Kogonada, the acclaimed director behind Columbus and After Yang, took a big swing with the star-studded romance-fantasy, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. It failed spectacularly, and so the filmmaker went back to something smaller and more personal. Zi, which Kogonada quietly shot guerrilla-style in Hong Kong over a couple of weeks, debuted earlier this year at Sundance, and now it has a new trailer ahead of a very quiet one-week theatrical release next month.
Written, directed, produced, and edited by Kogonada, Zi stars Bridgerton‘s Michelle Mao as a Hong Kong woman experiencing visions of her future self. One night, she meets a stranger who could change the course of her life. That stranger is played by Haley Lu Richardson, who Kogonada has worked with twice before. Also in the cast is Devs actor Jin Ha.
Zi has been sticking close to New York since its world premiere. Back in April, it played as part Museum of the Moving Image’s First Look 2026 program. On November 6th it will get a one-week engagement at the Metrograph, courtesy of Grasshopper Film.
