freshsnow.However,it is alsobecausethenight-time
containsthosewitchinghourswhenthemembranebe-
tweenrealandunrealis thinnerthanin theboldlightof
day: those not-yet-asleep,not-wholly-awakemoments
when,likeLi mistakingthemoonlightin hisbedchamber,
we’revulnerabletoanunbidden,namelesslongingfor
a farawayplace or a long-agoperson.All three films, in
onewayoranother,literalisethisquasi-mysticalnoctur-
nalstate,allowingcharacterstorevisitplacesofdeep
emotionalsignificanceto them, and to interactwith past
versionsofthemselves or with those they once loved
andlosttotime.
Moreover,each film detailsa heterosexuallove affair.
Thememoryofa moreorlessfatalefemmehauntsthe
archetypalnoirprotagonistsofLongDay’sJourneyand
CitiesofLastThings(anerstwhilecasinomanagerand
a cop, respectively).More wryly, the middle-agedcouple
atthecentreofWinter’sNightlivewiththeghostsofthe
waytheyoncewereandtheunconsummatedambitions
theyoncehadforthemselves.In eachcase,thesearch
forlostloveis notreallythat;it is a searchfora lostver-
sion of oneself.So, while Bi’s and Ho’s films in particular
can and have been critiquedfor the flimsy characterisa-
tionoftheirfemalemuses,^6 thatapparentinsubstantiality
is partly an elementborrowedfrom film noir’s ingrained
sexism,and partly a side effect of a deeperinterest
in thesubjectiveidentity vision-quest of each tale’s
(male)protagonist.
Thisis feltmostacutelyinLongDay’sJourney, in
whichthelostlove,WanQiwen(TangWei),is lessa
true characterthan a collectionof prompts,signifiers
and aide-mémoires– a green dress,a wild pomelo,a
barefoot,a smearoflipstick,a namethatsoundslike
a moviestar’s.She is a Proustianmadeleinein a film
littered with them: broken clocks and stopped watches;
apples,rottenandfreshandeaten,coreandall,bysi-
lentlyweepingdeadmen;beesandhoneyandthehoney-
comb patternof railingsand floor tiles; water,dripping
and poolingand placid,and at one point containedin
a glassrattledslowlyoffa tablebya passingtrain,in a
beautiful,unsubtleandyetunmistakablyreverenthom-
age to AndreiTarkovsky’sStalker(1979).Theglassfalls,
butwe’rewhippedawaybya cutbeforeit smashes.
Later, a minute-longfireworkwill burn impossiblylong
and,althoughit is perceptiblyburningdown,wewillcut
beforeit gutters.Split-second,ephemeral events are
thusprisedopentocontaineternities.
Most of these symbolscrop up in the first half of
this markedlybisectedfilm, wilfullyrememberedinto be-
ing by the taciturnLuo Hongwu(HuangJue), spurredby
hisreturntohishometownofKailifollowingthedeath
ofhisfather.ButthewayBipresentsthesefragmentary
images– the order in whichthey appear– is confound-
inglyprecisedespiteanapparentlackoflogic.Bihas
insistedthat,whereastimewasthecentralpreoccupa-
tionofhisdebut,KailiBlues(2015),LongDay’sJourney
is aboutdreams.^7 Yet the divisionbetweenmemory
(a functionof time) and dream(a functionof the ima-
gination)is highlyporous,andthestudiedstylisticsep-
arationof the film’s two halves– with the first unfolding
in classical,if languorous,montage,andthesecond
burstinginto 3D and snakingthroughits fifty-ninemin-
utes in an unbrokentravellingshot – suggestsa far
moreintriguing,andmorerigorous(if playfullyperverse),
relationshiptotimethan the handy catch-all ‘dream
logic’canconvey.
Infact,in amongalltheothercluesandechoes,
dejavusandjamaisvus, thereis a motifthataccounts
forboththeuncannyeditorialprecisionofthosenon-
chronological shards of memory and the fluid, expansive,This spread, L–R:Long Day’s Journey into Night;Cities of Last Things (two images)http://www.metromagazine.com.au | © ATOM | Metro Magazine 201• 55