You’ll either love this or hate it. Here’s why:
The teaser for Bi Gan’s Resurrection isn’t here to hold your hand. It’s here to drag you under—into a dreamworld where memory blurs, language shatters, and Shu Qi stares straight through your soul. At just over a minute, it offers more questions than answers—and that’s exactly the point.
This is not your neatly packaged, exposition-heavy sci-fi. There are no intergalactic shootouts, no slick monologues about fate. Instead, the trailer pulses with cryptic imagery and hushed desperation. It’s Blade Runner if directed by Wong Kar-wai, and edited on a caffeine bender in someone’s subconscious.
Mainstream science fiction hasn’t dared to be this abstract in years. Hollywood prefers clarity: heroes, arcs, finales that tie in a bow. But Resurrection—like Bi Gan’s earlier works (Kaili Blues, Long Day’s Journey Into Night)—laughs in the face of linearity. It’s a flex, sure. But it’s also a rebellion.
Consider this: the film wrapped just weeks before Cannes, a bold sprint to completion that echoes Bi Gan’s boundary-pushing process. He’s said to have shot and edited simultaneously. That’s not production—it’s performance art.
Flashback to 2012. Leos Carax’s Holy Motors debuts at Cannes—a surrealist rollercoaster that divided critics and baffled audiences. Some called it “pretentious.” Others saw a masterpiece. Sound familiar?
Now fast-forward to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return in 2017. Again: disjointed time, hypnotic pacing, dream logic. Viewers were either hypnotized or alienated. What Resurrection signals is that the surreal isn’t just back—it’s evolving. It’s been localized, digitized, and deep-fried in China’s increasingly adventurous indie scene.
At the center of the storm? Shu Qi.
She’s not just the anchor—she’s the accelerant. Her casting brings both gravitas and unpredictability. And the teaser frames her less as a protagonist, more as a medium. A vessel. The rare few who can dream in a world that has forgotten how.
That’s not a metaphor. That’s the plot. A world where dreaming is a power. And only one “monster” has it.
So what’s really going on here?
Resurrection might be a sci-fi detective story on paper. But based on this teaser, it’s a philosophical labyrinth. Expect more slow tracking shots than plot twists. Expect your own thoughts to echo back at you in a different language.
And let’s be honest—this trailer’s not going viral. It’s not designed for your feed. It’s designed for that one sleepless night when you wonder if your memories are actually dreams with better lighting.
Would you risk that kind of confusion just to feel something different?
Then mark your calendar. Resurrection is coming for your neural pathways.
