Beforemybed
thereis brightmoonlight
Sothatit seems
likefrostontheground:
Liftingmyhead
I watchthebrightmoon,
Loweringmyhead
I dream that I’mhome.
—LiBai^1‘QuietNightThoughts’,oneofChina’smostfamouspoems,^2
byLi Bai,^3 one of the country’smost historicallysignificant
poets,mayhavebeenwrittenovertwelvecenturiesago,
butitsspartan,homesickimageryandtheliminal,dream-
likestateit evokeshavepeculiarkinshipwiththreevery
differentyet thematicallysimilar2018 arthousefilms from
acrosstheEastAsianregion.InLongDay’sJourneyinto
Night, byChinesedirectorBiGan,a shadyantiherogoes
on a surrealsearchthroughhis home town for a lost lover.
InCitiesofLastThings, byTaiwan-basedMalaysiandirector
HoWiDing,a policedetective’shard-boiledpsychologyis
reverse-engineeredfrompastrelationshipswithwomen.And
inWinter’sNight, bySouthKoreandirectorJangWoo-jin,a
long-marriedcoupleareforcedtoconfronttheirrelationship
whentheygetstrandedovernightatthetemplewherethey
had their first date. Thesethree films – whichpremieredat
the Cannes,Torontoand Jeonjufilm festivals,respectively- share a distinctive,expresslyhaunted,deconstructedap-
proachtotime,thenightandmemory,even as they differ
in the meansby whichthey achieveit.
Anythreesuchwilfullyenigmaticworkswillconstitute
somethingof a reflectingpool: we may see only what we
wanttoin them,andmagnifycommonalitiesthatwould
nototherwisepresentthemselves.Butwhiletakingtoheart
anotherlessonfrom Li – who is perhapsbest knownin the
Westasthepoetwho,legendhasit, drownedwhiletrying
to kiss the reflectionof the moon in the water^4 (animage
irresistiblyevokedin theupside-downpondsidekissingscene
inLongDay’sJourney) – there is still a sensethat they flow
alongthesamesingularcurrent.If theirwoozyatemporality
is not exactlya new wave in Asian cinema(and indeedhas
its forebearsin the films of Wong Kar Wai, Tsai Ming-liang,
HouHsiao-hsien,ApichatpongWeerasethakulandeven
Hong Sang-soo),this confluence, at this moment in time,
is at least a significantripple.
All three films are set at night. Bi’s and Jang’seven have
the word in their titles – twice over in Bi’s, if you considerthat
LongDay’sJourney’s originaltitletranslatesto‘LastNighton
Earth’(cuinga brilliantbut backfiringNew Year’sEve market-
ingcampaignin Chinathatsoldit asa last-night-of-the-year
eventmovie^5 ). AndCitiesofLastThingstreblesdownonthe
night-timethemebybeingsetoverthreenightsin itspro-
tagonist’slife,eachprogressivelylaterbytheclock, though
progressivelyearlierin the man’sexperience.
Partly,the choiceis aesthetic:the noirishovertonesof
the films by Bi and Ho suit the oily neonsof the midnight
city,whileWinter’sNight– whichmay be set in the bucolic
environsofa Buddhisttemple,butsharesthosemoreurban
films’ electric-blueand hot-pinklightingmotif – achieves
a lotofitsvisualdreaminessthroughtheuncannyinver-
sion that is a dark sky vaulting over grounds bright with
Previousspreadandopposite:LongDay’sJourneyintoNight(threeimages)
Above, from top:Winter’s Night;Cities of Last Things (two images)
52 • Metro Magazine 201 | © ATOM