“we’ll leave kaili and use his money to open a hotel. we’ll find those lights that look like the sun, and put them up outside the hotel… and the guests will sleep free from nightmares.”
as with films like ‘Rebels of the Neon God’, ‘All About Lily Chou-Chou’, or ‘It’s Such a Beautiful Day’, this left me in an emotional daze for an extended period after its conclusion. for what felt like hours, i sat here, staring at the paused credits, trying to somehow process the unbelievable scale and beauty of what i just watched while simultaneously being dumbfounded by how a mere film could make me feel as i feel now. what do i feel? i honest to god could not tell you. im a mess. im desperately trying to translate it into words, but i simply cannot. i know but 1 thing for sure… whatever that was that i just watched, it was toeing the line of TRUE perfection… no… it crossed that line well before this masterpiece even hit its stride.
this film revolved around essentially a single concept… dreams. dreams of the past, the present, and the future; and thats exactly how watching this movie felt, it felt as though you are a spectator in the vast, regret ridden dreamscape of a man searching for love, or the idea of love, and the person who represents that love. it borders surrealism as Luo dips in out of these ethereal and feverish episodes of memory driven dreams and grief stricken nightmares, its overflowing with symbolism and foreshadowing from start to finish. it really watches like Tarkovsky and Hu Bo collaborated to write and create this movie.
now, time to address the elephant in the room, aka the fucking monster that was that 59 minute, uninterrupted, perfectly crafted scene. oh my god, im getting goosebumps just thinking about it. its quite possibly the most ambitious sequence i have ever seen (that wasnt in a historical epic); you would think that with it being so long, it would be filled with imperfections and errors, as well as lacking dialogue as to make multiple takes easier, but no, its flawless and packed with unbelievably fantastic writing. its like Helen of Troy or the Hope Diamond, every single facet and angle was overflowing with beauty and excellence, every single word meticulously chosen and strung together to create extremely intense and genuine conversations. i legitimately said to myself multiple times throughout the scene “theres no way this is still going right? please keep going”, i never wanted it to stop, but it did stop, and so did the movie.
this was among the greatest films i have ever seen, and its so, so, so close to being in my letterboxd top 4. i cannot recommend and praise this movie enough, everyone must watch it.
(ps that green dress will haunt both my dreams, and my reality for as long as i live)
“we’ll leave kaili and use his money to open a hotel. we’ll find those lights that look like the sun, and put them up outside the hotel… and the guests will sleep free from nightmares.”
as with films like ‘Rebels of the Neon God’, ‘All About Lily Chou-Chou’, or ‘It’s Such a Beautiful Day’, this left me in an emotional daze for an extended period after its conclusion. for what felt like hours, i sat here, staring at the paused credits, trying to somehow process the unbelievable scale and beauty of what i just watched while simultaneously being dumbfounded by how a mere film could make me feel as i feel now. what do i feel? i honest to god could not tell you. im a mess. im desperately trying to translate it into words, but i simply cannot. i know but 1 thing for sure… whatever that was that i just watched, it was toeing the line of TRUE perfection… no… it crossed that line well before this masterpiece even hit its stride.
this film revolved around essentially a single concept… dreams. dreams of the past, the present, and the future; and thats exactly how watching this movie felt, it felt as though you are a spectator in the vast, regret ridden dreamscape of a man searching for love, or the idea of love, and the person who represents that love. it borders surrealism as Luo dips in out of these ethereal and feverish episodes of memory driven dreams and grief stricken nightmares, its overflowing with symbolism and foreshadowing from start to finish. it really watches like Tarkovsky and Hu Bo collaborated to write and create this movie.
now, time to address the elephant in the room, aka the fucking monster that was that 59 minute, uninterrupted, perfectly crafted scene. oh my god, im getting goosebumps just thinking about it. its quite possibly the most ambitious sequence i have ever seen (that wasnt in a historical epic); you would think that with it being so long, it would be filled with imperfections and errors, as well as lacking dialogue as to make multiple takes easier, but no, its flawless and packed with unbelievably fantastic writing. its like Helen of Troy or the Hope Diamond, every single facet and angle was overflowing with beauty and excellence, every single word meticulously chosen and strung together to create extremely intense and genuine conversations. i legitimately said to myself multiple times throughout the scene “theres no way this is still going right? please keep going”, i never wanted it to stop, but it did stop, and so did the movie.
this was among the greatest films i have ever seen, and its so, so, so close to being in my letterboxd top 4. i cannot recommend and praise this movie enough, everyone must watch it.
(ps that green dress will haunt both my dreams, and my reality for as long as i live)
