The employ of artificial technology in cinema is nothing new, with films like “Ex Machina” and “Morgan” to Ghost in the Shell and Alita: Battle Angel all tackling the subject of the ethical quandaries of placing intelligence inside of robots. Now, director Min Kyu-dong takes a story originally written for the series SF8 into a feature-length adaptation in a haunting tale on class warfare alongside robotic sentience in “The Prayer,” screening at New York Asian Film Festival.
“The Prayer” is screening at New York Asian Film Festival
The TRS Gan Ho-joong (Lee Yoo-young) is a nursing robot customized for each patient: all the robots look just like each patients' family member. Jung-in (Lee Yoo-young) had hired it to take care of her mother who's been in a coma for several years. However, her cumbersome days are slowly strangling her. Seeing Jung-in suffering from depression puts her TRS in a dilemma because Jung-in is also registered in the caring service. The perfectly programmed machine starts to stumble.
For the most part, “The Prayer” is a serviceable enough and entertaining tale. The main focus here is on the multi-layered story from writer/director Kyu-dong that employs several different storylines. The initial concept comes from the idea of the different treatment afforded to people based on their social standing. The rich are shown to be the ones who are capable of taking on the robots in order to receive the care they need while most everyone else is left aside in the hospitals or struggling with the payments on the machines. Since we're told that they require constant maintenance and that more features cost extra, there's a clear divide between those that can afford them and everyone else. This stands in stark contrast to the second half of the film where the TRS is suddenly forced into caring for Jung-in which goes against her programming but still requires her to be there in a nursing capacity.
In addition to the class dynamism on display, “The Prayer” also comes into its own with the implications of the technological advancements. Given that the particular robots are designed with the capacity to care for the elderly member of the family as well as the rest of the family going through a turbulent time, the advanced technology implicated in their creation is already quite high. Realizing that all of this is also dependent on the model and the specific enhancements chosen, the idea of the robot getting overwhelmed by the situation is just like their human facilitators. We get that here in how the lower-class family sees their model operating ineffectively and unable to prevent her patient from injuring himself while Gan Ho-joong is caught in a position between helping Jung-in or her mother. Aware that helping her falls outside her core operating values in a strict sense but also falling within the guidelines of her programming, there's a lot to like here about the overhaul of technology in society.
That said, “The Prayer” is also a depressingly bleak and rather joyless film. The whole of the title is built around who comes to care for the elderly and disabled at the time they need it the most, meaning that there's bound to come to a point where it fails. The blank-faced expressions when a conversation informing the other of their patent being deceased is treated as a conversation told over a casual get-together with friends and glossed over to the point of indifference. Moreover, Jung-in spending the majority of the film worrying over how the increasing experiences with no sign of recovery after such a long period of care creates a toll on her that starts to affect her own mental health. This, in turn, triggers the secondary instinct in Gan Ho-joong to also worry about the psychological effects of her patient's family rather than just her primary responsibilities which can be draining and emotionally taxing at times.
Bleak and depressing but also an equally powerful critique on class structure, “The Prayer” is an emotionally resonant drama that makes for a challenging time at places, although there's still quite a lot to like here. Those viewers who appreciate this kind of setup and are comfortable with those aspects should give this film a look.
