After Young with Colin Farrell is the one to watch if you have 96 minutes. And even if they don't

“After Young” is a picture with a very difficult, even sad rolling fate. The premiere took place at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021, in January 2022 the world distribution began. Although the film's budget is estimated at $9-20 million, it grossed less than $700,000. Only on February 16, 2023, the film reached Russia.

The film is based on Alexander Weinstein's short story "Farewell to Yang". Director, screenwriter and editor of the tape - Kogonada. For him, this is only the second feature film. He gained fame as a film essayist, creating documentaries about great directors. Starring Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Justin H. Ming and Malea Emma Tyandravijaya.

Jake and Carra adopted Miku is an ethnic Chinese woman. In order for her not to lose touch with her culture, her parents bought Young. This is techno sapiens, a robot with human feelings, outwardly indistinguishable from a person. One day Yang breaks down. Jake tries to fix it while going through his memories. And then the man begins to understand what an important role Young played for each member of the family.

Endless discourse about man

Kogonada boldly takes on a dozen of the most difficult topics (raising children, human memory, problems of self-determination, Love and others) and surprisingly avoids superficiality and ridiculous pathos. He is incredibly delicate and concise.

Yang's breakdown forces the heroes to drop the routine and plunge into serious thoughts. It is reflections, not conversations: the dialogues remain vital and everyday, but inner work is hidden behind them. Colin Farrell can sit silently in the kitchen, and the viewer will still understand what he is thinking.

Most of the questions do not find an answer - just because the reasoning is more important than the final point. But Kogonada answers some of them with incredible ease. So, the family for the director is love, and the origin of family members (ethnic or even species) does not matter.

Young's otherness disintegrates over the course of the film. Robot- the nurse turns out to be something more than a set of functions. So, "non-human" can be a member of the family? If an affirmative answer seems strange, then you have to remember pets: it is unlikely that the owner of the dog does not consider her native after she has lived in his house for 15 years.

A separate line also shows national identity. A white man and a black woman adopted an Asian girl and purchased Asian techno sapiens, so that she does not lose touch with the culture - this moment is spoken out repeatedly. But there is no evidence in the film that Mika and Yang interact in any way in the context of "linking to culture." This is the relationship of a brother and sister living in the same house, in the same family, in the same world. Because of this, the parents' idea of ​​national identity simply falls apart - the child does not notice this.

bewitching melancholy

After Young is an incredibly warm film. Muffled tones, quiet and unhurried dialogues with pauses between words, whispers (the characters almost always speak quietly) - "After Young" envelops. Even Colin Farrell, who regularly plays expressive and temperamental men, calms down and becomes a quiet father of the family.

plays an important role in the picture music. Asuka Matsumiya has created an independent work that is pleasant to listen to and apart from the film. But her interaction with the staff is something special. The music triples the melancholy that flows from every scene anyway.

There are static frames in the film that act as a photograph. You can assemble a whole family photo album from them - there are many of them and they are all lovely. Kogonada skillfully conveys the mood through them. Why do you need a monologue about grief when you can show a happy moment in the life of a family?

Perfect alignment

The film can be divided into three separate lines: trying to fix Yang, Yang's memories, the life of the family without Yang. Techno sapiens rarely acts as a subject - rather, it is a mirror for each of the characters. The cogonad carefully connects the three lines. They flow seamlessly into each other, one scene setting the mood and context for the next, eventually layering on top of each other.

96 minutes is a ridiculous running time for this story. But Kogonada manages to tell it, convey the inner experiences of the characters and demonstrate many beautiful shots. There are simply no extra scenes and extra words in After Young. The film looks like a trick that has both sleight of hand and magic at the same time. Cogonada is an illusionist who uses magic to get a rabbit out of a hat.

After Young is an incredibly warm and kind film. About family, love or the future - it does not matter at all, because he is about everything at once. Kogonada refused cheap manipulations and games with the audience, so he made a wonderful movie that failed at the box office. "After Young" is the thing to do if you have 96 minutes.