Across six chapters in a century-spanning Chinese epic, a ‘Deliriant’ hides inside movies to sustain his dreams.

Auteur director Bi Gan (who decided to pursue filmmaking after watching Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker) directs this ambitious sci-fi drama starring Chinese actor and pop star Jackson Yee. He portrays a ‘Deliriant’, who resists his world where humanity has given up dreaming in exchange for longevity.

Shifting across timelines and astral planes, the Deliriant is reincarnated as six different characters in distinct worlds. Each segment corresponds to one of the six senses recognised in Buddhist thought: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, and mind.

With picture-perfect cinematography (including a thirty-minute-long continuous shot), sharp performances and visual nods to German expressionist cinema, there’s plenty to contemplate and feast your eyes on.