SHERDOG MOVIE CLUB: Week 209 - Long Day's Journey Into Night (2018)

[europe1]

NOTE to NON-MEMBERS: Interested in joining the SHERDOG MOVIE CLUB? Shoot me a PM for more info!

Here's a quick list of all movies watched by the SMC. Or if you prefer, here's a more detailed examination.

Our Director
Bi Gan

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Bi Gan is a director and writer, known for Kaili Blues (2015), Long Day's Journey into Night (2018) and Jingang Jing (2012).

Our Stars

Jue Huang

Film Overview



Premise: A man went back to Guizhou, found the tracks of a mysterious woman. He recalls the summer he spent with her twenty years ago.

Budget: $Only China Knows

Box Office: $42.1 million

Trivia
(courtesy of IMDB)

* The marketing of the film was met with major controversy after its opening. The marketing of this art film was targeted massively towards the general public, instead of art film lovers. The film opened on December 31, 2018 since it was the last day of the year and it was intended to be "a good event to celebrate the new year". It was estimated that a lot of people went to see the film without knowing that this is an art house film. This resulted in major backlash as netizens complained against the film, as well as calling the ones who appreciated it "jia wenyi (phony-artistic)". The film earned 38 million USD on the first day of opening, yet the box office of the second day was decreased by 96%.​

Members: @europe1 @MusterX @FrontNakedChoke @chickenluver @Scott Parker 27 @Yotsuya @jei @cheesus @HARRISON_3 @Bubzeh @the ambush @SalvadorAllende @moreorless87 @EL CORINTHIAN @HenryFlower @Zer

 

[Scott Parker 27]

Man, you guys love Asian movies. Is it the subtitles or just the fact that you guys have seen all the good American movies?

 

[europe1]

Man, you guys love Asian movies. Is it the subtitles or just the fact that you guys have seen all the good American movies?

I think it was that conniving imp @HenryFlower going all "OMG this is best movie of the decade, guys!!!1" that convinced me to vote for it.

 

[HenryFlower]

I think it was that conniving imp @HenryFlower going all "OMG this is best movie of the decade, guys!!!1" that convinced me to vote for it.

not the best of the decade, but the best of 2019.

 

[europe1]

Man, you guys love Asian movies. Is it the subtitles or just the fact that you guys have seen all the good American movies?

Also. You've just lost 30 Social Credits Points. You are no longer allowed to have your posts "liked".

not the best of the decade, but the best of 2019.

Who do you expect me to thrust, Henry? You, a known deviant? Or my own faultless memory? I'm pretty sure it was decade, okay?

 

[cheesus]

Anyone know of a stream ?

 

[HenryFlower]

Who do you expect me to thrust, Henry? You, a known deviant? Or my own faultless memory? I'm pretty sure it was decade, okay?

Anyone know of a stream ?

Criterion Channel. they’re offering a 14-day free trial, but it’s well worth the $10.99/month subscription though.

kanopy if you have a library card, but i’m unsure of the video quality through that app.

 

[HenryFlower]

Spoiler

 

[MusterX]

Yea if anyone has a link to this film please PM me.

 

[moreorless87]

I'd been considering whether to pick this up on BR or wait for the price to drop so you kind of forced by hand, hopefully it turns up in the next day or two. The trailer makes it look like The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Stalker so I have high hopes for it visually.

People I ordered Dead or Alive off of still haven't shipped it over a week latter so its going to be going back to that thread latter.

 

[HenryFlower]

Yea if anyone has a link to this film please PM me.

do you µ?

if you’ve already used Criterion’s free trial & have a BitT client, i could send an invite to a good private tracker for movies & a link to Long Day’s Journey.

I'd been considering whether to pick this up on BR or wait for the price to drop so you kind of forced by hand, hopefully it turns up in the next day or two. The trailer makes it look like The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Stalker so I have high hopes for it visually.

People I ordered Dead or Alive off of still haven't shipped it over a week latter so its going to be going back to that thread latter.

definitely worth the bluray purchase, so you’re welcome bud.

the visuals are more Tarkovsky smashed w/ Wong Kar-wai than Greenaway. i’ve never seen the trailer, but i’m curious now because i know the mainstream audiences in China felt mislead & were fucking pissed when they got served up this “challenging” art film.

 

[Jackonfire]

So this isn't an adaptation of the Eugene O'Neil play? I had to read that in high school and damn, heavy stuff.

