan with Ethan Spigland (The Brooklyn Rail, April 2019) https://brooklynrail.org/2019/04/film/In-Conversation-BI-GAN-with-Ethan- Spigland
Dennis Lim, Moving Through Time (Film Comment vol. 54, July 2018), Page 40
Chris O’Falt, How the Gravity-Defying 59-Minute 3D Take in ‘Long Day’s. Journey Into
Night’ Was Shot (Indiewire April 2019) https://www.indiewire.com/2019/04/long-days- journey-into-night-bi-gan-interview-3d-long-take-1202057813/
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