After Yang review – malfunction and melancholy in muted AI drama

Yang (Justin H Min) is part of the family. He is also, as an android, an outsider looking in. But when the “techno-sapien” companion for Mika, the adopted daughter of Jake (Colin Farrell) and Kyra (Jodie Turner-Smith), malfunctions, the quest to get him fixed sends Jake on a journey of discovery. Through Yang’s digital memory banks, Jake relearns what it is to be human.

This muted, melancholy sci-fi from Kogonada (whose 2017 debut, Columbus, combined fragile moments of insight with artfully photographed brutalist architecture, to pleasing effect) is a strikingly styled work that moves at its own (extremely) leisurely pace.

Related: ‘It’s hard to be human – we’re isolated’: Kogonada on his new film, After Yang

The combination of sombre lighting – interiors are shrouded in crepuscular murk – and slow-burning storytelling will not be for everyone, and I’m not convinced that the picture carries quite the philosophical weight that it thinks it does. Still, it’s an undeniably gorgeous place to lose yourself for a while.

• In cinemas and on Sky Cinema