s good android tales should be, Robot Stories is as much about humans as it is machines. Consisting of four thematically related shorts, this feature bills itself as "science fiction from the heart," not only speculating on the ever-changing, ever-challenging relationship between humanity and technology, but also exploring themes like love, death and family.
The first story, "My Robot Baby," is about two urban professionals, Marcia (Tomita) and Roy, who must care for a simulated infant as a parenting trial for adopting a human baby. Things go relatively smoothly until Roy is called out of town on business and Marcia, reluctant about becoming a mother in the first place, decides to rig her robot baby (seemingly more Tamagotchi than A.I.) to care for itself—producing quite mixed results.
In "The Robot Fixer," a young, reclusive man named Wilson has fallen into a coma after a car accident. As his sister, Grace, slowly comes to terms with his deterioration, his mother, Bernice (Ho), has become obsessed with a box of old toy robots—all in various states of disrepair—she's found in her estranged son's apartment. As Grace tries to get her mother to deal with the prospect of Wilson's death, Bernice quests about the city trying to find the parts needed to make her son's collection complete again—perhaps in hopes of reconnecting with her child, perhaps even in hopes of bringing him back to her.
"Machine Love" tells the tale of the Sprout G9 iPerson (Pak), a nearly human automaton designed to maximize an office's productivity with its processing power and its ability to learn from its human coworkers. But what the robot learns is that humans can be cruel and petty, a lesson driven home by the realization that there is a female version of himself in a building across the way who suffers even more than he does under her human taskmasters. As one machine strives to be with another, can it be called love?
And finally, in "Clay," a dying sculptor, John Lee (Shimono) has a decision to make—whether or not to allow his memories and his consciousness to be scanned and uploaded to a computer, where he'll be able not only to merge with all human knowledge but to be in perfect, digital harmony with his wife, who died and was scanned years ago. As his son and his digitized partner urge John to take this next step in his existence, the aged artist can't help but wonder if such an afterlife will allow him to truly feel the world around him as he does now.
Indie SF that stimulates the mind
Smartly written, intimately directed and containing some genuinely touching performances, Robot Stories provides yet another example of how the fusion of independent filmmaking and science fiction can make for some impressive, thought-provoking storytelling.
As might be expected, this film (Pak's first feature) does occasionally suffer from a few of the shortcomings of independent productions—some hit-and-miss supporting cast acting, obviously modest production values, an awkward shot or edit here and there, etc. It's never quite clear, either, how connected the different worlds of the four chapters are to one another, which can be disconcerting from time to time.
These are quibbles, though, in what is otherwise a very rewarding cinematic experience. "The Robot Fixer" is perhaps the most poignant, best-put-together chapter of the four, even if it is the least science-fictiony. On the whole, though, nearly everything from the sound design to the DV on which this film is shot works in each of the stories, the writing most of all. The implications of the speculative worlds this film projects are not written overly large—a good deal of the meaning happens between the lines in this science fiction, inviting viewers to determine the sum and substance of the tales in their own minds. This all adds up to make for an appealing, suggestive and engaging movie, one that not only focuses on the ever-blurring line between humanity and artificial intelligence, but also on the fuzzy notions and difficult questions that make up a human life.
