Robot Stories
Tags: satire, flashback

Plot synopsis:
The film is divided up to four short stories:
=== My Robot Baby ===
A young Marcia hides in the closet from her parents' fighting due to a mistake she has made. Marcia apologizes when her mother finds her in the closet; her mother tells Marcia to never fall in love, get married, and have children. Twenty-five years later, Marcia is married to Ray and they are looking towards adopting a child. After going to an adoption clinic, they apply for an adoption trial where they take care of a robotic baby before they can adopt a human child. Marcia begins to struggle when she is alone to take care of the robot baby, as she becomes flustered with what to do when the baby cries. Marcia brings the robot baby to her father, a handyman, and sees if he can tamper with the electronics of the robot. However, Marcia’s father worries that the doctors of the adoption clinic will detect the alteration of the robot. Nonetheless, Marcia persists on getting the baby reprogrammed and leaves the baby to her father while Marcia goes to work. As Marcia comes home to the robot baby now automated, she attempts to talk to the baby. However, the robot baby goes berserk and attacks Marcia. Marcia finds the robot baby in the closet, then remembers her young self hiding in the closet as her own mother was angry. Marcia then cries and is able to hug her robot baby, finding closure to her past.
=== The Robot Fixer ===
Bernice witnesses her son, Wilson, in a severe accident that left him in a coma. Upset, she heads to Wilson's apartment and cleans up the place with her daughter, Grace. Bernice finds Wilson's old toy robot collection and attempts to find the missing parts through yard sales and hobby shops. Throughout the search, Bernice remembers flashbacks of how little she really knows of Wilson, as the young Wilson would play with his robot toys and not hear Bernice's callings. As Bernice learns that Wilson will inevitably die, Bernice scrambles to find the last, missing piece of the robot collection, only to find it at a hobby shop, not for sale. She steals it and runs away, only to find out that she lost the piece as she was escaping. However, Grace meets up with her and comforts Bernice that Bernice finally found the closure she needed between Bernice and her son.
=== Machine Love ===
An office worker android, Archie, arrives at a workplace to do computer work. As he attempts to make acquaintance with people in the office workplace, he is rejected and shunned because he is a robot. Bob, the technician in charge of Archie, forgets to turn off Archie one night, letting him wander about the empty office complex after he finishes his work. He spots another office worker android across the street and stares at her all night. This becomes a reoccurring event for Archie, as Bob keeps forgetting to turn off Archie. As morning arrives, the workers are angry that Archie is not doing his work as he is low on power. Bob is then forced to turn Archie off, but Archie signals to Bob that he wants to meet the other office worker android across the street. As the two robots meet, they talk to each other and interact in a sexual manner.
=== Clay ===
John, an old sculptor, is told that he has only one year left to live. The doctors have recommended him to merge his consciousness into the digital world so he can live forever. He goes home and talks about his life expectancy to his wife (who has died in the past and is now a virtual hologram). The following day, John's son asks him to merge his consciousness in order for John to assist him, but John refuses as he wants to keep using his physical senses to make sculptures. John visits his wife in virtual space to ask her where she is, to which she responds multiple locations. John, unable to accept life after death through virtual reality, dies.

Review: In the four-part anthology film "Robot Stories," writer/director Greg Pak examines the role that technology plays in modern life, pondering the age old quandaries of what is real and what is synthetic and whether or not technology can truly enhance our lives.
Knowing a good thing when he sees it, Pak has chosen to utilize many of the same cast members - largely Asian - for each of the unrelated episodes.The first story, entitled "My Robot Baby," takes place in the not too distant future when couples who are looking to adopt a child are first sent home with a fully computerized and monitored, "simulated" baby that they have to take care of for a brief period of time (this is a more elaborate version of what many high school Health teachers do with their students to convince them of just how much work caring for a newborn can be).
In the well acted and touching second episode, "The Robot Fixer," a young man lies brain dead in a hospital after he is run over by a car.
His mother and sister, who have long been estranged from the man, spend their time reconstructing his collection of beloved toy robots as a way of coming to terms with who he really is.
"Clay," the fourth and most thoughtful segment, takes us to a future world in which people, rather than dying, become somehow absorbed into a giant "system" that allows them to live on in holographic form.
