Sundance 2026 Review: Zi – “a novel sci-fi concept dealing with the past and present.”

In Hong Kong, a young woman haunted by visions of her future self meets a stranger who changes the course of her night and possibly her life.

A medley of images and thoughts suggests that this is the opening and possibly the closing as Zi reflects on what is about to happen.  While she walks around Hong Kong, an overlayed phone conversation reveals that she is a musician in an orchestra and is suffering from a mysterious illness.  Zi is followed by a young man taking notes as she visits her parents’ grave and is experiencing moments where she intersects with someone who looks exactly like herself.

The decision to have the cinematographer shoot handheld in a 4:3 aspect ratio, as well as the prominence of close-up shots and the camera always being just a step or two behind the action makes the world feel as if it is closing in on Zi.  There are some establishing shot,s but only to allow the viewer and Zi to briefly reorient themselves.  Film grain, jump cuts, vertical orientation, and the shifting between an oversaturated to naturalistic colour palette convey a fractured recollection of time within a home movie visual aesthetic.

No large cast is to be found as the story focuses mainly on three characters.  While the presence of Haley Lu Richardson and Jin Ha is central in unraveling what is happening, in the truth, the story is at its best when Michelle Mao is left alone wandering the streets, lost in her thoughts.  Nice touches are Zi tapping her fingers, which indicate her musicality and the musical score is a cool mix of electronic, piano, and strings.  As with Pi and Primer, the low-fi production approach adopted by filmmaker Kogonada pairs well with a novel sci-fi concept dealing with the past and present.

The 2026 Sundance Film Festival takes place January 22 to Feb. 1  2026, in person and online, and for more information visit sundance.org.

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada; he can be found at LinkedIn.