After Yang: Film Review
I kept hearing rave reviews for After Yang after Cannes and Sundance and so it went straight onto my watchlist. The hype made me go into it with really high expectations and it didn’t quite deliver upon them.
This sci-fi drama, written and directed by Kogonada, is set in the future and stars Colin Farrell and Jodie Turner-Smith as Jake and Kyra. Their android Yang (Justin H. Min), who they brought to serve as an older brother to their adopted Chinese daughter Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja), has broken and they are desperately trying to find someone to fix him. During this time, they access his memory bank and learn more about Yang’s life outside of his time with the family.
After Yang is a slow, quiet and low-key exploration of family, loss, grief and the power of memories. To some people, the movie is probably profound and moving but it was so glacially paced, sparse and understated to hit me on an emotional level. I wasn’t bored by it; I was interested to know more about Yang’s history but I just couldn’t get fully into it. I needed more.
There were elements that I loved though. The dance competition sequence in the opening credits is hilarious to watch (but gave me such a false impression of what was to come), the family home is aesthetically pleasing and I found the flashbacks to Yang’s conversations with his family compelling. The editing in these scenes is intriguing too – we sometimes hear a line said two or three times but from a different angle or with a slightly different delivery. It’s an odd choice but the technique certainly made me pay attention.
Farrell is having a stellar year thanks to the release of four very different projects – After Yang, The Batman, Thirteen Lives and The Banshees of Inisherin. He approaches the work very differently each time and here, he is stripped back as the frustrated Jake. Tjandrawidjaja is adorable as their grieving daughter Mika and Min is captivating as Yang. I wasn’t too sure about Turner-Smith because her line delivery seemed stilted and off – I thought she was an android!
After Yang may well do it for some people but it was far too slow and understated for me.
In cinemas and on Sky Cinema from Thursday 22nd September