A dying sculptor is forced to choose between this kind of virtual "eternal life" devoid of tactile sensation, or taking his chances with a more natural albeit uncertain existence in the great beyond.As with many anthology films, "Robot Stories" turns out to be better in parts than it is as a whole, with certain episodes inevitably proving to be more imaginative and more captivating than others.
This film then, for the most part works, and if you think it over afterwards it works even better.You gotta admire the vision and care that went into each of the 4 stories that each touch on a different side of the same subject: how humans relate to machines and then relate back to real life.
This leaves the actors plenty of room to present their characters in subtle ways and not having to carry the weight of the story by overacting.The acting from the predominantly Asian cast is very good, and it's nice to see asians in a non-stereotypical role in American film.
The two initial stories, the first about a couple that have to adopt a furby-like machine to prove that they are able to adopt a real baby, the second about a mother who starts completing his comatose son's toy robot collection, are the weakest.
The two final stories (one about an android who develops human feelings and the other about a man dying in a world where you no longer die, but instead you're uploaded), are the strongest, even if at a minimal level.
Using Robots, the movie shows us the basic need for love and surprising, prescient takes on our humanity.
A feeling of hope underneath the pensive melancholy of the film, its abrupt end leaves us with a question and desire to change our own futures, to guard our sense of humanity, and to find love in our all-too-brief lives..
The late Isaac Asimov was president of The Humanist Society, succeeded by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. As a scientist and a humanist, Asimov used the frame of the robot story to illuminate human nature.Greg Pak goes a long way towards filling the Olympian shoes left by Asimov.
In a very gentle, but textured, way, he uses "far-fetched" premises to examine subtle emotional events that are so close to us that they normally escape our notice.For a young film-maker, Pak has a firm grasp of sketching the subtlety of human feelings with an economy of style and an ability to direct actors to express them.
The actors also give fine performances, particularly the tremendously talented Wai Ching Ho and Sab Shimono.The first of the shorts, "My Robot Baby," sets the thoughtful and quirky tone for the rest of the film.
I saw this movie recently at an independent theater nearby, and after the film director and star Greg Pak was there to answer questions and answers.
"Robot Stories" is a collection of four thematically related short films, written, produced, directed and, in at least one, acted by Gregory Pak.
Like a Real Life `The Sims' game, this film offers a scenario in which a couple receives a robot child as test to see if they can care for a real baby.Of the four, this one is perhaps the most naturally acted and directed.
The robot child starts to act more and more berserk, and the film starts to veer off in a direction like it will become a horror movie.While the film sometimes seemed like it would go in an obvious direction, let it be said that Pak never takes the easy way out and has a way of controlling just what expectations are made for the viewer.
This Story deserves ***/****."The Robot Fixer"Easily the most moving, timeless tale of the four, this story gives the film an early peak.
It becomes evident how meaningful Bernice's struggle to mend her child with the toy pieces is, and we start to see there is a bigger meaning here than simply Bernice trying to mend her estranged relationship with her son."The Robot Fixer" is a timeless tale that moved me to tears.
The whole story seems like it was written by someone with lesser talents and a lot lower filmmaking vision than the previous two films, even if it is admittedly very well acted and directed.
If you take the aspect of substituting love for humans with love for a robot from "My Robot Baby", combine with it the futuristic innovations of "Machine Love", and the aspect of coping with death through machines with "The Robot Fixer", you could possibly come up with the film "Clay" as an ending point.
It gets **Overall, the film gets **1/2, but "The Robot Fixer" deserves to be seen by anyone interested in independent cinema..
Science Fiction is a great device for writing about social politics, and these four short films do this well in some way or another.The first story is the sharpest, and questions how we value motherhood against normal human values.
The serious point, that babies are truly alien to your life, is well made.The second film slighly connects love of science fiction with withdrawl from real life.
This sometimes cute, sometimes somber movie using robot-themed short stories addresses important matters of motherhood, love, and death.
The third story provides an indirect humorous parody of love among robots and the anthropomorphic possibilities of mechanical electronics and our human awareness of such alternative experiences.
It seems that Robot Stories is unfortunately another product of a $60,000.00 a year film school education.
