Three lamentations on dying creatures.
1. The end of the world and the death of humans. An apocalyptic landscape devoid of water forces survivors to drink the blood of others, effluvia, urine, rotting fruits, etc. When it rains, it's blood and it is consumed with relish.
2. What the dead "live" after death. They relive reality in fast motion. Dead, you see your death, your burial.
3. The act of dying in general. An earthquake is the symbol of the precariousness of life. In this third lamentation, it is not only humans who die. A pig is killed, a mosquito is fatally attacked by ants, cockroaches drown in soup, a frog gesticulates after its belly has been slit, geese with bloody slit necks stumble in their final moments, fish out of water gasp. It ends with an inverted birth, the baby pushed back into the mother's womb. The point? Better not be born.
This art-house film has no dialog. Fuzzy monochromatic images, shot as if they were captured through a key hole make for a peculiar aesthetic. Sadomasochistic sex is added for good measure. The whole is highly symbolic, an impressionistic commentary on dying.
Presumably no humans were harmed (I could not read the Chinese disclaimers, if any). On the other hand, animals surely were. It's not a pretty sight but if forces us to confront mortality and the modalities of dying head on.
I can't say I enjoyed the film. It felt too much as a zombie film for the art-house crowd.
I saw this film with the title of "Bardo". I guess a reference to the Buddist concept of intermediate state. In this case, the insurmountably mysterious state between being alive and being dead.