Ronit J

Resurrection (2025) Synopsis:

What is it that, once lost, you can never get back?

In a future where humanity has surrendered its ability to dream in exchange for immortality, an outcast finds illusion, nightmarish visions, and beauty in an intoxicating world of his own making.

Resurrection (2025) Review:

I’ve been hearing about Resurrection ever since it first premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Many hailed this as the ‘resurrection’ of cinema, praising Bi Gan’s direction and the film’s use of several cinematic techniques. A true love letter to cinema, the film’s narrative did receive some criticism. However, I will say this: this film is not for everyone.

Resurrection is a very poetic, artistic film with a strong auteur voice. What that means is this is a film that will do great at festivals and special screenings, but the film won’t appeal to the masses. Having watched Bi Gan’s 2022 short, A Short Story, I had some idea of what to expect. I’m happy to admit that Resurrection surpassed my expectations by a massive margin.

The film unfolds from the perspective of an unnamed woman (Shu Qi), who is tasked with hunting down The Deliriant (Jackson Yee). This is a future world where humans have given up dreaming to live as immortals. However, some people still retain the ability to dream. Unfortunately, these few dreamers have such powerful dreams that they threaten to destroy the fabric of reality. The Deliriant’s dreams appear in the form of film reels. Once the woman catches the Deliriant, she tries to see his dreams/past lives in an attempt to understand him. The film comprises four dreams, along with narration and a fantastical representation of the woman’s hunt.

A Love Letter To Cinema

Resurrection opens with human audiences taking a seat in an old theatre. A film begins to play, elaborate sets of an opium den, establishing the setting where the woman begins to search for her target. With nods to The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and Nosferatu, the opening sequence plays out in the exact fashion that you’d expect a film from the silent era to. As expected, the hunt ends with the woman catching the Deliriant, only to find him dreaming in the form of films. To better understand him, she watches these films using the projector stuck in his back.

Each of these four dreams plays out like a different genre film, each one utilising distinct visual styles and cinematic techniques to tell a deeply human story in a futuristic world that we never really see. The first is like a noir film set during wartime; its gritty aesthetic balanced out by its poetic storyline. The second is a fantasy story featuring a monk who faces the spirit of bitterness. The third then takes on a conman crime drama, where the fantastical elements are subverted as through illusory tricks. My favourite of these was undoubtedly the fourth dream with the 30+ minute long take. Each features Jackson Yee in a different avatar, potentially in a very different era of his life.

Each of these focuses on one part of the human condition (longing, regret, etc.), but to identify the themes, you have to engage with the film intellectually and emotionally. From vivid colour palettes to dynamic camera movements, to recurring motifs of flowers, dreams, and more, Resurrection does little hand-holding. It visually shows you the story, dialogues and narration, filling in details when required, then lets you sit down and piece the puzzle together on your own. Irrespective, what you get before you is a 2-hour 40-minute-long epic that really does feel like the resurrection of cinema (which franchises and capitalism have almost killed with their market research and algorithmic knife).

A Complex Puzzle That Warrants Multiple Viewing

As beautiful as the film is, it’s also sort of confusing. I won’t deny my perplexity, which demanded double the effort of active engagement with the film. Also, I won’t lie about having understood this film in its entirety. Because in all honesty, the four dreams, along with the melting candle interludes, feel pretty disconnected. It’s only upon reflection can you start to make sense. Why was the Deliriant eating rose petals in the beginning instead of opium? What does the theremin symbolise? Why spirits and vampires in a sci-fi epic?

While not a single frame of this film is without artistic value, the narrative’s demanding nature does feel exhausting at times. Trust me, you don’t want to watch this film to relax; watch it when you’re in the mood for a Tarkovsky/Bergman level film with ample visual poetry and philosophy. I watched this film more than a week ago, but I’m still left here pondering over nitty gritties. Oh, wait, did the decaying tooth really symbolise the monk’s losing faith? The bitter stone reflective of his inner conflicts, which result from unresolved regret and guilt?

Resurrection is a true masterpiece. One that you don’t necessarily need to understand to appreciate. And yet, this is the only facet of the film that will drive audiences away. After all, AI is leading to an overall degradation of intellect and critical thinking, no? How then can a film like this really succeed? The very fact that it exists in itself is the highest form of cinematic rebellion against modern film trends. And for that reason alone, I would count this one among the greatest modern cinematic masterpieces.

Resurrection (2025) Ending Explained (SPOILERS)

After the fourth dream ends, the woman/The Big Other (Shu Qi) stitches up Apollo (Jackson Yee), dressing him up as the Deliriant using makeup and masks. She inters him in a vault full of liquid that looks like the cosmos. Having watched his dreams/films, she finally understands why he is dreaming. She communicates with him through silent film title cards as his body fades into the liquid cosmos. In the end, a theatre made of wax fills up with silhouettes of people made of light. Titles begin play on the screen. As the film ends, the silhouettes begin to disappear one by one before the theatre itself melts away.

The final sequence of the film—to me—perfectly encapsulates the current state of cinema around the world. The wax (poor material for construction) theatre represents the algorithms and market research that drive studios to keep pushing out remakes and reboots of popular IPs. While it can light up your profits for the moment, it’s not a long-term benefit, as is symbolised by the theatre slowly growing empty. The fading light silhouettes were like audiences losing interest because of mediocre films. The ending with the melting theatre could then symbolise the death of cinema, something that’s lurking in the near future thanks to AI, algorithms and streaming platforms, and a constantly diminishing attention span.

Resurrection—an ambitious epic film—really does feel like the death and resurrection of cinema. Because, despite the growing pile of mediocrity that populates films every year, here is Bi Gan being audacious enough to pay homage to cinema in the grandest, most artistically excellent manner possible.

Is Resurrection (2025) worth watching?

Yes. However, the film is on the poetic, artistic side of cinema, which might not appeal to everyone out there. The film can seem confusing, demanding active engagement and post-watch reflection to make sense of what you watch. In fact, I’d even say you need multiple viewings to really understand Bi Gan’s epic.

In Conclusion:

Resurrection (2025) is a complex cinematic puzzle that’ll reward your active engagement and reflection with its rich visual and poetic storytelling.

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What did you think of Resurrection (2025)? Let me know in the comments below.

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Until next time!