After Yang

An indie film set in the future from last year. Colin Farrell & Jodie Turner-Smith are raising their daughter w/the help of a robot which they bought refurbished. The parents begin to worry when Yang, Justin H. Min, starts to malfunction & what his potential absence will have on their daughter which prompts Farrell to venture out into the world to find out his background which includes visions of a girl, played by Haley Lu Richardson, who meant enough to him she's still in his memory banks. Taking a page out of other scifi outliers like Blade Runner, A. I. & even to some extent the Will Smith actioner I, Robot, this film's message of a robot achieving its own consciousness is lost in its fey, flowery delivery as it feels (which reading the head credits this film was based on a short...probably the best format for this), even at its short running time of 90 or so minutes, bloated by unnecessary visual deviations & flourishes making this at best a beautiful ad for a B & B & at worst a waste of my time. Also starring Sarita Choudhury & Ritchie Coster as robot merchants w/Clifton Collins as Farrell's neighbor.

"There's no something without nothing."

When Yang - a lifelike, artificially intelligent android - abruptly stops functioning, a father's quest to repair him eventually becomes one of existential introspection and contemplating his own life, as it passes him by. After Yang is Kogonada's second feature after Columbus. I haven't seen Columbus but it's become a must see in the indie feature selection from the past few years. Foreign to his style and skills, I found his work to be masterful. Firstly, the script, based on a short story, is incredibly thought provoking. It plays heavy on the ethics of life and technology leaving us to wonder if an A. I. is worth saving. Filled to the brim with beautiful moments, everything is bittersweet and sentimental. One of the big aspects is memories. Kogonada writes and execute this memories much like how our mind process them. Little things repeat and change to bring out the correct portrayal. At first it feels like your mind processed the scene wrong but quickly you'll pick up on that. Another thing I loved is the camera placement throughout. He has the vision of what we should be looking at specifically, even if it's not the focus of the scene, and it all flows together nicely. The cinematography is stunning, popping with life and great production design. The score is also really beautiful.

Colin Farrell has a difficult character to play. The complexity of managing a different persona from actual growing feelings is hard to convey with what the film deals with. There's a few scenes he nails perfectly. Hayley Lu Richardson does well in her smaller role. We slowly learn who she is and how she fits into this story. Once we find out the full story, it's emotional and profound. Justin H. Min as Yang only has a few scenes but his presence is felt throughout. Most of his dialogue is poetic and adds so much to his character. The film is never too on the nose or explains everything to the audience. We're piecing details and thoughts together just as much as they are. This is a slow burn. Sometimes the pacing falls flat within scenes. As everything progresses, it's hard not to be mesmerized by the topics and story as a whole. I really want to read the short story now. Though the film may end on a note that doesn't work for everyone, I think it ends at the perfect moment. The last few scenes are a knock out. I'm really pleased with After Yang and want to rewatch it again. Earnest and profound, it'll be hard to forget.

Jake (Colin Farrell), his wife Kyra, and their adopted Chinese daughter Mika are a happy family with android Yang. Yang breaks down and Mika becomes depressed.

It's slow and I'm not connecting with Yang. Maybe if the movie opens with a better scene of Yang being a caretaker with Mika. He isn't much more than a robot. I don't feel it. He needs to be a breathing feeling human being. His reveal should be shocking. He can't be a robot while being a robot. This film is all played understated and I'm not connecting with this.

We immediately see that we are in the future because everything has great style and space and nature, Colin Farrell is married to a beautiful and exotic black woman (who kind of treats him like dirt because he doesn't earn as much) and they have a Chinese daughter and a human looking android. Then the android breaks, leaving the family, but mostly the little girl, bereaved. It is up to Farrell's character to understand why it broke, untangle the complex rules of service and/or replacement in a corporate ruled world and also discover who their android actually was.

At no moment does the film hit you over the head with anything. Ideas are subtle, although not too much, seeing that I caught on to them. At its core the film examines deep concepts like the meaning and worth of one's life, the value of connection, but in a way that brings a lot to the discussion, yet not forcing an answer. It poses questions in the form of characters dealing with stuff and there is no definite closure, although they all reach some sort of higher understanding.

I would like to tell you that I loved the film, but it had its issues as well. One of them is that it was kind of slow. Everything was meticulously planned and beautifully shot, but consider that this is barely one hour and a half and felt a lot longer. Indeed, it is based on a short story so either the writer/director had to add a lot more to the story or instead focus on style and art form. It is a very good film and certainly one of the better I've seen in a while and I highly recommend it, but it might be advisable to be in a more contemplative or introspective mood when you try watching it.

If it's not your cup of tea, I can understand because the movie is slow despite only being about 1,5 hours, but to immediately give it a rating below 5 is honestly childish.

The story discusses so many important and philosophical questions and it does so in a very organized and beautiful way, with fantastic cinematography and solid acting.

With a complex story where dialogue is fewer than in most films, you need to make sure the viewer can easily understand what you're point is. I think this flaw is the reason that some people dislike it so much that they give a movie such a low score even though it is so well crafted and emotionally touching. This is in part because of Colin Farrell, who gives a bit of a vague and neutral performance, but also it's because of the general style of the film. The shots are slow and often silent or with sparse dialogue. However, the words are so intentional and accompanied by lots of visual info in order to make the message clear. So instead of a matter of "being boring" or "pointless", it might just be a matter of some people missing the point.

On a brighter note: fantastic acting by Justin Min (playing the AI 'sibling/companion' Yang). He perfectly walked the line between acting as though you're essentially a robot yet providing loads of micro-expressions to make you believe he is an AI that would pass the Turing test.

The movie contains a lot of topics: it's about grief, belonging, ethical and moral questions, relational problems, human consciousness vs AI, xenophobia/racism, cultural identity and more.

Therefore alone, this movie is worth the watch, especially for those who like to think about life and the human experience. With this many topics, a movie can easily become overly convoluted or messy, but the aesthetically pleasing shots combined with conscientiously written dialogue and script managed to stay clear.

It truely saddens me how much the point was missed by some reviews of people who obviously disliked the movie. However, I would advise them to watch a different genre. This movie isn't your run of the mill, adrenaline fueled scifi bots-with-guns movie. It's a soft, carefully detailed and slow exploration of touching themes for those who are open to the experience.