Long Day’s Journey Into Night 2018

      Luo Hongwu returns to Kaili, this is his hometown and he left 12 years earlier.  Memories of an enigmatic and beautiful woman begin to resurface in his mind.  He loved her and he has never been able to forget about her.  He begins a search for her and past, present, reality and dreams interweave as he thinks about her. 

     A Chinese film about gangsters and illicit love affairs that turns into a fever dream.  There is a long and unbroken take for the ending.  It lasts 50 minutes of the film’s 130 minute running time with hallucinatory brilliance.   

     This film goes back and forth from the present day to about 20 years earlier.  The cuts changing time periods are not always recognizable and the pilot can be muddied at times.  I didn’t last very long in viewing.  I thought the pace was very slow and I could not get interested in the characters.  I didn’t know until later that you could tell the time frame by Hongwu’s facial hair?  It is slightly different depending on the time frame.  I thought this film definitely was a long day's journey into night, possibly into the next day and night!!  2* (I didn’t like this movie)

138 min, Drama directed and written by Bi Gan with Wei Tang, Jue Huang, Sylvia Chang, Hong-Chi Lee, Youngzhong Chen, Feiyang Luo, Chole Maayan, Chun-hao Tuan, Yasmin Bi, Lixun Xie, Xi QI, Ming-Dow, Zezhi Long.

Note:  Imdb 7.2* out of 10* with 5847 reviews, Roger Ebert 4* out of 5* Simon Abrams, Rotten Tomatoes 93% with 91 critics 67% with 117 ratings, Metacritic 88 out of 100 with 23 critics (22 positive 1 mixed) 6.8 out of 10 with 33 ratings (24 positive 4 mixed 5 negative), The Guardian 5* Peter Bradshaw, Amazon 4* out of 5* with 106 reviews, RollingStone 4* out of 5* Peter Travers.

Special Note:  There was a major controversy after the opening of this film.  The marketing was targeted towards the general public but the film should have been targeted toward art film lovers?  Opening was on December 31, 2018, the last day of the year and intended to be a good event to celebrate the New Year.  Many people went to see the film and there was major backlash.   Viewers complained about the film and those who appreciated it called it “phony artistic.”  In the US 38 million was earned the first day of opening and the box office on the second day was decreased by 96%.  There is also another movie with the same title from 1962 with Katharine Hepburn and Ralph Richardson and directed by Sidney Lumet.