Robot Stories (2002)
“Robot Stories” isn’t exactly what
the title implies. Only two of the four short films
here, all by Asian-American Greg Pak, are truly concerned
with Robots. These are the more light-hearted of the
quartet. The other two have more somber themes and
relate more to death than any sort of cyber intelligence.
The film begins with a light note
and a short film that seems a little too typical.
After a delightful little animated opening titles
intro by Dan Kanemoto, Pak leads us to believe that
we may be in for a rather cutesy ride. The first short,
“My Robot Baby” is based on an idea seen a few times
in shorts. A young couple of yuppies are given a robotic
infant in order that they might prove to an adoption
agency that they are fit to handle a live baby. Of
course, things go amuck.
But as the short progresses, Pak
proves that he has more than just humor or precious
parental moments in mind. His short has real thought
and emotion behind it even if his set-up is rather
typical. It’s a nice start to the film without raising
our expectations too high.
The next short is the best of them
all. Again, Pak may be a rather obvious filmmaker,
but this second short rises above its typicality to
achieve a real poignancy. In “The Robot Fixer,” a
mother learns to accept her son and his impending
death. It’s a beautiful film and acted perfectly by
Wai Ching Ho (at least I think that’s who played the
mother). This is where Pak proves that he can be an
exceptional script-writer as well as filmmaker. Every
nuance of this story is perfect.
Pak himself appears in “Machine
Love” and here again he takes a rather typical storyline
and elevates it to a higher level. Perhaps the most
cyber of the robots in the film, Pak plays Archie,
an “iPerson” who is sent to an office to help with
the workload. Archie is left on at night by accident
a few times and begins to show interest in a female
cyber-worker who exists in the building across from
his.
The forth film, called “Clay” is
the least successful of them all and the least to
really be about a “robot” life form. The short is
set in 2027 and concerns an elderly artist who is
about to die. In this future world, people are required
to upload their memories (called “scanning”) before
they pass away so that their “body dies but (their)
consciousness lives on.” The aging protag in “Clay”
doesn’t want to do this. This short is rather poorly
written and much more contrived that any of the others.
The true delight of “Robot Stories”
is its unique qualities. While Pak is a very good
filmmaker who has proved his worth with this four-pack
of shorts, it is the unusual things about his stories
that make us take note. For one thing, almost the
entire cast in Asian American and the dialogue is
all English. It’s nice to see this aspect of American
culture get more exposure on the big screen. And Pak
never resorts to simply “Asian” stories. His films
may have an Asian face but the themes and the stories
in the film are universal. The fact that these are
Asian characters is never truly important to the stories.
It simply is the way it is.
Greg Pak is a name you are going
to hear of in the future if you are into films at
all. “Robot Stories” is good enough to get distributed.
These is a film of enormous merit whose whole is much
larger than the sum of its (robot) parts.
Note:
Shot on DV but blown up to 35.
I believe the term “G9” is used
in each of the stories.
The film showed at Slamdance 2003.
The film won the Best Screenplay
Award at the 2002 Hamptons International Film Festival.
Pak's feature screenplay "Rio Chino" won the Pipedream
Screenwriting Award at the 2002 IFP Market.
Viewed in Austin in March at the
2003 SXSW
Film Festival
