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After Yang | Sundance Film Festival 2022

While “After Yang” lacks real stakes or a fast-moving plot, it excels in its quiet, meditative exploration of the time we have with each other and remembering what’s most important in life.

after yang review

There’s something mystifying about a robot dance scene. 2014’s “Ex Machina,” which features Oscar Isaac and Sonoya Mizuno shaking everything they’ve got, is one that I still can’t get out of my mind. Kogonada’s “After Yang” opens on a fun, colorful dance competition among four families, which ends up being the most fun and lively moment of the film. But instead of things going deadly wrong for the humans later on, their “technosapien” son shuts down and sends the family on a quiet, but beautiful exploration of grief.

Kogonada returns to the 2022 Sundance Film Festival after his debut “Columbus” in 2017 made heads turn. The director found beauty in the ordinary, spotlighting architecture and exploring a number of human emotions in his first feature film. “After Yang” is no different.

In the near-future world he places viewers in, stunning production design and sparkling memories from a robot stand out, while the simple moments in life have a way of impacting you more than you ever thought possible.

We’re introduced to a mixed-race family, consisting of Jake (Colin Farrell), Kyra (Jodie Turner-Smith), Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja), their adopted Chinese daughter, and Yang (Justin H. Min). The parents purchased Yang, a practically human robot except for the metal and wires inside him, to help Mika connect to her Chinese heritage.

In one flashback, when Mika reveals that she’s being bullied and children keep asking her about her “real parents,” Yang takes her to a field to show her the process of grafting. As two trees become one, he tells Mika that her Chinese roots are needed in her adoptive family’s life. Things seem blissful, but when Yang unexpectedly shuts down, Jake becomes annoyed and is ready to toss him aside. Mika, who has lovingly grown attached to Yang, can’t bear the idea of losing him.

That sends Jake to a repair shop run by a conspiracy theorist who thinks the robots are equipped with spyware. After he receives a memory bank from Yang’s chest, Jake goes to museum curator Cleo (Sarita Choudhury) with hopes that she’ll be able to help him access the memories. She, in return, believes Yang and his memories would find a home in the museum’s technosapiens exhibit. But as Jake digs into Yang’s memories, it makes him question what’s the best thing to do.

Kogonada’s visual elements are simply stunning, and “After Yang” features plenty of Asian influences. In the family’s home is a serene garden, while characters wear beautiful, flowing robes and loose-fitted clothing. Jake also runs a tea shop, and many gorgeous shots focus on the leaves and tannins swirling inside a glass cylinder. When Jake uses VR glasses to look through Yang’s memories, they show up as sparkling orbs, almost like stars.

Those memories serve as the emotional core of the film. Many moments are centered on Yang’s time with Mika, observing the family without them noticing or asking about the parts of life he can’t fully process. In one exchange, Jake explains to Yang how he got interested in tea through a documentary. As Yang drinks it, we hear the liquid hitting his metal insides, making him long for the ability to actually associate real memories to the Chinese drink, not just the history and facts that he’s equipped with.

Jake also finds a woman from Yang’s life, Ada (Haley Lu Ricardson), who makes him realize he barely spent enough time with Yang to truly know him. It’s not a “showy” role, but Farrell is like you’ve never seen him before. He’s contemplative with all this new information and remorseful for all the time that he wasn’t present. Min also has a calming presence with anyone he’s sharing the screen with, especially a tender scene with Turner-Smith where they discuss what happens after life.

While “After Yang” lacks real stakes or a fast-moving plot, it excels in its quiet, meditative exploration of the time we have with each other and remembering what’s most important in life. Kogonada has distinguished himself as a filmmaker who gives characters real depth and lets them explore the issues around them. With two stunning pieces under his belt, it’s exciting to see what’s next.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Read more Sundance Film Festival coverage.

About After Yang

When Yang — a lifelike, artificially intelligent android that Jake and Kyra buy as a companion for their adopted daughter — abruptly stops functioning, Jake just wants him repaired quickly and cheaply.

But having purchased Yang “certified refurbished” from a now-defunct store, he’s led first to a conspiracy theorist technician and then a technology museum curator, who discovers that Yang was actually recording memories. Jake’s quest eventually becomes one of existential introspection and contemplating his own life, as it passes him by.

After Yang played at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.