AFTER YANG Review

A ruminating journey into a bittersweet future. With characters who match that stepping path, adjectively. This very quickly takes off at the title sequence and remains at altitude. Kogonada spins a sort of Asimov's Pinocchio tale and applies filters of his own: a universe of melancholy (with some extra ones hidden), a persistent calmness with Deckard's blues trailing right behind it, and of course his lovely visual language.

Kogonada went from landscaping a modern, middle American city in his first film to a practical sci-fi future here, and every frame of each rings honest. A level of care and gorgeous, gorgeous artistry in two completely different arenas of visual. The car sequences, the memory bank UI, the classic sci-fi prop effectualizations, and — at the mountaintop of it all — the memory sequences. By themselves they are worth the price of admission. Considering the two above, I have no idea where he'll go next, but I can guarantee it will be as pretty as a baroque painting.

And finally the story. Time: man and man-made's greatest foe. Why do so many effective futuristic tales deal with the loss of it? Is it our confirmation that the constant over timespans is the futility of it, the mortality of it sliding down the hourglass? This shares data with those techno-scared before it, but Kogonada applies his own spin to it. As if one of those other tales was proofread by the sage version of himself. A version that knows the value of presence and the danger of nostalgia. A version that appreciates time.

Maybe we heed that call. Maybe we don't. But when we hear Matsumiya's theme again, we'll remember.

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The above was taken from my Letterboxd review.