Robot Stories
The Asian American Film we watched in class called “Robot Stories”, consisted of four short “clips” having to do with robots interacting with humans. The theme that I got from this film was that although technology may change during the future (such as in Robot love, Clay, and My Robot Baby), the human heart remains the same. I enjoyed these movies and found some commonalities with the themes we have gone over in class. Interracial marriage and biracial actors were a theme in the last two short films, Robot Love, and Clay). These stories gave the tone of loneliness, and the desire to feel “apart of something”.
My favorite short story was Robot Love. At the rate we are going today, I cannot even imagine where technology will be in the future. We have already begun to build robots, forming the most intelligent technologically developed devices anyone could ever imagine. The title of the robot on the box said “iperson”, which I found to be clever due to the iphone and everything else made to make life a little easier. The film portrayed life in the future, where robots would take place of workers doing a more efficient job. Throughout the short story, the robot seemed to gain human feelings. He soon discovered another robot worker in the building across form his and watched her work. They seemed lonely and desperate for any type of contact which they were not receiving. Instead they were ignored and considered inhuman. Towards the end of the film, the two robots found each other, which seem strange because usually I would think robots would be made with no heart. I believe that there is an underlying message to this short film. We spoke in class about “biracial loneness”, and how in this film, the robot is searching for someone much like himself because he has been ignored by the others. This was a beautiful portrayal of a lonely life seeking comfort in another much like them.
I also found Clay to be interesting. The idea of being able to put memories onto a disk is something of the future, but much like the man in this story I’m not sure I would want to live forever. It’s better to be able to hold your own memories and keep them in your heart, than to put them on a disk. In the end the old man dies on a rock in the lake which he searches for clay to make his sculptures. He seemed happy and at peace, knowing he could now rest. He did not want to be living a lie, for he knew that his wife was not real despite the fact her could still see her and talk to her. He wanted something real, and able to touch much like his clay sculptures.
