Where the Future Is Asian, and the Asians Are Robots

"After Yang," the second feature by Kogonada, takes place in a speculative future that looks uncannily like our listless present, with holograph-like phone calls that resemble Zoom and domestic interiors that could have been lifted from an Architectural Digest slide show. The technology has improved in this world, populated with clones and friendly robots known as "technosapiens," which are practically indistinguishable from biological humans. Looming in the background is the hint that some catastrophic geopolitical conflict has ignited between China and the U.S., but the central crisis of the film takes place much closer to home. Based on a short story by Alexander Weinstein, "After Yang" follows the everyday lives of a couple, Jake and Kyra (Colin Farrell and Jodie Turner-Smith), and their beloved technosapien, Yang (Justin H. Min), whom they purchase to help their adopted daughter, Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja), connect to her Chinese heritage. Early on, however, Yang starts to malfunction--suddenly glitching in the living room, in the middle of a multiplayer game reminiscent of Dance Dance Revolution.