Zi Trailer: Kogonada and Haley Lu Richardson Reunite in Hong Kong

One Night, Three Strangers and a Future That Keeps Breaking Through

The film takes place over a single day and night in Hong Kong. Michelle Mao plays Zi, a young violinist whose memory is slipping while visions of her future self keep appearing to her. She meets Elle, an American stranger played by Haley Lu Richardson, and recognises her from those visions.

The two spend the night walking the city’s streets, while Jin Ha’s Min, a researcher at a local neurology centre, watches from a distance before joining them. By dawn, Zi has to make sense of a past, present and future that keep running into each other. The trailer leans into that unsettled mood: neon-lit walkways, long silences and the line “This is real. This is real, okay.”

It is a reunion for Kogonada and Richardson, who also worked together on Columbus and After Yang. The film was shot by a small crew moving quietly around Hong Kong and filming on the fly, with cinematography by Benjamin Loeb and music by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Zi had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January, where reactions were mixed: some critics found it meandering, while others were won over by its dreamlike, gentle pull. Grasshopper picked up the North American rights in June. Sundance was also where Olivia Colman’s Wicker first turned heads, and for more films coming to cinemas see our Weekly Cinema Pack.