I'm not certain what After Yang is trying to achieve—perhaps it’s meant to be a warning about technology that violates privacy, or maybe a quiet reflection on memory, or even a statement supporting AndroidLivesMatter. Whatever its aim, I believe it falls short, much like Jake (Colin Farrell) and Kyra (Jodie Turner-Smith) seem to struggle in raising their young daughter Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja). The film unfolds in an unspecified future where purchasing “an older sibling for Chinese adoptions” is a possibility—a detail that feels strangely precise. Some time before the story begins, Jake and Kyra acquired Yang [Justin H. Min] to help Mika connect with her Chinese heritage; or, as Jake puts it, to teach her "Chinese fun facts." I wonder, couldn’t they have simply adopted two children from China, one older than the other? And if their goal is truly for Mika to embrace her cultural background, why not give her a name that reflects that? However, I suspect writer/director Kogonada intends Jake and Kyra to be inadequate parents; the issue isn't that they improve throughout the film. The movie begins with what looks like a widespread, possibly global, rhythm-matching game involving “over 30,000 families.” The opening credits show characters and their families participating in this competition, hinting at an entirely different kind of story than the one we’re about to see, before Yang malfunctions and sets the plot—such as it is—in motion. Jake takes Yang to several places for repair, and during that process, the idea of spyware surfaces, only to be quickly dropped in favor of exploring Yang's “memory bank.” Apparently, "The memory banks allowed the technos [or techno-sapiens] to record a few seconds each day. The labs were trying to understand what technos considered memorable." This brings up several questions that the film doesn’t bother to address, let alone resolve. Are these “few seconds” all that the technos remember from their days? If so, does that mean anything they don't record is essentially nonexistent? Wouldn’t that give them a memory capacity similar to a goldfish (or like Guy Pearce in Memento)? It's not exactly the type of caregiver I would want looking after my baby. Furthermore, because we only see Yang interacting with others in brief, disconnected moments that make his life seem reminiscent of a Terrence Malick film, it’s difficult to understand why he was so important to them. Overall, I would have been more intrigued by the events leading up to and during Yang's existence than by what happens after.

Source on TMDB