This one is the hardest to comment on, because it's a collection of short stories that differ somewhat in quality; but on the whole, ROBOT STORIES deserves its place with the other two as part of a real renaissance in American independent "science fiction" film-making.I put science fiction in quotes, because these films are more more about the human soul and if there can even be such a thing in this brave new world we live in, than they are about the actual new forms technology might take, though PRIMER is probably the best on little science details, if you like that.To anyone reading this comment, I'd suggest you try to see all three.
I LOVE THIS FILM!What a good idea to have four short stories made into a feature film by connecting them with various themes: love, loss, and how human beings interact with robots/technology.
I am generally not a sci-fi fan but I really enjoyed this film because the stories are touching, funny, well-written, and thought-provoking.
The only other film that it somewhat reminded me of was Happy Accidents since both of the films are touching, intelligent, sci-fi comedies (although not all of the stories in Robot Stories are funny) yet the two movies really aren't comparable beyond that.
Some of the questions the film left me with were: how do we adapt to all the technological changes that will be happening in the very near future, how will I mentally deal with the loss of my loved ones as I grow older, how do parents still love their children when the children don't appreciate them, and what would it be like to be an alienated robot with feelings.I think this film would appeal to most people but maybe for different reasons.
Particularly liked Tamlyn Tomita in "My Robot Baby" and the amazing actress who played the grieving mother in "The Robot Fixer."  It's incidentally the best looking tape-to-film transfer I've ever seen..
Robot Stories is an anthology of 4 distinct segments which premiered in the Singapore Fantastic Film Festival this evening, with a common theme of advanced technology or robots taking centerstage.My Robot Baby In the future where career minded couples have no time to conceive and turn to adoption, they will have to go through a "baby trial" period, whereby they will be tasked to take care of a baby-like Tamaguchi robot, which looks similar and beeps just like Star Wars' Artoo-Deetoo, sans legs.The robot records how it is treated by the couple, and without proper care, feeding and cleaning, once the evaluation period is up, the couple will be deemed unsuitable to adopt a human child.So when career gets in the way of childcare, desperate times calls for desperate measures.
It makes you think if what had been done to outsmart the system is ethical, and reflect upon a statement made by one of the characters early in the film on "never fall in love, never get married, and never have kids" if these sacrifices cannot be made.The Robot Fixer A man is lying comatose on a hospital bed, while a mother clings onto childhood memories of her time with her kid.
While waiting for her child to wake up from his coma, she inevitably goes through his stuff, with most of her memories being linked with his robotic toys.While she scours all around town to re-assemble the broken and lost pieces (in the hope that it will jog his brain waves when she speaks and presents them to him), it parallels her determination and never-say-die spirit that her son will one day be able to be with her again.My guess is any son or mother in the audience, will be able to identify with the characters.
A mother's love is always strong.Machine Love Director Greg Pak stars as the protagonist in this segment, a (probably subtle approval to Apple) model G9 iPerson, who's able to self-deliver himself to the company he is bought for.This segment perhaps dreams of what the future may hold for Artificial Intelligence - that of never-tiring workers who can work at their desks all day without the need for breaks, always responding eagerly to "you got work" calls and striving to accomplish all assigned tasks in the fastest possible speed.And with AI, this segment inevitably explores the "what ifs" that these lifeforms could have or developed in terms of emotions, and love, as they learn through interactions with humans.Being the perfect worker, it also brings forth fear into humans on things that we don't understand, and the usual name calling / chiding happens.
Abuse also follows with female versions of the iPerson, with lecherous males openly fondling and commenting on why the racks ain't being bigger.I shan't finish this segment for you, except to comment that these robots sure know the right buttons to push!Clay This is, in my opinion, the weakest of the four stories, but the one which has the most potential, and features the most human of emotions, that of love, longing and the anticipation of death.It is an era where the human brain can be mapped onto a computer, so that man can finally beat death, and while the physical person wastes away, the consciousness will forever be alive in an electronic form.
