Grasshopper Film has put out the official trailer for zi, the new feature from Kogonada, the writer and director behind After Yang and Columbus. The film opens at Metrograph in New York on November 6, then moves through Philadelphia, San Diego, Seattle, Boston, Austin and Rochester over the following weeks. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.
What it is about
The story stays inside one long day and night in Hong Kong. Zi, played by Michelle Mao, is a young violinist whose memory is slipping while visions of her future self keep appearing to her. She meets a stranger named Elle, played by Haley Lu Richardson, and recognizes her from those visions. The two spend the day walking the city's streets and are joined by Min, played by Jin Ha, a researcher at the local neurology center. By dawn, Zi has to make sense of a past, present and future that keep running into each other.
How they made it
The production notes in Grasshopper's press kit describe a film made almost entirely on instinct. The team spent three weeks in Hong Kong with no studio and no outside financier, and chose to split ownership seven ways so they could keep full control. The producers include Kogonada and all three leads, alongside Chung An, Christopher Radcliff and cinematographer Benjamin Loeb.
They took three days to find a route through the city that could mostly be covered on foot. They tried to limit themselves to one take a day, and if a scene needed another take, they came back for it the next day or later. The script was written as they went, some scenes were made up on the spot, and everyone on the small crew did more than one job. Kogonada also edited the film himself.
In his director's statement, Kogonada says zi is the kind of film that made him love films, one that treats cinema as a way to experience time rather than just a way to deliver a story. He names Chris Marker's Sans Soleil, Alain Resnais's Hiroshima Mon Amour and the films of Yasujiro Ozu as the kind of work he keeps going back to. The film runs 99 minutes and is in English, Cantonese and Mandarin with English subtitles.
A film for Ryuichi Sakamoto
zi is dedicated to Ryuichi Sakamoto, the composer who worked with Kogonada on After Yang and died in 2023. Kogonada writes that he felt the loss deeply, and that he wanted the film to carry the feeling of the lesser known experimental music Sakamoto made after his diagnosis. The film itself explores themes from that late period of his work.
Our call
This one is Surfacing. Kogonada has been one of the most careful image makers in film since Columbus, and a small, self owned Hong Kong film shot one take a day is a very different kind of project from anything he has made. Stills from the film look patient and warm, and the Sakamoto dedication says a lot about the mood. If you are near one of the theaters on Grasshopper's screening list, this is one to see on a big screen. You can also watch the trailer on Grasshopper's Vimeo and keep an eye on Grasshopper Film for more cities.
Looking for more arthouse picks coming to theaters? See our look at Rose with Sandra Hüller and the Marie Antoinette 4K return.
