Kaili Blues – 2015 Gan Bi - The Cinema Archives

An exciting debut from 26-year old (in 2015) Chinese auteur Gan Bi—it is very rough drafty compared his follow-up 2018’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night but there is a clear vision here- a uniqueness that is confirmed (and made richer) with his more polished sophomore effort

Shot in long takes (including one very long take which seems to be a trademark now) The tone is dream-like- surreal, closer to Apichatpong Weerasethakul than David Lynch

A 40 minute long take on hand-held camera
Heavy use of reoccurring images and icons, trains, a transition on an ear (Lynch)

It does seem rather formless —but it is more about creating a mood—he blends dreams, reality, past– (voices on a tape (Tarkovsky’s Mirror) talking about dreams, the voice on the tape is often poetry, but we get random facts about the city of Kaili a well (coordinates, altitude-haha—this is an art-house film for anyone who isn’t initiated)
We get the film’s delayed title– 30 minutes into the film (Weerasethakul) and dramatic music for the first time—dissonance and an opaque film

The tracking shot– a long first person POV ride on the scooter at the 56 minutes mark, tracking as we watch people travel, go on a boat, a bad rock band—I can’t say it’s overly impressive (and it’s dwarfed by say 1917 or even Long Day Journey’s hour long final shot) as far as a technical accomplishment but the shot and the entire film work as a dream simulation on film (which is where you could argue the formlessness or fogginess of it is intentional). It is a good marriage of style and content.