The final segment of Resurrection plays out in a single, unbroken take that lasts a full half-hour, wending its way through a dock, town, and karaoke club on the last night of 1999.

Alternately coasting along as if on a ghostly breeze, and temporarily assuming the POV of a gangster named Mr. Luo (Huang Jue), who runs the enclave’s hottest spot, the film (December 12, in theaters) is a heady feat of virtuosic filmmaking, marked by jaw-dropping sleights of hand—the camera moving in and out of spaces with otherworldly ease—that speak to this import’s fascination with time, loss, and memory.

Imaginative and intoxicating, it’s arguably the crowning achievement of its maker’s still-young career.

Chinese auteur Bi Gan is no stranger to awe-inspiring oners; similar acts of stunning showmanshi

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