‘Sheep in the Box’ Expands Kore-eda Hirokazu’s Empathy to Humanoid Androids and the Architecture They Inhabit

By Blake Simons

Blake Simons

Latest

• Convenience Store Horror-Comedy ‘AnyMart’: Director Iwasaki Yusuke Unpacks His Berlinale Debut Film 3 months ago
• Japan Night at Berlinale Spotlights Projects From Emerging Directors, Producers 3 months ago

Japanese auteur Kore-eda Hirokazu returns to competition at Cannes with “Sheep in the Box,” a thorny yet sensitive meditation on the encroachment of AI on our ability to let go of those who are no longer with us. In the film, Otone (Ayase Haruka) and Kensuke (Yamamoto Daigo) adopt a humanoid android (Kuwaki Rimu) who resembles their late son, Kakeru.

“To think about AI is to think about humanity,” Kore-eda tells Variety. “My earlier film, ‘Air Doll,’ was also about the dynamics between humans and non-humans, but here the non-human is also the dead. I was interested in AI before I began, but I found myself gravitating towards it as I developed the project.”

Related Stories

Imogen Poots, John Reynolds to Star in Amazon Series 'Sex Criminals'