Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

After Yang Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 19, 2022

Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence has long been considered one of the director's thornier and arguably less instantly accessible films, with a family dynamic that is rather far removed from what some might aver is Spielberg's frequent reliance on an almost rose colored glasses view of the way mothers, fathers and children interact. In fact, A.I. Artificial Intelligence is almost suffused with a virtually overwhelming sense of melancholy and perhaps even despair, and despite the film's emphasis on "believing" in the way that young audiences are encouraged to applaud to revive a supposedly deceased Tinkerbell in Peter Pan, it may be impossible to believe in the "wonder of childhood" when watching A.I. Artificial Intelligence, if for no other reason than one particular child (albeit robotic) spends thousands of years at the bottom of what amounts to a watery grave. After Yang may make a rather interesting companion piece to A.I. Artificial Intelligence for some viewers, since it has at least a few salient tethers to the Spielberg opus. Both films take place in the future, although it seems like the future in Beyond Yang is maybe at least a little less Apocalyptic, though there are at least allusions to a previous global calamity. Artificial intelligence in the form of (semi?) robotic "siblings" is also a focal plot point in both films, and a family's reaction to a robot in their midst provides the dramatic impetus to the film. In this case, however, the robot Yang (Justin H. Min) is several years older than David (Haley Joel Osment) in A.I. Artificial Intelligence, and he's been purchased expressly as a companion and teacher for Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja), an adopted girl herself of Asian heritage whose mixed race parents (neither Asian), Jake (Colin Farrell) and Kyra Fleming (Jodie Turner-Smith), want their daughter to be aware of her own genetic and/or ethnic heritage, which they hope the ostensibly Asian Yang can help to provide.

The film opens with an idyllic shot of the Flemings in a park, obviously posing for a photo which, it turns out, Yang is setting up to shoot. Things then segue into one of the few (arguably only) quasi-whimsical moments in the film, when the Flemings participate in a national family dance contest which is being streamed or something like it. As the credits play out, quick snippets of a whole gaggle of different families, including the Flemings, are shown competing in a kind of crazy choreography smackdown, but when the Flemings are eliminated, Yang does not stop dancing, and the scene closes with a blackout. When we rejoin things, it's the next morning and Yang has apparently shut down and cannot be revived. That sets up the rest of the story, where the harried Jake and Kyra try to find someone to repair Yang (Jake bought him more or less on the black market, and that makes Jakes reticent to take Yang to the manufacturer for a fix). Meanwhile, Mika, who frankly comes off in the film on at least a couple of occasions as a spoiled brat, wants her ostensible "brother" back, stat.

Now, writer and director Kogonada has fashioned a rather viscerally compelling if somewhat tamped down account of a family in crisis, and that quality continues to inform the story as things progress, but things tip over into a more conspiratorial tone once Jake starts having Yang "examined" (for want of a better word), which then leads to a rather perplexing detour that sees Jake become almost obsessive about figuring out Yang's past, this all while Yang's biological "outer covering" is ostensibly decomposing. Yang's history is much longer than Jake had been led to believe when he purchased the robot, and there's some interesting sidebar material involving a character named Ada (Haley Lu Richardson) that starts to shed light on what Yang had experienced before he came to live with the Flemings. This part of the film is perhaps emotionally the most similar to A.I. Artificial Intelligence, since it seems to be addressing that famous conundrum quoted by Philip K. Dick in the title of his now legendary Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

There are a number of fascinating near metaphysical tidbits sprinkled throughout Kogonada's screenplay, and the film approaches discussions about what it means to be a human and in fact what it means to be mortal in a kind of oblique but still kind of heart rending way. This is a film that is ultimately about loss, as Kogonada himself mentions in a featurette included on the Blu-ray disc as a supplement, and as such, it has somewhat the same melancholic tone that A.I. Artificial Intelligence does. If the Spielberg film ends with an unabashedly bittersweet recreation of a supposedly "perfect day" which will then fade into nothingness, After Yang at least tends to proffer a view that even if things change and even die, children can be remarkably resilient and can perhaps help the adults around them to achieve emotional balance, rather than vice versa.

After Yang Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

After Yang is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films and A24 with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in a variety of aspect ratios (in addition to the 1.78:1 and 2.35:1 seen in the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review, there are also a couple of interstitials that hover around Academy Ratio). There is some underlying logic to the different aspect ratios, with Yang's memories delivered in 1.78:1 and the "real world" depictions in 2.35:1. I was initially a little confused about the 1.33:1 moments, but in doing some online digging, those are supposed to be video calls, I guess, though I think that might have been delineated a bit more clearly. According to the IMDb, the film was captured with Arri Alexa Minis and finished at 4K. The result is rather striking, though the stylistic flourishes employed by Kogonada and director of photography Benjamin Loeb offer a presentation that is almost drenched in somber tones of burnt sienna, oranges and browns at times, and which can have a somewhat shrouded look that can partially obscure fine detail levels. A number of more brightly lit scenes pop with considerably more energy, and while some of the outdoor material has been graded toward a just slightly artificial green-yellow tone, detail levels are quite inviting and the palette, while not exactly "natural" looking, is very vividly suffused. Some of the effects work supposedly documenting Jake accessing Yang's memories is a little hokey looking, with hazy vignettes erupting out what looks like a star field. I noticed no compression issues.

After Yang Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

After Yang features a subtle but effective DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. This is often a rather "quiet" film, but there is regular engagement of the side and rear channels for a host of ambient environmental effects. Aska Matsumiya's evocative score also resides noticeably in the surround channels. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

After Yang Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The End is a Beginning: After Yang (HD; 23:32) is an above average look at the film, with some appealing interviews with the principal cast and crew, including Colin Farrell and Kogonada.

Additionally, a digital copy is included and packaging features a slipcover.

After Yang Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Like A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Beyond Yang has a somewhat slow, deliberate approach that is almost meditative, but which ends up delivering some devastating emotions along the way. The story here is arguably maybe a little "happier" (?) than the Spielberg film, but this is still an often sad rumination on loss and recovery. Technical merits are solid, and the featurette very enjoyable. Recommended.