Hinokio: Inter Galactic Love

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02/12/2014 Fantastic movie ever... See more 12/04/2011 Hinokio: Inter Galactic Love (2005) is a tale of a sixth grader who was paralyzed and lost his mother in a car accident. Too depressed to leave his room, he's given a telepresence robot through which he attends classes (incidentally, this has started happening in the real world). His classmates decide to nickname the robot (and therefore Satoru) Hinokio, because the robot reminds them of Pinocchio and it's partly made from the wood of the hinoki cypress. Visually, Hinokio's design is one of the best I've seen on film (created primarily by Igarashi Design), and the special effects are pretty well done. It's mostly computer-generated animation mixed with a practical model for close-ups. Ultimately the film isn't about Satoru's robot, but his relationship with his distant father and the friends he makes at school. There are fairly realistic scenes of what daily life would be like with the robot, and what kind of trouble it might get into, but it does take liberties for the sake of the plot. For example, at the end of the day, rather than just disconnecting and leaving the robot safely at school, Satoshi actually walks home as Hinokio. And rather than speaking through the robot, he types messages through a speech synthesizer. However the attention to detail is still pretty remarkable; the robot's control center is a large hemispherical display similar to the one created by fuRo called HULL that controls the Halluc-II, mixed with a BMI. And while the robot can do a few things which are physically improbable, at least it's not magically given super-human artificial intelligence. At times the film switches to a first-person view to show us what Satoru sees through the robot's cameras, or into his computer games. He plays a secret massively-multiplayer online game called Purgatory, where he looks for his mother. It's cute, and is definitely meant for a younger audience, but the plot isn't too patronizing. It deals with real life issues faced by kids, like first crushes and single parents. It takes the time necessary to develop the friendship between Satoru and his schoolmate. His father, who works overtime at the robotics company that built Hinokio, struggles with how to connect with his son. It even touches on addiction to online computer games, and the use of robots like Hinokio in the military. However, at an hour and fifty minutes, Hinokio could benefit from a few more cuts. It is a bit let down at the end, with some cheesy spiritual stuff which is drawn out for far too long (and ends rather predictably), but overall it's not a bad flick. This review is a repost from my website: www.plasticpals.com See more 01/29/2010 Not a bad film. Not a great one. Was all over the place genre wise. Cyber-punk. Romance. Man vs. Father. Fantasy. Never really settled on something and consistency was lacking. That said, there was some solid performances from the talent and despite the genre jumping, the story had some nice flow to it. Definitely a unique film. See more 12/20/2009 A sweet family movie of a young lad called Satoru stuck in a wheelchair after an accident which claims his mother. His father builds a advanced humanoid robot which takes his place in school and he can interact with his classmates through a computer. This movie touches on issues such as bullying, family, life and death. Konata Hongo is fantastic as Satoru and it's amazing to see how young Maki Horikita is with her long hair. Loved the end song by Yui. See more 07/16/2009 Dans un premier, un truc choc : Mais purée qu'ils sont fort ces Japonais. Le robot de Hinokio est superbement intégré à son environnement grâce à savant mix entre image de synthèse / prise de vue à la troisième personne / et vrai mannequin : On y croit donc ! On se laisse donc porter par cette histoire inspiré du compte Pinnochio. Malheureusement... Le réalisateurs se sent obligé de parler des jeux vidéos (alors qu'il aurait très bien pu s'en passer pour parler du purgatoire) et nous donne du coup des passages très laids, chiant et surtout : qui n'apportent strictement rien au film ! Il s'en servira quand bon lui semble et c'est franchement agaçant. Les bons sentiments viennent ensuite ruiné tout ce qui avait été batti dans la première partie (réussi) du film. C'est bien dommage que le film s'effondre dans un mélo comme ça alors qu'il possédait tous les atouts pour être mignon et attachant. Une petite déception donc tellement les raccourcis utilisés sont faciles et peu crédible dans un univers qui au départ se voulait cohérent. See more 03/09/2009 Great movie with a nice story and well developing characters. I did not particularly like the bit about the 'game' (magical flutes etc.), but apart from that was really good. See more Read all reviews

Hinokio: Inter Galactic Love

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