Resurrection — NYFF Review
Source: Janus Films
No one is making movies quite like Bi Gan. His latest outing, Resurrection, is an enchanting, experimental cinematic voyager through time, space, and genre. It’s an exploration that takes us through the past, present, future, and back again. It’s a loving ode to a century of cinema history and a spectacular visual feast, with astonishing production design, immaculate sound work, and mesmerizing cinematography.
Bi Gan has always pushed the boundaries of filmmaking, but Resurrection sees him venturing even further into formal experimentation. He plays with genre conventions, aspect ratios, color palettes, and frame rates, incorporating a range of techniques including stop motion, time lapse, and another extended one-take shot. Elements of science fiction, vampire motifs, and silent-era spectacle are stitched together into a cinematic tapestry that feels both meta and mythic. It’s a reflection not only on the art of filmmaking and storytelling, but on the act of going to the movies itself. The film moves like a hallucination, hypnotically drifting from one style to another, often blurring the line between homage and innovation.
Silent film–style intertitles set the stage, informing us that in this sci-fi world, humanity has discovered that the key to immortality is to stop dreaming. Those who choose to dream anyway are labeled “deliriants” and treated like monsters. The narrative unfolds in five chapters, each rendered in a distinct style and genre, resulting in a dazzling, dizzying odyssey. The performances are often understated, providing a fragile emotional throughline amid the film’s stylistic transformations. The actors embody their roles with a deliberate, almost trance-like stillness, reinforcing the sensation that we are drifting through overlapping realities.
Source: Janus Films
Resurrection is phantasmagoric and admirably ambitious. However, it may be ambitious to a fault. It isn’t as refined as Kaili Blues and could have benefited from a sharper narrative focus akin to Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Moreover, the one-take shot in Resurrection is mind-blowing, but not nearly as much as the one in Long Day’s Journey Into Night, which was immersive, extravagant, and intricately tied to the narrative. Despite the stunning visuals and sound on display, Resurrection feels somewhat impenetrable, detached, and opaque. It’s a film that will most likely benefit from repeat viewings in order to fully appreciate its complexities. Its emotional resonance is often obscured by extensive formal experimentation and self-referential cinematic techniques, resulting in a work that is more intellectually and artistically admirable than emotionally engaging.
Source: Janus Films
There’s a quiet solace running beneath Resurrection’s extravagant spectacle. In a world that often feels as though it’s falling apart, Resurrection reminds us why we go to the movies in the first place: to escape, to inhabit someone else’s fantasy, and to keep dreaming, because sometimes, that’s all we can do. It’s a film that doesn’t offer easy explanations. Instead, it invites us to lose ourselves in its labyrinth. Resurrection is a cinematic achievement for its grandiose style, but it’s also as though Bi Gan is holding a mirror up to the audience, reminding us of the enduring power of imagination. In the end, Resurrection doesn’t just ask us to dream, it dares us to keep dreaming even when the world tells us to stop.
Resurrection had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 22, 2025. The film screened as part of the New York Film Festival. It will screen at the Montclair FIlm Festival on October 18th and 24th.
