Long Day's Journey into Night[a] (Chinese: 地球最後的夜晚; pinyin: Dìqiú Zuìhòu de Yèwǎn; lit.
Luo, himself connected to organized crime as a casino manager, attempts to track down Zuo through his girlfriend Wan Qiwen.
Wan had been a cat burglar and had broken into a home with another woman, but they were distracted by a book with a poetry spell that could supposedly make the entire house itself spin.
The inhabitants returned unexpectedly, causing them to flee with the most valuable item they could grab; the only thing Wan took was the green book with the poem.
Wan convinces Luo to murder Zuo in a movie theatre by shooting him through the back of his seat, and he disposes of the body in an abandoned mine.
The handcart takes him up to a small office, where a preteen boy challenges Luo to a game of ping-pong in return for helping him find his way out.
They spin the paddle and it brings them to the village square where Wan was supposed to be; a traveling karaoke show has arrived in the meantime.
The 59-minute unbroken long take 3D sequence that closes the film took two months to prepare, as techniques had to be devised to move a RED camera through the complicated environment of the scene.
[8] The sequence was shot in 2D and converted to 3D in post-production because a 2D camera was lighter and therefore easier to move in difficult positions and small environments.
[7] Bi drew inspiration for the film from the paintings of Marc Chagall, specifically The Promenade, as well as the novels of Patrick Modiano.
[10] Despite its strong presales, it faded quickly from the box-office charts, having grossed $41 million US during its initial three weeks (most of it from its 31 December premier).
The website's critical consensus reads, "Long Day's Journey Into Night may flummox viewers looking for an easy-to-follow story, but writer-director Gan Bi's strong visual command and technical risk-taking pay off.
In his 4/4 star review for The Boston Globe, critic Ty Burr compared the sequence to his own dreams, noting that they are often "unsettling, unstoppable, and yet there's often a logic within their illogic.
This is precisely what Bi has re-created in the final hour of "Long Day's Journey Into Night", a fluid and outrageously extended camera shot that, as with dreams, doesn't need editing to cast its spell.
He proceeded to reflect on how the unbroken dream sequence allows the viewer to think about memories not as simple, disconnected flashbacks, but rather as complex, subliminal flashes which lack any significant substance until one is created for them.