 

[HenryFlower]

So this isn't an adaptation of the Eugene O'Neil play? I had to read that in high school and damn, heavy stuff.

no relation other than the English title

 

[dissectingaorticaneurysm]

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That's a gorgeous poster. Is that an actual still from the movie?

 

[HenryFlower]

That's a gorgeous poster. Is that an actual still from the movie?

yep

 

[dissectingaorticaneurysm]

yep

Striking palette.

Just saw the trailer and was impressed by the neo-noir lighting.

 

[HenryFlower]

Striking palette.

Just saw the trailer and was impressed by the neo-noir lighting.

if i were to pitch this movie to you or anyone, i’d say it‘s a neo-noir romance w/ the dream/memory logic + camerawork of Tarkovsky & the colors + mise-en-scene of Kar-wai Wong

 

[dissectingaorticaneurysm]

if i were to pitch this movie to you or anyone, i’d say it‘s a neo-noir romance w/ the dream/memory logic + camerawork of Tarkovsky & the colors + mise-en-scene of Kar-wai Wong

Ha, the immediate impression I got was 2046 with vaporwave cinematography. I trust your taste so I will give it a watch.

 

[moreorless87]

Ha, the immediate impression I got was 2046 with vaporwave cinematography. I trust your taste so I will give it a watch.

Just watched it and yes 2046 does definitely come to mind both in the look and style of the film, vague story of shifting time periods and lost love but really more tone piece.

Some of the Tarkovsky nods are actually quite overt, the tracking shot over the water and the glass moving across the table to train vibrations directly from Stalker. The framing tends to be tighter and more modern but the slow tracking work obviously similar and I think makes the unbroken hour take in the second half more than just a gimmick.

You could argue the two halves provide a contrast with the first being dreamy shifting in time and space constantly and the second being locked into very exact time/place with the long single shot.

 

[MusterX]

I scanned through the thread and it doesn't look like anyone attempted a review at this film. I'm not sure I can either. I felt the score was dead on for this film, be it the somber tones when Luo Hongwu is in reflection, or just the sound of a carts wheels, or dripping water. Often the sound was almost overpowering. I'm not sure if I grasp all the artsy implications of the film. The title of the film itself, Long Day's Journey into Night, seems to indicate the seasons or times of life. He meets the girl he can't get over when he is a young man but then his long journey to the end was like watching his life go from day to night.

There was a feeling during the film that he was traveling to an ultimate goal or destination but that the path was long and meandering. This is complicated by the fact that the story is not told in chronological order. Sometimes it feels as if we are seeing something from 20 years previously but Luo Hongwu still looks the same age with the graying hair. He's remembering his past and we see him as he presently is. There is a confusion with the timeline similar to the confusion produced by a film like Mulhollund Drive.

Luo Hongwu narrates at the beginning of the film that his friend Wildcat was killed and we don't see anything else about that until Act 3 when Luo Hongwu meets 12 year old Wildcat. Its seems like its in the present timeline but you know it has to be a memory from the past but from there he descends down a zipline into the old prison and then it seems to be the current timeline. The film is filled with jumps that are very subtle. I'm not sure I even understand the overall basics of the plot.

Long Day's Journey into Night is like watching the flame of a love story slowly dwindle and die. He met this girl, plotted to run away with her but there was a catch. Her boyfriend would never let her go. He seemed to be some sort of organized crime guy and Luo Hongwu was supposed to shoot him in the theater when it was loud. We even get one scene of him sitting behind the guy with the gun wrapped in a cloth. What we don't get to see if fully drawn scenes. Its just a dreamlike snippet here and there. I have to assume he chickened out and the girl sailed out of his life forever.

The viewer also gets the curious scene of Luo Hongwu with the girl in the burned out house during the final act. This new girl he met, while on his quest to find the old girl, tells him of a couple that loved each other very much and made the house perfect. I guess it feels like the burned out house was a metaphor for what could have been with the girl he could never let go of, and then the spinning of the house represented him falling in love with the new girl. Out with the old, in with the new I guess they always say.

Beyond that, there was also a feeling of bad, or absentee parents in this film. Luo Hongwu's mother either died or abandoned him when he was young then he spent his whole life looking for the girl that reminded him of his mother. What was he really in pursuit of, the girl of his lost childhood? Wildcat was locked in a storage cabinet when Luo Hongwu found him and his mother went to prison. The girl in the green dress aborted her baby. As I said at the beginning of this, I'm not sure what to make of this film. I would have to watch it again and read some reviews to get an overall feel for it.