On the latest episode of FLC Luminaries, our video series that spotlights talent at all levels of the filmmaking process who uplift the art and craft of cinema, Resurrection director Bi Gan discusses his elusive yet monumental love letter to a century of cinema.

An NYFF63 selection, Resurrection is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel and is available on home video, courtesy of Janus Films.

This phantasmagoric dream machine from visionary Chinese director Bi Gan (Long Day’s Journey Into Night, NYFF56) unfolds over five chapters that feature a dazzling array of styles. Resurrection is a cascade of imagery united by a luminous mythopoetic conceit: in a sci-fi-coded world where people have lost the desire to dream in the hopes of prolonging life, rogue “fantasmers” continue to stoke their imaginations and exist within unreality. From this magical premise, the film sends its ever-morphing protagonist (Jackson Yee) through a series of genres, from Méliès-inflected silent fantasy to wartime thriller to con-artist buddy picture to millennial vampire romance—the latter depicted in one of Bi’s customary, and ever astonishing, single takes. Even within genre parameters, the director never takes the road well-traveled, offering jolts and marvels around every corner. Resurrection is one of the most audacious and ambitious gifts for cinematic thrill-seekers in many a moon.