‘Zi’ Review: Kogonada’s Strange Day in a Life

Charming leads and Kogonada’s spiritual style keep Zi afloat in the moment. Whether its reach matches its grasp afterwards is more up in the air.

Zi herself (Michelle Mao, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey) is a young Hong Kong woman who wanders the city plagued by visions of what appears to be her future self. She’s also had romantic visions of Elle (Haley Lu Richardson, After Yang), a strange woman who meets and quickly befriends her.

Jin Ha (Civil War) is also present as Min, Elle’s friend who seems to know more about Zi than he’s letting on. The three of them gather in an effort to discover what’s wrong with Zi, and then the rest of the movie is mostly them spending the day and night together before a choice is made about Zi’s fate. Yeah, as it turns out, Zi is a far less complicated movie than I thought it would be. The core concept behind Zi’s visions aside, the film is more concerned with developing emotional bonds than messing with your mind or asking profoundly existential questions on the nature of reality… Just saying that sentence makes me question my own priorities in life.

Every actor does really well, especially Mao and Richardson. You feel Zi’s scared confusion and loneliness, which bounces well with the authenticity Richardson brings to a character that’s only just now meeting her. Really, both of them should be weirded out by the other when you think about it, but Zi makes it all very sincere thanks to the acting and overall direction. And don’t worry if you see Richardson’s wig in any promo materials, because it actually is supposed to be the character’s wig. Kogonada hasn’t fallen off that hard.

Speaking of him, Kogonada’s signature strange, spiritual storytelling is most evident here. You’ve got a 4:3 aspect ratio that confines the space, frequent flashes to unknown sequences, and Benjamin Loeb’s fuzzy cinematography that was clearly shot on film with a small budget. There are even a few lovely pieces from the late musician Ryuichi Sakamoto sprinkled in as well. Stylistically, everything here makes sense. Zi often feels distant from her own world, and the film itself manages to put us in that same loose, hazy state even as she’s just walking through the city… possibly more than it even intended.

The reason behind Zi’s visions is surprisingly addressed relatively early on. And to be 100% transparent, I don’t know if it’s something that actually happens in real life. What little research I could squeeze into my Sundance schedule didn’t answer anything. Whether it’s real or not, though, I find it a very confusing, downright unintuitive concept. In other hands, that could actually be a positive and lead to a delightfully mind-bending experience. But the portrayal in Zi is so vague yet so singular that the waters might be more muddied than not. Might be. I also think I see what the film is trying to do and that it kind of succeeds…??

As you can clearly tell, I don’t know what to make of this movie, especially in hindsight. In the moment, it’s a vaguely confusing but mostly serene little day trip, anchored by an endearing trio of lost, troubled characters who just want to make each other feel found. At a very basic level, that’s what Zi amounts to, and it does it well. If I’m right about what it all means at a more heightened level, every moment is suddenly made so much heavier and bittersweet. But that also puts the film in a weird spot where it’s somehow too abstract yet not abstract enough. 

That being said, I acknowledge that I’ve seen this type of dreamlike, half-real presentation in many movies before. While I have a soft spot for them, it’s also harder for them to stand out to me without really shaking up the style like I Saw the TV Glow or last year’s Plainclothes. We don’t really have that with Zi. Even if the last minute took me by surprise, I was not as emotionally affected as I really, really wanted to be. I can definitely say I had a nice time watching the film, and it’s way too well put together for me to call it a total miss. But as far as my first impressions go, its reach seems beyond its grasp, even if that grasp still has something to it.

Kogonada’s Zi had its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2026 and will be screened again, in person and online, until February 2.