76 Days

2020 Directed by Hao Wu, Weixi Chen

Raw and intimate, this documentary captures the struggles of patients and frontline medical professionals battling the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan.

93 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by davidehrlich ★★★½

A medical worker in a hazmat suit wails in pain as her father’s body is wheeled towards the morgue; her colleagues at the exhausted hospital plead with her to “control herself” because they desperately need her to keep working. A door handle jiggles down the hallway as a horde of desperate people try to force their way inside. A plastic box labeled “ID cards and phones of the dead” rattles with ghosts that have yet to depart. A woman cries as she’s prepared for a C-section, begging the hospital staff to let her husband come and sit by her side, but the COVID threat makes it impossible to honor such a request. “Don’t worry,” one of the nurses offers. “So…
Review by Lucy ★★★½ 3

AFI 2020: film #4
“let’s not panic, ok?”
perhaps too potent a viewing in 2020, but expertly made and often so emotional. the bare essence of this is people taking care of people, and that sole theme makes this feel almost comforting despite all the trauma
Review by Cate Young ★★★★½ 1

What struck me most about this film was the contrast between Chinese collectivism and American individualism.
Review by Matt Neglia ★★★½

76 DAYS may be too recent for people to grapple with emotionally but this grave documentary about the lockdown in Wuhan, China during the outbreak of COVID-19 is an important historical document - one that salutes the bravery of medical workers. Brutal, humane and very well shot.
Review by Paul Elliott ★★★★ 3

76 Days is a heartbreaking and poignant visual document written, co-directed and edited by Hao Wu that portrays the initial days of the COVID-19 outbreak. Told from the corridors and emergency rooms of several overrun hospitals, it provides a penetrating exposé that apprehends both the struggles of frontline medical professionals and the increasing incapacity of victims that gradually gave shape to the pandemic's severity; first detected in Wuhan, China.
Observing the courageous medical staff struggling to make sense of the unrelenting virus creates a tragic portrait as they jump through hoops in caring for the patients flooding into the hospitals, causing critical bed shortages. Of course, it doesn't elaborate on the background of the virus; hopefully, that information will emerge…
Review by kevinyang ★★★½ 1

Obviously difficult to watch while we're still in the midst of the pandemic, but certainly a more appropriate and valuable piece of content than the million scripted projects in development that no one will want to see. It's harrowing and inspiring in equal measure, taking us directly to the front lines as we watch doctors and nurses literally in the process of saving lives. It can get repetitive from a filmmaking standpoint, but the opening and closing sequences are particularly shattering, made all the more infuriating knowing America has no respect for the people portrayed in this film.
GRADE: B
Review by Mike D'Angelo ★★★½

64/100
A.V. Club review. My kind of fully immersive, present-tense doc, though the fact that it gets less harrowing and intense as it goes along (the opening 10 minutes in particular are tough to watch) makes for an atypical viewing experience.
Review by Michael Clawson ★★★½

Up-close look inside Wuhan hospitals during the city’s seventy-six day lockdown for coronavirus, shot in a vérité fashion without any talking heads or narration. In contrast to the eerily quiet and empty streets, the hospitals are a flurry of activity as overstretched but dedicated healthcare workers hustle to save as many patients as they can. The opening scene had me bracing for a harrowing ninety minutes, but while the suffering on display is devastating, moments of tenderness and compassion offer hope and relief.
Review by 🐱Andrew Chrzanowski🐱 ★★★★ 2

☆"You're a Communist! Don't cry!"☆
Stirring and excruciatingly tense, directors by Hao Wu and Weixi Chen -- and a third filmmaker who chose to remain anonymous -- bring the horrific story of the early days of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China during the unprecedented lockdown of the city in 76 Days. Today, January 23rd, is the one-year anniversary of the start of this event, and to commemorate it the film is available at no cost.
In the brief period of chaos when government control of the media wasn't as strong, as the epidemic began to rage and with little known about its spread, filmmakers found access to some of the hardest hit hospitals in Wuhan and to the patients being taken…
Review by Robby ★★★½

A very interesting documentary that I never want to watch again. Often sad and hard to watch, but these medical workers risked their lives and well-being and did everything they could to help all those patients and that left me with hope. The world is so negative and toxic right now and I needed to be reminded that there's still people out there who care about others and want to help.
Comes recommended from me, but I especially want to recommend this to the idiots out there who still aren't taking COVID seriously. Hopefully this will make you turn on your brain.
Review by Daniel Bayer ★★★★½ 1

