Kaili Blues

Name: Kaili Blues
Genre: Drama, Mystery
Released: May 20, 2016
Duration: 113 min
Rating: 85

2016

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 10 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Ratings

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7.4

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7.4	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Ratings

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Kaili Blues (US)

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Movie Details & Credits

Grasshopper Film | Release Date: May 20, 2016 | Not Rated

Summary: In a small clinic in the rain-drenched city of Kaili, two preoccupied doctors live ghost-like lives. One of them, Chen, decides to fulfill his dead mother’s wish and sets off on a train journey to look for his brother’s abandoned child. His partner in the clinic, a lonely old lady, asks Chen to find her old lover, and give him an oldIn a small clinic in the rain-drenched city of Kaili, two preoccupied doctors live ghost-like lives. One of them, Chen, decides to fulfill his dead mother’s wish and sets off on a train journey to look for his brother’s abandoned child. His partner in the clinic, a lonely old lady, asks Chen to find her old lover, and give him an old photograph, a shirt and a music cassette. But on the way, Chen passes a mysterious town called Dangmai, where time is not linear and people’s lives complement each other. Here, Chen experiences the past, present and future. It’s unclear whether this world is the doctor’s dream, or the other way around. [Grasshopper Film]… Expand

Director: Gan Bi

Genre(s): Drama, Mystery

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 113 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Peter Keough

Aug 4, 2016

Bi’s singular vision bears comparison to those of other geniuses such as Tarkovsky, Sokurov, David Lynch, Luis Buñuel and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Like those auteurs, he achieves what film is best at but seldom accomplishes — a stirring of a deeper consciousness, a glimpse into a reality transcending the everyday. Read full review

Michael Nordine

May 19, 2016

First-time writer-director Bi Gan and cinematographer Wang Tianxing infuse the imagery with a feeling at once otherworldly and familiar — the kind of thing you can't put a name to but would swear you've already experienced. Read full review

Justin Chang

Jun 2, 2016

Showing an unobtrusive mastery of camera movement, Bi lends concrete form and rich dramatic life to the Buddhist notion that past, present and future are all equally untenable. Read full review

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky

May 19, 2016

Bi is a poet as well as a filmmaker, and some of his verse is in the film. He treats almost every shot as an opportunity to further develop the movie’s plainspoken lyrical vocabulary, in which disco balls and side-view mirrors take on metaphorical significance and water stands in for time. Read full review

Nick Schager

May 17, 2016

Led by performances imbued with barely concealed sorrow, regret and longing to come to terms with that which has been lost, Kaili Blues affords a view of people, and a nation, caught in between a haunting yesterday and — as implied by the film’s conclusion — a hopeful tomorrow. Read full review

Farran Smith Nehme

May 19, 2016

Kaili Blues has the kitchen-sink feel of a new director eager to try every art-film technique in the book, but the film’s beauty and inventiveness are riveting. Read full review

Ken Jaworowski

May 19, 2016

As lovely as the movie is to look at (and the final scene is exceptionally wonderful), it’s too oblique to concentrate its energies and sharpen its focus. Read full review

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User Reviews

JLuis_001

Jan 2, 2023

Kaili Blues is a film that impresses much more for its visual level than for its plot. And although for me both things are very important in evaluating the film as a whole, I am able to recognize that even though it will be a film that will not get a perfect rating from me, the intention ofKaili Blues is a film that impresses much more for its visual level than for its plot. And although for me both things are very important in evaluating the film as a whole, I am able to recognize that even though it will be a film that will not get a perfect rating from me, the intention of its director is perfectly understood.

You have to pay attention and appreciate the details, especially the technical craftsmanship. It's a film that rewards but only a certain type of viewer.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

darknessinlight

Jul 18, 2016

“Kaili Blues”, a rebut film directed by Gan Bi who hadn’t been heard before by most film critics or audience. The Chinese name of this film “Lu bian ye can” originated from Strugatsky Brothers’ “Roadside Picnic” which was rearranged into “Stalker” by Andrei Tarkovsky. In “Kaili Blues”,“Kaili Blues”, a rebut film directed by Gan Bi who hadn’t been heard before by most film critics or audience. The Chinese name of this film “Lu bian ye can” originated from Strugatsky Brothers’ “Roadside Picnic” which was rearranged into “Stalker” by Andrei Tarkovsky. In “Kaili Blues”, elements of poem, time and long-take can all find their origins in Tarkovsky’s work. However, Gan Bi doesn’t stop at just making a film that pays homage to that Russian master. He granted this film his own style, own film language and own details.
Gan Bi chooses Gui Zhou---a South Eastern province covered by endless hills and mystic forests as the place of story in this film. This place is isolated, impoverished and distant at now. It was the same in the past and would be continued to remain in this situation. This is a place where no story could be told at all but at the same time, everyone has one’s story to tell. Its mystery along with unpredictable beauty were shown in every way under Gan Bi’s shots.
The first way is through the people living there for all their lives. Chen Shen, a doctor in Kaili clinic who has an inglorious past with local gang leader Monk but suddenly ended after he was caught into prison because of a fight. Through several fragmented scenes, people around him came into the story: Old Doctor in the clinic, Chen Shen’s brother Crazy Face, Crazy Face’s little son Weiwei as well as other native residents in Kaili. These fictive characters consist a picture of mystic region in China where everything can happen but always slips quickly without noticing by any one. Monk’s son was buried alive and chopped off one hands by Monk’s enemies; Crazy Face even intends to sell his son for money to gamble and drink but stopped by Monk. The film narrates these unusual events in a casual tone, reflecting reality which seems so ironical for audience to believe.
The second way is through the story. Gan Bi creates a story with his own experience in Gui Zhou, in Kaili (It’s a real town). Films come from reality but detached as far as it can from that. Chen Shen’s journey from Kaili to Zhen Yuan occupies most part of the story---from reality to illusion, from imagination back to life. His film language shows this story in the most dazzling way like what Tarkovsky did in “Stalker” while the story, in return, rises beyond the language and becomes a mystery itself. The climax of this story occurs in Dang Mai where time goes forward and back freely as Chen Shen tried to get to Zhen Yuan: There was a young man riding motorcycle who named also Weiwei and talked about “wild men” as Crazy Face’s son did before; a beautiful woman who owns a local hair salon looked just like his old lover; several Miaos appearing many times in his dream played reed-pipe wind instruments there. Zhen Yuan, Kaili and Dang Mai, these three places represent past, present and future in this story, forming a magical trinity in this isolated paradise.
The last way is symbols Gan Bi uses throughout his film. The clock, serving as one of the most frequently occurred symbol, created the background of time. From the beginning, the child Weiwei draw a clock on the wall and then he was taken by a mystic man who had numerous clocks in his house. Even on the journey to Zhen Yuan, Chen Shen saw more than few times clock around him, symbolizing time moving swiftly while no pattern could be traced. Train, another important symbol in this story, appears as an impetus, carrying Chen moving from places to places, past to future, future to present. Dang Mai, a mystic town, arouses audience’s curiosity but reveals unforgettable truth among this South Eastern Chinese landscape. The last forty-minute long take filming this “mystical paradise” is discussed enthusiastically by most of audience as well as film critics. Nevertheless, this is just a technique which itself of no great significance but carries the soul of this film to an apex.
There are so many Andrei Tarkovsky’s shadows revealing in “Kaili Blues” but they are not touching the soul. This is Gan Bi’s movie. His own movie showing a mystical but tragic story in distant South Eastern China. With Poem, with time, “Everything that can’t be turned, can be turned.”… Expand

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