Resurrection (2025) review

Humanity comes to the realization that the "secret to immortality" is for people to stop dreaming, but there are still individuals referred to as "Deliriants" that defy that order and "make reality suffer," so when a woman (Shu Qi) finds a dying Deliriant (Jackson Yee, who also plays the major male roles) she loads his body with film and he presents to her multiple narratives.  The first segment is a detective tale (of sorts) involving a mysterious briefcase, the second features a "bitter demon" emerging from a Buddha statue, the third has a con artist recruiting a boy to be his assistant and the fourth narrative (which is filmed in one continuous take, which is a trademark of the director's) deals with a spunky thug falling in love with Tai (Li Gengxi), who eventually reveals herself to be a vampire (hey, nobody's perfect).  Although some may (perhaps justifiably) accuse this of being overly ambitious and underwhelming on an intellectual level, it is truly an aesthetic marvel, with meticulous cinematography (courtesy of Dong Jingsong), distinctive lighting and a playful energy that isn't matched by most filmmakers.  The sections pertaining to the hustler and his apprentice as well as the Apollo story could have very well been standalone movies in their own right and the project itself shows genuine reverence for the history of the medium, beginning with the silents and stretching all the way to the present, where technology isn't something to fear but a tool to create fresh hypnotic voyages into the collective unconscious.  If Jung were around, he would have dug it.