The plot represents the relation between humans and robots as in part ominous, in part favorable. And despite that It felt ambiguous (at least for me), It didn't fail to raise my curiosity for what it's actually trying to imply. That's a big point considering that I'm generally not a fan of sci-fi stuff.
Lee Yo Young shows HUGE potential!! She skillfully plays a dual role as a depressed caregiver who is caged by her mother being in a coma for 7 years, and a robot copy that nurses her mother and somehow provides emotional support for her. The robot is not completely emotionless though, she learned how to read her owner's emotions and to react to it. You can see how good the actress is from how elaborate her eye and head movements are. Not to mention how charming she looks as a robot with her calming facial features and radiant greenish eyes. I'm a fan already♡
As always the old lady Ye Soo Jung gives a reliable performance, but the one who really caught my eyes was Yeom Hye Ran, a neighboring caregiver who also owns a robot to take care of her husband, but unfortunately, a malfunctioning one that adds to her misery. In one scene, she put me in a state of panic and desperation as she shows her anguish towards her husband's outraging acts caused by dementia.
Necessary to mention is how spectacular the director's work is!! Just how some scenes are shot and how cameras are angled is superb. Cinematography along with sound effects speak nothing less, not so fancy but fairly well-made. The whole thing sounded like a high-quality independent film!
I just feel like that this series is gonna be a showcase for acting abilities and directors' talent, which sounds to me like a party to feast on :D so I'm definitely looking forward to the rest of the series.
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The Prayer
Have you ever wondered if Robots can have feelings? The Prayer shows us how a nursing robot falls in love with the patient's daughter. I wouldn't call it to love but a kinda bond. The robot has been looking after the Patient's mother who has been on a coma for almost 10 years. One day, the daughter is fed up and exhausted, that she almost wants to end her life. The nursing robot then starts to analyze how she can free the daughter from the pain.The concept of having nursing robots was very interesting. One side you can see the art of science and the other side the religion inside science. Overall, it's how the emotions play in between these. Ye Soo Jung plays the role of Sister Sabina. Her acting was so good, I almost went speechless in the ending, her emotions were so well portrayed. I cannot forget Lee Yoo Young, she killed it. She plays the caregiver's daughter and also the role of the nursing robot. Overall I want to give 10/10 for the acting.
The cinematography is so good. I love the lighting and the unique camera angles. The ending was so good. I liked how the sister goes all the way to Germany to find the robot. There is this beautiful scene where the robot tells sister Sabi, the pain she felt inside. The robot actually prayed. There was one phone call scene where sister Sabina explains to her about prayer, love, and feelings. I loved this episode.
I got this weird feeling, the robot loved the patients daughter. It would be nice, if we got a lesbian scene but I loved this episode.
I didn't understand the ending tho. When the robot goes mad and starts controlling other systems, I really don't know what the ending means.
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And like the best of science fiction, its job is to make us think and make us feel - even if those feelings are uncomfortable and make us question everything.
In a future where medicine is keeping people alive long after they would normally have passed, caregiver robots have been created that look like the patients' loved ones. As nursing hospitals replace schools and people go into debt to buy the expensive caregivers, the show examines the lives of two families each able to provide only palliative care to an ill member of their family.
Like most robot stories, The Prayer isn't about futuristic palliative care or even about robotics. It is instead about the nature of humanity. Grounded in the story of Cain and Abel and the question, "Am I my brother's keeper?", it asks some big questions about what it means to care for somebody and the limits and boundaries of that responsibility.
Lee Yoo-young is transcendent here playing dual roles as Yeon Jung-in and her robot double Gan Ho-jung. Jung-in is struggling with middle age questions of failure and purpose as her mother lies in a vegetative state with her doppelganger Ho-jung looking over her. But Ho-jung has also been programmed to care forJung-in and after a possible system error she decides that looking after the daughter requires the death of the mother.
Is Ho-jung suffering from a logic failure or an emotional awakening? Is she malfunctioning or gaining sapience? Can she feel and if she can are those feelings something she should act on? Is her desire to care for Jung-in a selfless act of consideration or has she developed the ability to lie even to herself?
Like the best of science fiction, The Prayer never answers these questions. Dark, off-kilter, often out of focus and kaleidoscopic, The Prayer simply asks. It is up to us to decide if we can answer.
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Good Enough
Korean Series SF8 is an ambitious anthology of sci fi stories. Others are better constructed, fitting well into the short length of an hour, others had compelling stories or characters or both, and others didn't do so well. Nevertheless, all of them had interesting themes, great performances and, best of all, beautiful CGI that created the perfect futuristic atmosphere.The Prayer had a strong first half, but it almost lost it in the second one, as it was a bit too much with the shocking element, although the drama wanted to show how technology can't replace the human factor (?).
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The story was really intriguing and at first, I thought that it will be very calm for the first episode, however, I was wrong. I was getting goosebumps by the middle to the end of the episode as it intensifies.
The acting was good! Lee Yoo Young was so good at showing her frustrations and anger towards the things in her life and how she portrayed as the caregiver robot. I applaud with the supporting cast as well. And Ye Soo Jung for portraying Sister Sabina that had to go through conflicting emotions because of the caregiver robot.
I really really loved the music (I have a thing for sci-fi instrumental music) that made everything extra "advanced" looking and the CGI was so good.
All in all, this was a pretty good start for the first episode of an anthology and I'm looking forward to the upcoming episodes! You really can't help but anticipate and think whether these things might really happen in the future. It's scary and realistic at the same time how robots seem to have emotions due to their advancement and how humans like us, can be fooled with their so-called "emotions" rooted from their malfunctioning system. I think that this whole anthology will give us another perspective with the idea of what the "future" will become or what the "future" already is.
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