After Yang Movie Review

After Yang (2021)

Rent After Yang on Amazon Video (paid link) // Buy the book (paid link)
Written by: Alexander Weinstein (based on the short story "Saying Goodbye to Yang" from the book "Children of the New World" by), Kogonada (written by)
Directed by: Kogonada
Starring: Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Justin H. Min, Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja, Sarita Choudhury, Clifton Collins Jr.
Rated: PG
Watch the trailer

Plot
In a near future, a family reckons with questions of love, connection, and loss after their A.I. helper unexpectedly breaks down.

Verdict
It's a movie I feel like I should watch again. I wasn't sure what this was until it ended. This looks at an AI robot's life, contrasting it with his family. The questions this poses include whether Yang was sentient and what his life meant. This is a thoughtful movie, a rumination on life and important moments, looking at a human and a robot. I also don't think it's something everyone will appreciate as it lacks a three act structure though I like it. It's one of those movies that does more after the credits roll as you think about it days after it's over. I like it more thinking about it now than when I first watched it.
Watch it.

Review
This starts with a virtual family dance off competition. There's no explanation, no context, just this strange game. The family's older son is Yang (Justin H. Min), an AI they bought to help their adopted daughter culturally acclimate. Yang malfunctions which prompts Jake (Colin Farrell) to visit a second rate repairman because he bought Yang used. It's a critical malfunction and Yang can't be repaired. 

Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja, Justin H. Min play
Jake, Kyra, Mika, Yang

I like that the repairman rants about how it's illegal to open Yang's core as that would expose how the company collections your information. With the amount of data companies currently collect, this seems inevitable.

This is a world that's tomorrow, just one step into the future where we have mechanical siblings and children. Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja) sees Yang as a brother while Jake and his wife see him as a machine. It's this contrast and question that drives the rest of the movie. Jake wants to see what's on this memory core of Yang's, and ends up at a museum. Cleo (Sarita Choudhury), the director of this museum, has dedicated her life to the study of techno-sapiens, which gives us an idea of how long robots have been in society. It also hints at the complexity of Yang and other AI.

Jake is able to see clips from Yang's life, Yang's memories. Yang could decide to record short videos each day. Some of them are Jake and his family, some are of someone else. If Yang has memories, and these memories hint at feelings, is Yang a person? Jake had never considered Yang sentient, but Yang has a past life. This is a side of Yang that Jake never knew, in part because Jake never asked. He never imagined that Yang could have desires.

Colin Farrell plays Jake

At one point Jake asks if Yang "ever wanted to be human." The response is that's a human question to ask. Most of this movie is Yang's memories. He was a techno-sapien that pondered the afterlife and whether his experiences were authentic because of his nature. In a memory Yang states he knows facts about things, but he doesn't experience them like Jake. Through this exploration, Jake develops a greater appreciation for Yang. Yang formed connections about which Jake didn't know. We don't see Yang in this movie, we see the after. What we do see of Yang, he's with other people and families as he experiences the world. That's a contrast to Jake who is alone for much of this movie watching someone else's memories, detached from the world.