November 06, 2004
Robot Stories Review
Review By Gloria Wong
Robot Stories, the feature-length debut of Asian American director/writer/actor Greg Pak, is a quartet of science fiction shorts about technology. In “My Robot Baby” a yuppie couple is given a robot baby for a week in order to measure their suitability for human child adoption. But when Marcia is left alone with the robo-baby for the weekend, she is confronted with her uncertainties about motherhood. “The Robot Fixer” is the story of an older woman who becomes obsessed with completing her estranged son’s robot toy collection. Pak plays Archie, an android office worker, in “Machine Love”. And in “Clay”, an aging sculptor confounds his loved ones (and his doctor) when he chooses not to digitize his consciousness before his body dies. On their surface, each of the shorts examines the relationship between technology and humanity. While the shorts may take place in a hypothetical not-too-distant future, like all good science fiction, they raise questions that obviously relate to our concrete present – most obviously, how is our idea of “the authentic” being affected by increasingly convincing digital simulation? A little too much like an Outer Limits marathon? Thankfully, the decidedly lo-fi Robot Stories stays grounded in its characters, and uses science fiction as a backdrop for its touching examination of humanity.
Showing tonight, Nov 6th, 9:30pm
at Cinemark TinselTown Theatres
88 West Pender 3rd Floor
Vancouver, BC V6B6N9
Robot Stories [Official Site]
I can only wish I was in Vancouver to see this...
I saw this last year at the Reel Asian Film Fest in Toronto. Great film and it almost didn't get made considering they started production on Sept. 9 2001.
Go see it if you can. It's been touring cinemas all over the US over the last year and doing quite well.
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To start, as the film does, with the worst first, there's "My Robot Baby," about a couple (Korean-American by the looks of them) who want to adopt a baby but are given a robot instead for a parental trial run. The little thing coos for daddy but seems to have it in for mommy, jabbing her with some sharp protrusion whenever she comes near. What a bad little robot baby. It could just as well be Chucky.
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This is a must see for the fillm festival. Robot Stories is the evolution of Asian American representation in film. Despite all the characters being "Asian" - none of the shorts is really about their "being Asian." They just are. What a relief. Some interacial mixing (which is meant to challenge the notions of "pure" Asian-ness). It's cleverly subversive. Highly recommend it!
Posted by: Alden at November 6, 2004 04:24 PM