After Yang
Starring Colin Farrell, Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja and Justin H. Min
Rated PG
3.5/5
Based on a short story by Alexander Weinstein, After Yang is a lightweight but touching science fiction drama about Jake (Colin Farrell), a tea salesman who seeks to repair his daughter Mika’s (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja) android companion Yang (Justin H. Min).
Director Kogonada crafts a very immersive near-future world through the prism of family life. Sometimes the best world-building is light on specifics; themes of machine consciousness, cloning and self-driving cars blend into the background, producing a setting that feels distinctly lived-in with no need to fill us in.
The performances are realistically low-key, and Min is graceful and subtly melancholic as Yang. As Jake investigates Yang’s history and explores potentially shady details behind his construction, we gain insight into Yang’s mind, told through beautiful montages and snippets of perception. Yang is shown admiring his family and nature, bonding with a mysterious woman and reflecting on himself, including regret on how he cannot think or feel like humans. Revealing unknown depths to Yang’s consciousness, Jake’s search serves as a metaphor for mourning a family member: sometimes we come to truly know them when they’re gone.
On these terms, After Yang feels like a gentler cousin to Alex Garland’s Ex Machina.
However, like Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, After Yang is an engaging character study with misguided focus. The Master is an enthralling study of cult leader Lancaster Dodd, told through the less interesting focal point of disciple Freddie Quell. In After Yang, Mika and her relationship with Jake receive very little development, despite her substantial presence in the film. The lack of closure may be true-to-life, but will frustrate some viewers.
An affecting, immersive drama about robots that feels a little shallow on the human element, After Yang is playing in select Victorian cinemas.
– Seth Lukas Hynes
