Star Justin H. Min And Director Kogonada Talk Emotional Sci-Fi After Yang

The realm of science fiction has never felt closer to the everyday than it does in After Yang.

Set in a not-too-distant future, we follow a family led by father Jake (Colin Farrell) and mother Kyra (Jodie Turner-Smith) who have welcomed second-hand robot Yang (Justin H. Min) into their tight-knit unit to help their adopted daughter reconnect with her cultural heritage.

However, the clan undergo serious changes when Yang malfunctions.

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In his attempts to repair him, Jake finds a way to see Yang’s memories, including those of his past lives, discovering not only a different side to this companion, but a new perspective on the previous years with his family.

Director Kogonada adapted the screenplay from a short story by Alexander Weinstein, initially approaching the project as an intimate family drama.

As he explained to Zavvi: “As I was writing it, I realised I was firmly within the sci-fi space, and there was something really liberating about that.

“The reason I responded so strongly to the short story was because it felt grounded: the father’s memory of Yang is explored via flashbacks, but realising I was within this genre allowed me to explore that in a different way.

“Having him look through Yang’s memory chip meant I didn’t have to rely on flashbacks to make these memories tangible – it opened up the world of this story.”

The end result was a screenplay that reduced several actors to emotional wrecks upon first reading it. This included Umbrella Academy star Justin H. Min, who was a puddle of tears reading it on a plane.

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Explaining to Zavvi why it resonated with him, Min said: “It spoke about the idea of family and loyalty to one’s family on a level so familiar it was visceral. Service to one’s family is something ingrained in Asian culture and that resonated with me very deeply.

“Also, I was struck by the fact that this was one of the first AI narratives I had read where the robot was not seeking to become human – he’s very content with being in service of the family. In many ways, this reminded me of my parents and their generation who came to the US without anything, sacrificing their hopes and dreams for their family, but doing so with a sense of joy and fulfillment.”

Kogonada was taken aback by Min’s first audition, which took a different approach to the character than the other actors he’d seen. “There were a lot of actors who were doing stilted takes, but Justin played Yang so differently – it wasn’t like a robot, it was more mysterious, which is tied to the heart of this film.

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“When I was writing it, Yang felt like a mystery to me more so than a robot. The simplicity of Jake discovering what he thought was a product had more to it was a simple but effective idea. It’s much more interesting than just asking how a robot navigates this world.”

“I wanted to avoid the external idiosyncrasies of what makes Yang a robot to focus more on the relationships”, Min explained. “In my conversations with Kogonada, it was always about this.

“So, I made sure the aspects of his artificial life weren’t just moving in a certain way or speaking with a certain cadence. The most important ‘robotic’ thing became his intentionality, the precision with how he said and did things. I wanted to make sure every micro-movement and word coming out of his mouth felt intentional, just like it would with a robot.

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“I don’t think he’s ‘perfect’ though. Whether or not he’s aware of his previous lives, I think aspects of that slip through the cracks of his persona, which makes him really interesting – it’s why there’s always that mystery behind the things he says and does. He might have the presentation of being perfect, but there’s much more underneath that, and I had fun exploring the nuances and things he held inside himself.”

Writer/director Kogonada repeatedly describes After Yang as an interior story, which is why one early scene particularly stands out: a high-energy opening credits sequence showing the cast participating in a virtual dancing competition with other families from around the world. It’s an attention-grabbing moment that contrasts sharply with the quieter existential drama surrounding it, but as Kogonada stresses, this scene was intact from one of the earliest iterations of the screenplay.

“The final line before that scene says, ‘I want to be a family, a team’. In my head while writing it, I thought ‘this has to be a hard cut into a dance sequence’.

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“We needed to see that family dance, showing them quite literally in sync with each other, then blossoming into showing every character from this movie with their family, regardless of whether or not their family actually appears in the story – it’s a great way to show how in sync they are in their home lives. You thought Yang was perfect, well, if he was, they wouldn’t be kicked out of the competition!

“There’s also something sinister about it. The idea that this world has survived a cataclysmic climate event, but here you’re seeing families getting eliminated, even if it’s just in a dance contest – it was a really playful way of approaching that. I just knew it would be a great way to start the movie.”

On the other side of the camera, Min had a slightly different take on proceedings. As one of the earliest scenes shot with the principal cast altogether, it was a great way for him to fully integrate himself into this new family unit.

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“The movie opens with that sequence and in a way, so did our filming. We’d rehearsed beforehand, but it was really on the day we filmed where we came together as a family unit. It was a great way to start shooting because you could feel that cohesiveness in every scene we filmed after that – it all had the makings of what we’d established by doing that dance scene on day one.

“Also, dance is very vulnerable and embarrassing for people without a background in it, so it’s a brilliant way to break the ice as everybody shares that embarrassment. And now it’s captured forever on film!”

After Yang is a thought provoking tale of family and our reliance on artificial intelligence that’s sure to leave you reaching for the tissues, so be prepared.

This article first appeared in the September 2022 edition of The Lowdown.