"A woman gazes wistfully at the camera, her jet-black hair obscuring her face as it whips around in the wind. It's an image that Zi, Kogonada's dreamy new sci-fi drama that just premiered out of Sundance Film Festival, keeps returning to, over and over again. Is it a half-remembered memory? A vision of the future? Or maybe both? This is the question upon which Zi hinges its curious sci-fi plot, in which a woman finds herself experiencing visions of her future self."
"Zi begins with the eponymous young woman (Michelle Mao) visiting the grave of her parents in Hong Kong, where she mourns that she was not able to do enough for them. Then, almost as if in a daze, she wanders through the bustling city streets, until she stops on an isolated staircase where she breaks down crying. A concerned stranger, who introduces herself as Elle (Haley Lu Richardson), asks if she's all right."
"The film's whisper of a plot and its spontaneous structure allows Kogonada to plumb the dreamy, existential cinematic depths that his films have always explored so well, making Zi feel like a welcome return to form after the director's big, ungainly swing with last year's A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. And while Zi is almost too slight to feel substantial, it is, inarguably, unforgettable."
Zi centers on a young woman in Hong Kong who mourns her parents and begins seeing visions of a woman who may be her future self. The protagonist wanders the city in a daze, breaks down on an isolated staircase, and encounters Elle, who offers help and introduces her to neurologist Min amid questions about a possible brain tumor. The film emphasizes repeated visual motifs and a whisper of plot, favoring spontaneous structure over conventional narrative. Performances convey ethereal melancholy while the film mixes science‑fiction elements with themes of grief, memory, identity, and existential longing, producing an unforgettable, slight meditation.
Read at Inverse
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