Bi Gan
Personal details
  • Born:
    • Birthday: 1989-06-04
    • Born Place: Kaili City, China
  • Also Known As:

    毕赣

Bi Gan

Born in the city of Kaili, Guizhou Province, on June 4, 1989, Bi Gan is a visionary Chinese director, screenwriter, and poet of Miao ethnicity who has become a leading figure in contemporary "neo-magic realism." He spent much of his childhood in the mountainous, foggy regions of Southwest China, which later became the primary setting and spiritual anchor for his films. Despite his family’s initial fears that he would be "jobless" after graduation, Bi pursued television directing at the Radio, Film, and Television Cadre College (now the Communication University of Shanxi) from 2008 to 2011. It was during his college years that he encountered Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker, a film that fundamentally shifted his perspective on cinema as an art form rather than mere entertainment, inspiring him to forge his own experimental path. Bi Gan’s professional career began with early shorts like Tiger (2011) and the black-and-white The Poet and Singer (2012). However, he achieved international stardom with his debut feature, Kaili Blues (2015), which was produced on a modest budget of approximately $30,000 and featured his uncle, Chen Yongzhong, in a leading role. The film’s centerpiece—a 41-minute unedited long take—won him Best New Director at the Golden Horse Awards and the Best Emerging Director award at Locarno. He followed this with the ambitious Long Day’s Journey into Night (2018), which premiered at Cannes and gained fame for its 59-minute 3D sequence, a technical feat that blurred the boundaries between the physical world and the subconscious. In 2025, Bi Gan solidified his reputation as a "cinematic magician" with the release of Resurrection (originally Kuang Ye Shi Dai). The sci-fi epic, starring Jackson Yee and Shu Qi, explores a future where dreams have been lost, told through six distinct chapters inspired by the Buddhist senses. The film premiered in competition at the 78th Cannes Film Festival, where it was honored with a Special Jury Prize (Prix Spécial). Beyond his technical mastery of long takes and neon-soaked aesthetics, Bi remains deeply connected to his roots as a poet, often incorporating his own written verses into his scripts to navigate themes of memory, time, and the "immaterial" made material.

Person History