Resurrection

In a world where dreaming is traded for longevity, Miss Shu, an Other One, seeks out a Deliriant who still longs for the dream life. She grants him a gentle death by installing a film projector inside him, allowing him to experience cinematic dreams after death. This act opens the door to memory and imagination through film.

The Deliriant resurfaces as Qiu in the mid-20th century, accused of murdering a man by stabbing him with a fountain pen. His presence draws the attention of the Commander, who pursues the mysterious suitcase thought to end the ongoing war.

In a mirror shop, the Commander tortures Qiu to reveal the suitcase's location. Qiu reveals a theremin hidden inside the suitcase and, before escaping, declares that he is the suitcase.

Using the shop's disorienting layout, Qiu stabs the Commander in one ear and escapes. He continues to insist that he embodies the suitcase, intensifying the pursuit.

The Commander later wounds himself in the other ear and plays Bach's Come, Sweet Death on the theremin as a grim vigil. He then tracks Qiu to a train, determined to finish the hunt.

On the train, the Commander confronts Qiu and kills him. The confrontation culminates in both of them bursting into flames, marking a fiery end to their pursuit.

Thirty years after the earlier events, the Deliriant becomes Mongrel, an art thief stranded in a ruined Buddhist temple. He breaks a fragment from a Buddha statue to release the Spirit of Bitterness, reincarnated into the tooth.

The Spirit enters the scene as a trickster, taking form within the tooth. Mongrel reveals a dark memory: he killed his father to spare him a painful death from rabies, and the Spirit’s presence complicates their already tense bond.

Mongrel and the Spirit conduct a Buddhist ritual that culminates in the Spirit achieving Enlightenment. In the aftermath, the thief himself is transformed and becomes a literal dog.

Decades later, the Deliriant becomes Jia, a slick con artist who recruits an orphan girl as his sidekick. He shows the girl a banknote with a riddle he believes will bring back her missing father.

Jia teaches the girl elaborate tricks that supposedly let her recognize cards by smell, and the duo swindle a mob boss to stay ahead. Their schemes rely on misdirection and the girl's keen senses, pushing their partnership to the edge.

Jia plans to abandon the girl, but he is robbed and stabbed to death before he can return to her. The girl is left to navigate the fallout of their partnership and the riddle’s promise.

Meanwhile, the mob boss asks the girl to decipher the final message left by his estranged daughter on a burnt piece of paper. The girl uses her sense of smell to interpret the scent and completes the message.

In a port city on New Year’s Eve 1999, the Deliriant appears as Apollo, a young hoodlum who falls for Tai Zhaomei, a vampire who claims she has never bitten anyone. They fall in love, and Tai bites Apollo with his consent. They kiss as the sun rises, and Apollo dies from his injuries, while Tai is felled by the sunlight.

The Deliriant dies after the final dream. Shu dresses him in monster garbs and conducts a funeral rite, attempting to speak to him through cinema once more. The film ends in a wax movie theater, where bright figures melt away as the light fades.