Robot Stories

The film "Robot Stories" carries many of the same positives and negatives that many films have that are, in effect, a series of thematically similar short films tied together.

"My Robot Baby"

This film was the second least broad concept of the four and is consequently the second most interesting tale. 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. It's a smart choice to have as the first film in the series, because it is impossible to figure out what direction it will end up going in until it finally inches to the end. There are times when it seems like it is a Twilight Zone style alternate universe tale, times when it seems like a charming family drama. While we care for the relationship between the couple, we can't figure out how we should care about Marcia after the beginning scene of her as a child. 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. The story is the tale of Bernice Chin and her daughter, Grace, as they visit Bernice's estranged son Wilson, who has been hit by a car and is in a coma. Bernice and Grace stay in Wilson's apartment during their stay to see if Wilson recovers.

Bernice is frustrated by how estranged she has gotten from her son in the many years previous. She attempts to make up for lost time by cleaning everything in his rooms and making them spotless and presentable. When Grace finds a brand of toy robots that Wilson collected as children, Bernice finds a new mission: She will replace all the missing pieces of the toys and make Wilson's collection complete. She believes that if she can repair his treasured toy collection, perhaps Wilson could be revived from the coma.

The direction, acting, and screenwriting give this piece a wonderfully natural, believable feeling. Because of Pak's charming simplicity, the story is beautifully relatable with just about anyone that could watch it. "The Robot Fixer" finds Pak catering completely to his strengths. The movie includes many subtle nuances and builds on its main themes quite knowingly, as when Grace tells her mom of how valuable each of Wilson's organs could be donated to many hopeful organ receivers around the country. 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. If this section of the film could be separated into its own short, it would certainly be one of the year's very best. On its own, it gets ****/****.

"Machine Love"

After an early peak, the film hits its lowest point with "Machine Love". This film's premise seems to be made on a series of "What if?"'s so long that a viewer either has to be with it or totally against it. For some reason, there is a requirement for computers to type up information they already know for 12 hours a day. Also, robots long to have love only to be like other people in the workplace. This premise didn't have any believability to me, and especially will not appeal to anyone that didn't buy the film A.I. (which much more confidently and thoroughly explored the same thematic issues this film does)

This film isn't particularly amusing or interesting, and the premise is thin even for a half hour short. 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. The robots actually seem and look like robots, and the little touches of the robot discovering about personal interactions are nuanced. But overall, it gets */****.

"Clay"

The purpose of "Clay" seems to be to transcend the previous three stories into a tale of the finality of life. 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. The premise involves a man who is dying of a terminal illness and his potential future as a "scanned" person in the computerized afterlife. This film has the most inventive premise of the four, but...

Unfortunately, there isn't a single aspect from this film that hasn't already been explored in another film. Any of the visions of technology have been given to us before, most notably in the previous two Tom Cruise Sci-Fi vehicles, Vanilla Sky and Minority Report. They both explore using technology to recreate lives after death. Soderbergh's Solaris goes even a step further, in that it explored the psychological underpinnings of living with a false version of a past love. Anything explored here has been explored much more deeply before.

Basically "Clay" is as uninspired in its view of the material as "The Robot Fixer" was unique and powerful. 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. And this film was in a Sci-Fi festival!

The third film is light relief, but does explore alienation and fear in a simple way.

The last film is in someways the most traditional, in that it looks at the ultimate mechanization of human life.

All these stories are in turn funny, sexy and intelligent - I wouldn't say that any were original, well produced or deep. A good film for a new director.

Beautifully shot and very moving.

I found all four stories very strong and riveting. Great performances throughout in particular Sab Shimono's portrayal of the old man. Each chapter left us with a bittersweet moved and inspired kind of feeling.

Don't go looking for regular science fiction here. This is a good art film. The robots don't kill anyone, for the most part do their utmost to fit in. They are metaphors and mirrors that Greg Pak uses to reflect back into our very souls.

first off, this is low budget and the filming debut of this director (or so it seems). Judge it as that... of course it's not perfect, as the people behind it are still finding out which of their ideas work on screen and which don't. 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. The story about the comatose boy his mother and his action figures was especially touching, as was the one about the older man that just wants to die, both beautiful roles by the mother and the sculptor. It seems the director is at best when making a 'small' story, he does it with a tenderness and visual power rarely seen. 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 imagery shows the low budget, but the locations are well chosen and it's well directed. The only weak point is when it gets exciting the director has trouble picking up the pace and really conveying the sense of fear and adrenaline the characters must feel. These moments are very sporadic (just one in the first story..my least favorite anyway).

This is a movie to watch, if you have an open mind and can relate to the people on screen. If you're looking for more traditional sci-fi themes.. look further. Calling this movie sci-fi just because it deals with robots is missing the point. This is more geared towards drama. And it's good.. especially for a filming debut. Definitely a director to watch for in the future. A man with vision, ideas and original stories to tell.

"Robot Stories" is a collection of four thematically related short films, written, produced, directed and, in at least one, acted by Gregory Pak.

They are humanistic "Outer Limits" episodes with the usual ending twist. The first two particularly rise above the genre with touching insight into human and machine interaction, the fourth almost succeeds, and the third just seems like the usual android of the future amidst the humans, similar to "Data"'s experiences on "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

One unique resonance is the preponderance of Asian-American actors, which adds a subtle layer of commentary about "the model minority" with the pressures on them to succeed that can only be met by machine perfection, perhaps leading to the pressure to opt for tekkie, rather than artistic--like filmmaking--fields.

The movie concludes with a sweet tribute to a friend or relative of a worker on the film who died at the World Trade Center.