100
Wang's film is as bewildering and heartbreaking as it is insightful, in its depiction of the daily existence of the institution's residents.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
70
The New York Times by Ben Kenigsberg
This overlong (nearly four hours) but sporadically extraordinary portrait of a forgotten corner of society may be tough going even for fans of forbidding cinema.
88
Slant Magazine by James Lattimer
Wang Bing intends to give back to the inmates the opportunity for individual expression that society has robbed them of.
60
As the hours roll slowly past, it’s hard not to feel that this epic achievement in monotonous misery might have retained its impact at a fraction of the length, and that even our grimmest truth-tellers might well find themselves capable of saying more with less.
70
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
You don't watch prolific doc-master Wang Bing's new film about a Chinese mental hospital so much as get imprisoned within it, pacing its dingy corridors and rooms like a zoo animal.