I am sure that artsy people who do not follow scientific and technological developments much and who are not really into sci-fi, may be pleasantly surprised and challenged by the ideas in these 4 stories, but for anyone, who have thought about these issues 10 years ago and have since moved on, these stories do not offer anything other than cheesy effects and lame acting.The first story has an interesting premise - a couple has to adopt a baby robot for a month as a test for their ability to adopt a human baby, but it really doesn't add anything to what was already covered in depth in Spielberg's A.I. and it also looks sh1t compared to an A-movie sci-fi such as A.I.The second story isn't really a science fiction film at all and is virtually content-free.
It has some semi-interesting ideas about the future, but the overall message is pathetic - robots need some love too.
Live-action robot stories (even shorts) on a tight budget are a bad idea.
Despite the cheesy props the story does contain some interesting ideas, like when the robot's "mother" reprograms the bot so that it automatically takes care of itself.
Unfortunately the concept was better explored and in much greater detail in Steven Spielberg's A.I., and it quickly dissolves into a silly suspense film when the baby robot runs amok late at night.The second story, The Robot Fixer, isn't really about robots at all.
Her reaction at the end is the key to the entire film.The second story, "The Robot Fixer," is really great.
Excellent performances, particularly by Wai Ching Ho as the desperate mother.The final two films, "Robot Love" and "Clay," don't quite have the power of the first two.
Let's empty our cup for this movie, and express from the heart for a moment, because that's what Robot Stories is all about.The movie starts with a tiny segment which runs during the opening credits, a cartoon short about little robots with red faces spitting out binary numbers, ones and zeroes float up the screen, at different pace...
We watch the story develop as mom seeks to fix his toys and come closer to understanding him, she takes responsibility for the part she played in the distance that set them apart, it's a very beautiful story."There's a change that even with regret cannot be undone." -Division Bell Pink Floyd.Story 3:Machine Love takes place some time in the near future with the Gi9 Person.
The Second Vignette Is a Little Gem. Robot Stories, created in 2003 by Greg Pak is his first (and so far his only) feature film.
I think it should be considered also within the context of Greg Pak's creation, all his comics and very short movies (videos of less than 10 minutes, even less than 2 minutes): it is about the interactions between our universe and the universe of his comics.Robots were created with the aim to help us: in our work, or in our moments of fatigue, when we need some kind of intelligent toys to play with.
On the other hand, in most cases the universe of robots offers a window for us, to look into it: what happens there, in their world, is the objective image of what we are.If we consider now the four vignettes of the movie, we could say that the vision of Greg Pak about the matter is rather pessimistic.
"The Robot Fixer" deals with an emotionally-distant mother whose son lies brain-dead in a coma.
The final tale, "Clay," tells the story of a dying sculptor given to the opportunity to have his mind scanned so that his consciousness can survive after his death in huge database.I wasn't sure what to expect when I saw this film.
From the trailer, I expected a somewhat whimsical piece about love and robots, and the third tale with its G9 iPerson is certainly whimsical enough, but I found the overall film much more emotionally challenging and moving than I anticipated.
The second and fourth stories were the best.SPOILERS...."The Robot Fixer" is hardly science fiction at all.
The film starts with a mother, wonderfully played by Wai Ching Ho,  arriving to find her son lying in a coma.
He'd rather take his chances on a natural death than survive in a reality he finds false and artificial."Robot Stories" is an excellent first feature by writer/director Greg Pak. I look forward to seeing another one..
This is a film that examines the premise of robotics in four separate stories and the end result is both a hit and miss with some of the episodes better than others.
The second story is about Bernice (Wai Ching Ho) who along with her daughter Grace (Cindy Cheung) visit her comatose son Wilson and they must decide whether to pull the plug on him since he is brain dead.
The fourth story is about John (Sab Shimono) who is a dying clay sculptor who doesn't want his consciousness to live on when a digital replica of his brain is made and he frequently talks to his dead wife Helen (Eisa Davis) who appears in holographic form.*****SPOILER ALERT*****This film is written and directed by Greg Pak (Who appears in the film) and he makes his feature film debut here with mixed results but his stories do have a way of making you think even if they leave you with no conclusion.
The fourth is the best and Shimono gives a splendid performance and if the other stories were this good than more people would be talking about this film.
Director Pak in interviews has said that he made this because he always thought robots were "cool" and this does have an air of uniqueness that science fiction lovers will definitely want to check out.