| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | Robot Stories (2003) |
| Director | Greg Pak |
| Writer | Greg Pak |
| Lead Actor | Tamlyn Tomita |
| Cast | Tamlyn Tomita, James Saito, Sab Shimono, Wai Ching Ho, Vin Knight, Cindy Cheung, Greg Pak |
| Genre | Drama, Sci-Fi, Anthology |
| Release Date | February 7, 2003 (USA) |
| Duration | 1h 25m (85 minutes) |
| Budget | Approx. $150,000 USD |
| Box Office | Approx. $250,000 USD (limited release) |
| Language | English |
| IMDb Rating | 6.4/10 |
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When my friend Mike asked me if I wanted to catch a limited run collection of short films about robots, I didn’t have to think twice. Robots? I’m there.
He told me that the movie is travelling from city to city, as only one print exists. So it was definitely a low-budget independant affair, and though it was good, I unfortunately didn’t enjoy it as much as I was expecting considering the subject.
The four heartfelt mini stories in the film all revolve around robots, artificial intelligence, and mechanical life in some form. It also features a primarily Asian American cast, which I don’t think I have ever seen in a non-Asian film. The only actor I recognized was Sab Shimono (the voice of The Simpsons’ Mr. Sparkle!).
It was easy to forget this was science fiction, ironically for a movie about robots and named Robot Stories, the stories were incredibly touching and human.
But the whole thing did suffer slightly from being too big for its shoes almost. The stories, though intimate, had a quality and a power to them that at sometimes only seemed to emphasize the film’s low budget independant feel. At times it felt like watching a student film.
The first story centered around a married couple who live in a future wherein to adopt a child first you must prove your parental worth by first adopting a mechanical baby which reacts to stimuli and emotions just like a real baby.
The second story found a son’s estranged mother drawn closer to him while he lay in a coma. In an effort to re-enter his life she makes it her mission to complete and repair his collection of toy robots.
The weakest story was the third that followed a humanlike android played by director Pak. The android is an artificial office worker, purchased by a company like any copier or office computer. It’s a love story between the robot and a female model in an office across the street. (It would have been more interesting, almost, if it was a love story between the robot and the office copier).
Finally, the last story is about an aging and dying sculptor (Shimono) in whose future world a person’s consciousness is implanted into a computer network before dying, so as to continue “living” electronically. As an artist, he struggles with the reasoning and futlity of continuing to create art when he will no longer be human, and is comforted along the way by the digital copy of his deceased wife.
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