Is Long Days Journey Into Night Trash or Treasure?

Blu Ray Distributed By: Kino Lorber / December 19, 2019

Bi Gan follows up his knockout debut, Kaili Blues, with this noir-tinged stunner about a lost soul (Jue Huang) on a quest to find a missing woman from his past (Wei Tang, Lust, Caution). Following leads across Guizhou province, he crosses paths with a series of colorful characters, among them a prickly hairdresser played by Taiwanese superstar Sylvia Chang. When the search leads him to a dingy movie theater, the film launches into an hour-long, gravity-defying sequence shot that plunges its protagonist—and us—into a labyrinthine cityscape. China’s biggest arthouse hit of all time, the film took in more than $40 million dollars in its opening weekend at the domestic box office.

Jamie’s Take  (1 / 5)

Kino Lorber’s blu ray cover of Long Days Journey Into Night displays various praises from notable film critics. Looking up the film on imdb the film is currently at a 7.2 with numerous user reviews praising the film. Ok, what am I missing? Why are people jerking and rubbing to this movie?

When I started the blu ray, I got close to the 30 minute mark and realized I either may have fallen asleep or that I was so zoned out and not paying attention that I missed something as I had no idea what the fuck happened. Either I was coming down with mono or I was extremely bored.  I cracked open a can of Coke, did a load of laundry, and started from the beginning again as I was determined to watch this movie. I should have taken my “zoning out” as a clue.

Slow is not the word to describe Long Days Journey Into Night. This movie makes a turtle look like Jesse Owens. It makes The English Patient look like The Road Warrior. For those of you who work in a business setting, imagine going to a meeting that you dread and multiple that by three. Tedious, drawn out, excruciating, and yes goddamn it, slow. There are sequences where we slowly watch a glass of water move off a table and onto the floor because of a passing train going by. The viewer is stuck watching someone walk around in a town, as if you are playing a boring ass video game with no action or monsters or anything popping out or interacting with the main character. The camera just follows a guy from behind as he walks around…and around…and around. Yeah this is a long day’s journey, all right! Nicolas Winding Refn would say this is too slow, ok? Catch my drift?

To make matters worse, the film jumps from present day to 22 years past so frequently, it is rather jarring and confusing as I wasn’t sure what was present or past aside from the main character’s facial hair and hair color. With that being said, I would try to focus on the actors face and hair to assist with finding out what the hell was going on. I would miss something that I thought was vital to the plot and would have to go back again as I was checking to see if some guy has gray hair or not. Meanwhile I think I developed more gray hair while watching the movie.

Long Days Journey Into Night follows Luo (Jue Huang) as he comes back to his hometown to track a woman he had met years ago. This woman was linked to a bookie or a mobster(?) who killed Luo’s friend. As Luo searched for this man, he comes across the man’s girlfriend who he ends up having a relationship with. The man starts piecing together clues and memories of the past to track her down as we the viewer start to gather more information about what may or may not have happened to her and / or their relationship.

When the mobster character gets introduced, I thought maybe the film was going to possible “borrow” from Drive or True Romance which I would have been fine with at this point but no, I wouldn’t be so lucky. When Luo does find his past love at a run-down karaoke bar that is about to shut its doors, he is told to wait at a movie theater until she is about to go on. Luo does so and the rest of the film is Luo watching a movie called (drum roll) Long Days Journey Into Night. For the final half of the film the movie is Luo watching himself thrust into a alternate reality where characters come in and out and advise / assist him in what he is looking for.

I did find it interesting that the characters he meets in this “movie world” are based on situations that has already happened to him such as running into a teenager who plays ping pong that could be the child he was to have had or an older woman with red hair that may be his mother that he once told should dye her hair red. I was fine with trying to piece together what each character symbolizes but I knew by now it wasn’t going to pay off, at least not to my liking.

Director Bi Gan decides to shoot this portion of the film in 3D and while the 3D looks fine, it is visually dull and the 3D moments all take place during the night. Gan must not have known or cared that 3D doesn’t look very good when it is too dark. 3D is best used in the light, where it’s visually appealing with objects thrown at the viewer or sets that display various objects in the foreground and background, utilizing the 3D method to bring the audience member into this world he / she created. Long Days Journey Into Night does not do this and does something that I thought had backfired; it is one continuous 50 minute shot. Instead of paying attention to the story or trying to figure out what the fuck was going on, I was watching how Gan directed this sequence and paid more attention to the technical aspects of the film. And when he would just follow Luo wandering around in this town, I had about enough I could take. I didn’t give two shits what was going to happen and all I wanted to do was turn this movie off.

Kino Lorber’s blu ray does look good and the transfer doesn’t disappoint but the special features, which I was hoping would provide some answers to my questions concerning the film’s story, are so short and provide nothing substantial. The “making of” featurette is just a quick behind the scenes look at the actors and crew in motion, making the film. The interview with actor Jue Huang is plain and short, praising the director. The Gan interview, where I was expecting to see some pretentious “auteur”, is just some young kid with zits offering up little insight such as confessing he’s an avid gamer. Once I heard this I had enough and I was done. I wasted too much of my time on this movie and the blu ray was quickly ejected from my player.

Watching paint dry. Alphabetizing M&M’s. Waiting in line at the post office. Being on hold. All of these seem like a fun, fulfilling time compared to watching Long Days Journey Into Night again.

Hidden Treasure/Dumpster Fire?

Jamie says: Dumpster Fire!

Jamie's Take:	(1.0 / 5)
Blu-ray Extras:	(2.0 / 5)
Average:	(1.5 / 5)

Special Features:

Disc 1:
-2D Feature
-Interview with director Bi Gan
-Interview with star Huang Jue
-Making-of documentary
-Trailers
Disc 2:
-3D Feature
Also includes booklet interview with Bi Gan by writer Aaron Stewart-Ahn