Robot Stories: And More Screenplays

by Greg Pak

Book Overview

This collects award-winning film scripts from a best-selling comic book writer. Enjoy literary science fiction in the tradition of Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury.

Winner of 35 film festival awards, Robot Stories is an acclaimed independent movie by talented Asian American writer Greg Pak. In four intertwined stories, people struggle to connect in a technological world.
My Robot Baby: a couple cares for a robot...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1597020001
• ISBN13: 9781597020008
• Release Date: July 2005
• Publisher: Immedium
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Robot Stories: 4 Awesome shorts

Cliff's Notes Review: + 4 Awesome, distinct stories + Novel central theme "human emotions and robots" + Represents the Asian American/Mixed-Race Community without beating you over the head with issues. + Charming and Provocative like an independant film/Professional and polished like a high-budget studio film. My Take: Robot Stories is awesome. Its is broken up into a series of 4 charming shorties, each related around a theme of "how humans develop emotions when dealing with robots". Each story has a distinct perspective on this central theme. For example, one story is about a couple who wants to adopt a child, but must babysit a "robo-baby" to prove their worth as parents, while another is about a mother trying to re-connect to her sick son through his collection of toy robots. I think the final point that I'd like about Robot Stories and Greg Pak as a director was that he was able to represent the Asian American/Mixed Race characters in normal situations. While this may feel like a minor point, its refreshing. Its nice once in a while to see an Asian American on the big screen who isn't a Lucy Lu Dragon lady, or a Connie Chung newscaster, but as a normal protagonist whom i can identify with.

An exploration of the problems between men and machines

Filmmaker Pak provides not just the award-winning ROBOT STORIES screenplay, but four other tales which are all infused with considerations about technology. It's not only the futuristic settings which link these plots: it's an exploration of the problems between men and machines, the created and the natural worlds, which creates such a compelling dynamic in these motion pictures. Small black and white shots pepper the account, but it's the screenplays which are the heart of this fine title. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

Inspiring!!!

I hadn't seen the Robot Stories movie, but a friend of mine did and raved about it. I'd read a few of Pak's comics for Marvel, so I picked up the book and was actually blown away by the amount of thought Pak has put into not just that movie but his career of writing in general. He gives insightful introductions to his many scripts, which run the gamut from sarcastic short spoofs about sex to the recreation of the life of a pioneering surgeon, and finally to the sci-fi feature from the title. This was the first time I've actually read a screenplay, and it is different than reading a novel. But the book gives some helpful tips to make the adjustment easier. After I while I got used to the format to where I could really visualize the actors and actresses talking to each other. Somehow I think that is one of the points of the book: to make films more accessible and to inspire people to create their own vision. Pak touches upon a lot of issues: from the craft of writing and the challenges of making an independent film to the media images of Asian Americans (David Henry Hwang's foreword is excellent in this regard). So it has something that can appeal to most everybody. But ultimately, I found the collection to be oddly inspiring to the artist hidden in me, and has made me want to see Pak's movies.