When Long Day’s Journey into Night was a first-run film in America in 2019 it played in 2D for just a week at the Tivoli, a brief run that was enough to inspire no fewer than three local film critics to include it on their “Best films of the 2010s” list for Cinema St. Louis some seven months later. Missing from that original run was the 3D element, which the Webster University Film Series and Cinema St. Louis are proud to now be providing a belated St. Louis premiere to. “Only” the film’s final hour is in 3D, but not only is that hour 3D, it is also one long, unbroken, incredibly complicated shot. From a genre standpoint, Long Day’s Journey into Night is a neon noir of the sort we’ve been seeing come out of China in recent years (Fallen Angels, Streetwise, The Wild Goose Lake), wherein we find Luo Hongwu (Huang Jue) returning to his hometown of Kaili and searching for his lost love Wan Qiwen (Tang Wei of Decision to Leave and Lust, Caution). Just 28 years old at the time of its premiere, Bi Gan promptly rocketed himself to the front ranks not just of the world’s young directors, but the world’s directors, period.

Co-presented with Cinema St. Louis. Webster Film Series punch passes are not accepted for admission to this event. General admission $8, free for currently-enrolled Webster University students with proper ID.