This is a film no fans of Kogonada or Ryuichi Sakamoto can afford to miss. Having glimpsed herself in the company of a stranger, ‘zi’ turns her head, as if sensing someone′s watching her. Carrying a strange sense of temporal displacement, she wanders through the gaps between reality and premonition, future and memory. When the conflicting emotions playing across her face and the swelling music coalesce, the ungraspable present shines more vividly than a flame set between the fullness of life and the signs of its dissolution. As scenes arrive in turn, alternating between day and night, a hum wraps around the landscape of Hong Kong before flowing into music played at the fingertips, and a single melody returns in a different arrangement. The rift in time that seems to open only for ‘zi’ is also a condition of perception shared by those who live on, gazing at light that has already passed. Revived with a new pulse in the blackout, andata asks: “Where do your eyes wander in this quiet moment?”
Kogonada is a writer, director, producer, editor, and visual essayist. He gained recognition when his directorial and screenwriting debut, Columbus (2017), was invited to the Sundance Film Festival, and his follow-up film, After Yang (2021), received critical acclaim following its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. He subsequently grew closer to Korean audiences by directing episodes of the Apple TV+ series Pachinko (2022). Following A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025), his new work, zi, was invited to the NEXT section of the Sundance Film Festival.
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
