Film AFTER YANG-Pinocchio Tale

What does it mean to be human.  What's so great about being human?  The visually stunning film, AFTER YANG ponders these theoretical questions.  Yang (a marvelous Justin Min) plays big brother to Mika.  Mika (Malea Tjandrawid in a star making performance) is the precocious and adoring little sister. Yang and Mika, both of Asian ethnicity, are in the family of a bi-racial couple.  Set in a utopian looking, not too distant future, Yang is an android, a.k.a., technosapien. He was purchased by her parents to help care for their real, adopted daughter.  The couple convince each other Yang was bought to teach Chinese and Asian culture to Mika.  Mika rightly asks, "What does it mean to be Asian?"  Yang is a steadfast friend and mentor to Mika.  During a lesson in grafting tree limbs  Mika points out fake limbs attached to trees by tape.  The overriding lesson Yang brings to the family is there is no substitute for being present in your child's life and in one's own.  The tangents on wake up and smell the roses trope stems from the genesis of the movie's heart.  This theme echoes and reverberates throughout in poetic and astute imagery.  Director Kogonda and cinematographer Benjamin Loeb have collaborated to create a stellar work of art. The film's dreamlike quality transends threads of recognition into our consciousness.  Memories makes us who we are.  Our memories spring from sensations and emotions.  Are humans capable of never telling lies?  Did Pinocchio want to be a real boy?  It was tears that transformed Pinocchio into a real boy?  Mika asks her father watching a documentary, "Are those tears of boredom?"  For the vast audience, the turgid pace and pretentiousness will put them to sleep, perchance to dream.  For a watered down audience, this is a movie to revel.