‘Zi’ Review: Kogonada Rediscovers His Voice with a Microbudget Hong Kong Experiment Starring Michelle Mao and Haley Lu Richardson — SkimNews
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- Zi follows a Hong Kong violinist whose doctors suspect early symptoms of a brain tumor, leaving her waiting 24 hours for test results as visions of her future self unsettle her sense of the present.
- Kogonada made the project without a script or budget immediately after the ill-received “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey,” describing the project to IndieWire as “A retreat, as well as a pursuit.”
- Haley Lu Richardson plays L, a disillusioned former dancer and American expat who befriends Zi and, during one night, helps the violinist resynchronize with the present and her creative purpose.
- Ryuichi Sakamoto supplies the remixes and originals carrying much of the emotional weight of “Zi,” whose mostly handheld imagery deliberately avoids the neon exoticism often associated with Hong Kong.
- Michelle Mao plays Zi with “the effervescent helplessness of a paper airplane,” while the performances of Mao, Jin Ha and especially Richardson preserve the film’s soft dramatic pull.
- Zi culminates in a final-minute perspective change that the review calls a “gently unexpected gutpunch,” rooted in the film’s form rather than a conventional plot twist.
- Grasshopper Film releases “Zi” in select theaters starting Friday, November 6, following its premiere at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
Why it matters: For film audiences weighing Kogonada after the ill-received “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey,” the November 6 theatrical release offers a sharply different proposition: a scriptless, unbudgeted Hong Kong experiment whose performances and form recast a 24-hour medical wait as a search for presence and creative purpose.
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