After premiering at Sundance earlier this year, Kogonada’s intimate, experimental drama “Zi” is finally heading to theaters. The latest feature from the “Columbus” and “After Yang” filmmaker, starring Michelle Mao, Haley Lu Richardson, and Jin Ha, now has a new official trailer ahead of its November 6 theatrical release at New York’s Metrograph. And for anyone who missed it on the festival circuit, the film marks a return to the small-scale, visually adventurous filmmaking that first established Kogonada as a distinctive voice in independent cinema.
Set against the neon-lit streets of Hong Kong, “Zi” follows a young violinist struggling with her memory and increasingly unsettling visions of her future self. When she meets Elle (Richardson), an American stranger who feels strangely familiar, the two take a journey through the city and eventually cross paths with Min (Ha), a neurology researcher who may have answers. What follows is less a conventional mystery than an impressionistic exploration of time, identity, and human connection.
As our Sundance review noted, the film returns Kogonada to the “more subdued and small-scale humanism” of “Columbus,” transforming Hong Kong into a kind of waking dream. Shot on location with a tiny crew and cinematographer Benjamin Loeb, “Zi” also features music by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto, lending another layer of melancholy to its reflections on memory and the passage of time.
The theatrical release will be accompanied by a special Metrograph retrospective, Kogonada: A Way Of Looking, running November 6–8. Alongside screenings of “Columbus” and several of the director’s acclaimed video essays, the program features three films that influenced “Zi”: Wong Kar-wai contemporary Lou Ye’s “Suzhou River,” Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Asako I & II,” and Alain Resnais’ “Je T’aime, Je T’aime.” Kogonada and cast members will also participate in select Q&As throughout the weekend.
“Zi” begins its exclusive one-week engagement at Metrograph on November 6, courtesy of Grasshopper Film. Watch the official trailer below.
