ヒノキオ
HINOKIO

Japanese 2005
http://hinokio-movie.com

Starring: Kanata Hongo, Mikako Tabe, Maki Horikita, Ryoko Kobaya
Director: Takahiko Akiyama

HINOKIO is not a movie about robots. It is a story of the heart, of using a remotely controlled robot that can interface with the real world to restore the relationships that had become broken, to build bonds between a boy and a girl, a boy and his father.

Satoru, a heartbroken boy who had withdrawn into his room, who uses a remotely controlled robot called HINOKIO as a next-generation communication tool that provides him with a window on the world. Using that robot ‘tool’, Satoru is able to make progress by taking his first cautious, fearful steps out into the outside world… steps taken from within his ‘digital cocoon’. Still, he does go to school, find fellowship and through an encounter with a girl, is able to reconnect and feel once again the sensation of warm human touch.

Satoru eventually seeks to directly experience the world and activates the robot’s sensation mode, exposing himself to mortal threat. The girl Jun, risks all by taking action in an attempt to rescue him. This movie is not just about humans considering each other with warm affections; it is a movie that, through the conduct of humans finding love, asks the very question “What is it to be alive?”

If Spielberg’s “A.I.” was an overdone take on the Pinocchio fable, then “Hinokio” must be its quieter, subtler cousin. After an emotionally crippling accident, twelve year-old Satoru (Kanata Hongo) ceases contact with the world ? until a super-robot, nicknamed Hinokio, is built for him. Hinokio substitutes Satoru’s attendance in school while the latter operates it from the confines of his room, which is nearly foolproof if not for all those cumbersome music and P.E. lessons. As bullies come and go, Hinokio/Satoru eventually manages to find a friend in Jun (Mikako Tabe), who has a surprise for us - and Satoru. They go fishing together and run around in a rainstorm. Guess what happens when the scary thunder sounds?

What is stunning in “Hinokio” is the gradual and completely convincing ambiguity of Hinokio, both as a robot and as Satoru himself. There are times when it’s obvious Hinokio is merely a machine, but tender moments, which are aplenty, are hardly foiled by the fact that it is nothing but a combination of plastic and alloys. When Jun and Hinokio share a spontaneous embrace, it is a powerful moment. The hug is immediately affecting in conveying Jun and Satoru’s impossible friendship, but simultaneously poignant and sad ? Satoru is still alone in his room. The impeccable care accorded to developing the character arc of Hinokio/Satoru is nothing short of exemplary, somewhat of a drag, perhaps, but the returns are no doubt worth it.