‘After Yang’ Is a Loving Tribute to Humanity Through the Eyes of a Robot

If you could only remember 10 seconds of each day of your life, which moments would you save? Your baby sister’s first steps? Dandelion seeds floating in the breeze? A toad hopping along the mossy forest floor? Your family, posed for a group photo?

Those are just a few of the memories that Yang, a robotic member of a human family, chooses in After Yang, a moving sci-drama from A24 that is now streaming on Showtime, as well as playing in select theaters. From Korean writer/director Kogonada, based on the short story “Saying Goodbye to Yang” by Alexander Weinstein, After Yang stars Colin Farrell and Jodie Turner-Smith as Jake and Kyra, a married couple living in some unspecified time in the future. Kogonada’s vision of the future doesn’t look so different from our present—a little more serene, a little more comfortable, maybe—except for the fact that Jake and Kyra are able to purchase a hyper-realistic android sibling for their adopted daughter, Mika (played by Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja).

Mika’s robot brother is named Yang (Justin H. Min) and he comes equipped with knowledge of Chinese culture, intended to help Mika connect to her Chinese heritage. But it quickly becomes clear that Yang does much more for Mika than teaching her about China—he’s her mentor, her friend, her protector, her big brother. Then, one day, during a family dance competition, Yang malfunctions. He goes into sleep mode and doesn’t wake up. Mika is devastated, and Jake is tasked with trying to revive him. At first, Jake sees this as the mundane, somewhat annoying job of trying to get a piece of broken technology repaired. But, by the film’s end, he is trying to bring his son back to life.

When the AI-equivalent of an Apple store fails to repair Yang, Jake tries an unauthorized electronics shop, run by a man who believes the robot siblings are equipped with government spyware. Had Kogonada wanted to go that route, this could have been a very different movie, a thriller with something to say about privacy in the age of technology. But this turns out to be a red herring. Jake gets access to Yang’s core memories, which, he is told by a technology museum curator, can only store 10 seconds of memory per day. As Jake sits on his couch at home sifting through Yang’s memories, he discovers the robot was not spying on his family—he was simply experiencing life with them.

Using VR glasses, Jake sees, through Yang’s eyes, his own family’s life reflected back at him. Jake had been taking these moments of beauty for granted, never stopping to linger over the miracle of his daughter, never pausing to appreciate his wife, never taking a moment to marvel at the existence of the universe. But, Jake sees, Yang lingered, Yang paused, and Yang marveled, every single day.

It’s obvious, through these ten-second snapshots of Yang’s life, that this robot loved his family. Many of his saved moments are of Mika, whom he clearly adored just as fully as she worshipped him. But some of Kyra and Jake, too. In fact, Jake realizes with a jolt of shame, the moment where Yang was dawdling by the camera before jumping into the family photo—the scene that opened the movie, in which Jake snapped at Yang to hurry up—was the robot take a mental snapshot of his family. Watching these revelations play out on Jake’s face might just be some of the finest acting of Farrell’s career.

When Jake resurfaces from these memories, he’s crying, and you may be crying, too. It’s after this experience that Jake begins to try to get his son back in earnest, including tracking down an enigmatic figure from Yang’s past, Ada, played by Haley Lu Richardson. But it soon becomes clear that there is no bringing Yang back to life. All Jake can do is say his goodbyes, and take with him the lessons about humanity taught to him by his robot son.

Watch After Yang on Showtime