All things considered it was terrible. It would have been novel about 10 years ago, but now all the ideas have been explored much better by cinema and other media as well. The stories are too unsophisticated and do not go beyond "feel goodness". 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. The main idea is that it's sucks when your son lies brain-dead in a coma and you need to give doctors a permission to pull out the plug. Well, yes, indeed it sucks, but in what unique way does the story explore this problem? The third story is funny and even nice in some ways. It has some semi-interesting ideas about the future, but the overall message is pathetic - robots need some love too. Once again, there is nothing that wasn't said in, say, Bicentennial Man. And once again, the effects are non-existent and there is no depth.
The fourth story is the most ambitious of all, and it probably fails less dramatically than others. But it still fails. May be the director had some deep message that he wanted to put there, but he probably forgot. Again, there isn't much in terms of original ideas - deathism, senile dementia and irrational stupidity. May be the viewers are expected to feel empathy with that old loser, I don't know... But I certainly didn't.
Overall these films are probably worthless to a sci-fi fan. However, to a casual viewer, who lived in a cage for the last decade and was not exposed to even the simplest ideas about the future through Internet or magazines such as Wired, SciAm, Pop. Mech. etc., would probably enjoy these (especially if he's into independent Asian films). There is also some hope for Greg Pak, seeing as he is in the very beginning of his directing career. Hopefully, he will tackle these ideas better in the future. And it's also nice to see such interest to sci-fi themes among the juries.
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. The main idea is that it's sucks when your son lies brain-dead in a coma and you need to give doctors a permission to pull out the plug. Well, yes, indeed it sucks, but in what unique way does the story explore this problem? The third story is funny and even nice in some ways. It has some semi-interesting ideas about the future, but the overall message is pathetic - robots need some love too. Once again, there is nothing that wasn't said in, say, Bicentennial Man. And once again, the effects are non-existent and there is no depth.
The fourth story is the most ambitious of all, and it probably fails less dramatically than others. But it still fails. May be the director had some deep message that he wanted to put there, but he probably forgot. Again, there isn't much in terms of original ideas - deathism, senile dementia and irrational stupidity. May be the viewers are expected to feel empathy with that old loser, I don't know... But I certainly didn't.
Overall these films are probably worthless to a sci-fi fan. However, to a casual viewer, who lived in a cage for the last decade and was not exposed to even the simplest ideas about the future through Internet or magazines such as Wired, SciAm, Pop. Mech. etc., would probably enjoy these (especially if he's into independent Asian films). There is also some hope for Greg Pak, seeing as he is in the very beginning of his directing career. Hopefully, he will tackle these ideas better in the future. And it's also nice to see such interest to sci-fi themes among the juries.