Rating: 5/5
Do you believe it?... That a cup of tea can contain a world? A place? A time?
What a caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly
Yang is a techno-sapien and adopted brother to Mika, who is also adopted. Jake and Kyra, their parents, purchased Yang to help Mike better connect with her Chinese heritage
At the start, we find Jake disconnected — working in a tea shop that he loves but gets few customers — reliant on Yang to be a surrogate parent for both him and Kyra
One morning, they wake up to find Yang has turned off and cannot turn back on. Jake promises to get him fixed, while Kyra wonders if they should start helping Mika transition to a life without Yang (and secretly hoping that they can also reconnect as a family)
While seeking a way to fix Yang, Jake obtains something initially thought impossible: a memory bank for Yang. In the process of reviewing the memories, Jake gets the opportunity to see Yang in ways he didn’t think possible
What if you could access someone else’s memories? What we might find is how our memories connect to theirs, what we valued and noticed in the shared moments, and perhaps what we missed
The film also explores mixed/chosen families and how belonging doesn’t have to be one thing only
The movie has such beautiful set design and costumes and a wonderfully soothing score. There’s also a recurring Mitski song that grows more meaningful every time it occurs
All of the primary performances have such a gentleness to them — these are not characters in dire straits, just beautiful and kind people who forgot what they valued for a little bit
This film snuck up on me hard — I went from liking it to being deeply moved