A vital act of cinematic bravery, 76 Days documents the lockdown of Wuhan during the COVID outbreak with you-are-there urgency. The structure is near-flawless, and also kind of God-given: From Winter to Spring, from death to life, etc. There are so many haunting images that will stick with me - an air-filled latex glove with a smiley face and "get well soon" on it in marker; a new mother finally getting to hold her baby after two weeks in quarantine after giving birth; an elderly woman gripping her doctor's hand like it's a life preserver; the head nurse of a hospital sifting through the phones and assorted personal effects of those who have died; a freezing group of 56 people…
Review by CalvinLaw ★★★½

2020 Ranking
Wouldn't say it's revelatory or anything in its filmmaking methods but the opening 10 minutes are indeed very harrowing by how in your face it thrusts the you into the early stages of the virus containment in Wuhan. Wrenches your heart to see the immediate repercussions and fallout even a year on. I would say it's required viewing but honestly it will probably hit a bit too close to home for many so basically, just wear a mask and be cautious if you aren't already. Although I can't say you should watch the film necessarily because it might be a bit too much, but the takeaway is worth it alone.
Again, the opening is the most harrowing, the…

Recent reviews

Review by BurtReynolds ★★★★

Not a lot to say about this one, but the context-free vérité is incredibly effective. Finds a lot of interesting little moments among all the misery.
Review by Harshith C S ★★★★½

Horrific, gripping and heartfelt all in one.
All you hear about COVID-19 are the statistics.
Today 234 thousand people tested positive. Today over a 1000 people died due to COVID-19.
This whole routine has become such a norm that you forget the individuals that are actually infected and the people who treat and care for them. This documentary puts you in the confines of a suffocating hospital in Wuhan during the 76 days complete lockdown in the city. It excavates stories of people suffering from the disease, people not being able to talked to their loved ones; a mother having to part ways with her newborn for both their safety; the resilient doctors and nurses going through heaven and hell…
Review by Gustavo Herrera Taboada ★★★½

This is probably the bravest project about the COVID-19 pandemic as it implied a risk of exposure to the virus itself and to the excruciating human tragedy that was bound to happen everywhere. Regardless of one’s posture on Wuhan and the PCR’s handling of the pandemic, it is impossible not to empathize with the lives behind the headlines, both patients, relatives and medical staff. It doesn’t exert an exploitative gaze nor does it seem constrained by fear of censorship. While its editing seems somewhat rushed, it provides enough information to grasp the stress, pain but also optimism and resilience experienced by ordinary heroes and victims during 76 seemingly eternal days.
Review by jonnywhy ★★★★½

Might be too soon for many to watch, understandably, but it's a remarkable and important document of this period of time. It's a really good piece of filmmaking too, given the circumstances they were filming in. More than anything it highlights how healthcare workers are completely superhuman.
Watched on: Sky Documentaries
Review by scott marvel ★★★

This documentary is about a small hospital in Wuhan, China and the first 76 days of the city lock down and the intake of some of its Corona virus patients. It’s ground zero and the hospital Covid area can only hold 50 patients. The doc is not as intense as I thought it would be. There’s a stubborn old man they call Grandpa who keeps trying to leave all the time that’s some what amusing. A couple who’s newborn was born while the mother had Covid but the survived and went home but the baby the staff nicknamed “little penguin” stayed at the NICU. There’s obviously no follow up moments to this doc because we are all still living in this pandemic. It’s a harsh reality and hopefully we as the human race can work together with masks put a good fight.
Review by Javier ½

No ofrece nada salvo morbo y exponer a ancianos en su momento más frágil e indefenso.
Review by Meh ★★★½

An excellent example of why the truth is always more impactful than fiction. The respect and admiration we should all have for essential workers is immeasurable.
Review by Hugo Romero ★★★½

Difícil de soportar, tiene más valor como documento que como cine.
Review by JumpCut Online ★★★½

FULL REVIEW
Review by OMuse

Phew 😅 😪
Review by Samuel ★★★★½

The seventy-six days of lockdown in Wuhan, 2020, after covered in this documentary free of adornment -- there is no narration, there are no interviews, there is just those seventy-six days, tracked across four hospitals. While there are some throughlines (a baby born to a COVID19-positive mother, a wandering old man), the film mostly just follows the medical staff, and the patients, throughout the crisis. It's intensely humanistic in that way. With everyone so covered in masks and medical gear, it's often difficult to discern the many people the film covers, and as the film covers more and more people, there's a sense of collection amongst everyone, with every story happening at once, attention drawn in every direction, a real…
Review by Haeyong Moon ★★★★

Cinema-verite with compassion. It's heart-wrenching to watch but there is a glimmer of hope - through the doctors and nurses, the people who care.