Kyoko isn't an Ex-girlfriend who got M.A. in China

Rating: 7/10 (4 July 2016)

The best visual effects winner of the Academy Award, "Ex Machina" , finally comes out this June in my country after a year of its release in the UK and the States. A Canuck friend of mine laughed about how late western countries' movies come out in Japan, but I was really looking forward to seeing it because a bunch of users followed this movie's pin on my account of Pinterest.
At a private mountain retreat in a valley, a crazy scientist, the CEO of a giant internet company, Nathan, and a young talented programmer, Caleb, try to experiment on a humanoid artificial intelligence A.I., Ava. Although the story is normal and predictable, the movie keeps fascinating the audience by using its special filming method due to low budget; The fewer characters and other elements there are, the more viewer's imagination is stimulated. I have a couple of questions and answers in a following Q & A format.
1, Is there limitation of A.I. s' ability ? The humanoid A.I. "Ava" has almost the same linguistic ability and facial expression as human beings. Her behavior, especially how to respond to speakers, reminds us of the current Apple's product, Siri. Siri can instantaneously select the best answers to those who talk to it by using the search function and online algorithm. So, these A.I.s who respond fluently to human beings are feasible in the near future. However, the other A.I. "Kyoko" looks so unnatural and awkward that it makes us feel far away from the real non-native English speakers. If Kyoko is set as a real "foreign" A.I. and try to behave as a real stranger, I guess she definitely wouldn't like that. When using the google translation system, the results are often too poor to understand what they want to say due to the 'word for word' translation by the search function. On the other hand, good interpreters can break it down including ambiguous expressions by their own experience and considering cultural differences. Average people manage to communicate with foreigners by using body gestures. Even if not, the conversation ended up and that's it. I believe it's almost impossible to make a robot who impersonates a foreigner without speaking, like Kyoko; she should've been not a foreigner, but just a domestic animal or a slave. By the way, recently a scientist declared that he would develop a translation system that works the same as a human being does by 2020. I'm wondering how well he will do to be honest.
2, Is this discrimination against Asian women? Some women's rights activists and feminists claimed that the "tame and dumb" A.I. Kyoko is the stereotype of Asian women as seen by western people. In general, the average Japanese people have quite low English skills due to the linguistic difference between both languages. Moreover, the saying "tall trees catch much wind", they tend to be obedient to their superiors in order to protect themselves. In this case, she really matches the supporting role of this simplified story. Assuming the 2nd A.I. was a Caucasian woman, it would take Ava's personality away. If there is only Ava of A.I. characters, Nathan would have no one to go with, and the story might turn out to be a trite romance triangle just like Soap Opera.
Nowadays, there have been many Asian characters appearing on the American movies. In "The Big Short", at first a Chinese 'nerd' analyst at a bank who can't speak English at all, but suddenly shows his true colors and reveals that he is in fact the good English speaker with a sense of wit and humor. The Chinese government supports the space development with NASA by its advanced technology in the near future in "The Martian". On the contrary, this Neo-futuristic A.I. still doesn't speak English and plays a figure of fun with dancing.