After Yang

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🎙️ EPISODE 572: 10.10.22 Wherein the drama felt overwrought and the dialogue came across stifled and clunky in kogonada's debut feature, Columbus, his second film — the lovely After Yang (2021) — absorbs those errs with its sci-fi setup, wonderful performances and the writer-director's own maturity. The video-essayist turned full-length narrative fiction director still falls traps to cluttering scenes with a few too many words, but the underpinnings of this near-future dystopia (or is it?) provider soft landing whenever there's a barrage of language. And, as he's already shown, he has a true knack for aesthetics; the film is lovely to look at it. Where Columbus showcased exterior beauty, the world here is fully inside and insular. For example, we never catch a full glimpse of these futuristic self-driving cars (they appear to be moving through forest-like tunnels?), but we can see they house living plant life. The future might not be as bad as the past after all?

And that's the other fine thing After Yang accomplishes. There isn't anything close to a "fear of technology" thematic undertone. There's the lurking spyware conspiracy (which is a purposeful dead end) but the robot himself and all of the human interactions with him are totally wholesome and neither he or the outside world ever contemplate nefarious actions, be it with him or through him. This runs counter to our expectations for this 'type' of film in a nice and fascinating way.

Colin Farrell continues to showcase his versatility as an actor in the lead and we get just enough backstory to feel the strains he's emoting. And Justin H. Min really shines in the difficult titular role of the older sibling 'technosapien' Yang. It's a subtle and extremely effective performance.

I won't spoil the whole mystery here; that was a good part of the fun for me (and that it is truly set up AS A MYSTERY was another welcome surprise). This is a film with a ton of heart and a surprisingly hopefully message about the future when that's increasingly hard to come by/fathom. Its big existential ideas are painted simply and plainly: the meaning of memory, what happens when we die. The human drive for a calm, connected existence certainly seems like its being derailed by our increasing reliance on tech, but After Yang seems to question that it doesn't have to be that way.

It's buoyed by a beautiful Mitski song, a cover of Lily Chou-Chou's 2000 track "Glide." Its opening lyrics are repeated a number of time and I can still here them echoing...

I wanna be just like a melody
Just like a simple sound
Like in harmony

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 571 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 573 ⫸

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After Yang is a 2021 American metaphysical science fiction drama film written, directed, and edited by Kogonada. It stars Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Justin H. Min, Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja, and Haley Lu Richardson. The plot follows a family's attempts to repair their unresponsive robotic child. The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on July 8, 2021, and was released on March 4, 2022, by A24 and Showtime. It received generally positive reviews from critics. It was released on July 8, 2021.