We live in a world now where digital systems and artificial intelligence are replacing many things in our day-to-day lives, but would we expect, or even accept, artificial intelligence taking over our art?βWell, this is the source for Yuko Watanabe's latest short, with the ‘script' created by the story generation software A.I. FURUKOTO. But can artificial intelligence teach us good ol' humans anything about humanity?
Boy Sprouted is screening at Osaka Asian Film Festival
Seitaro (Seitaro Hara) is a boy who lives with his mother (Kanako Higashi), and like most young boys, is not fond of a certain fruit or vegetable; in this case, tomatoes. Every day, his mother dutifully tries to encourage him to eat tomatoes in any form, yet he does whatever he can to escape. His classmates seem to have no problem eating tomatoes, so why does Seitaro? Under his T-shirt, Seitaro keeps a secret, in a way that is humorous, surreal and terrifying all at once.
If the story is generated from AI, you can clearly see where it gets its inspiration. Combining the idea of children not wanting to eat healthy foods with childish tales of a tree growing inside you if you eat a seed, this certainly delves into the child psyche of keeping secrets from parents; running and hiding in fear from their kind approaches. While a little awkward in parts, the story itself works fine, developed by Hiroki Tawada to give it a human touch.
And Watanabe succeeds in creating various moods throughout, switching between light humour at the scenario, to more dark and sinister moments in revealing Seitaro's secret. This temporal atmosphere is well crafted with effective use of lighting, soundtrack and Ryusuke Hamaguchi collaborator Yoshio Kitagawa's roaming camera, reminiscent of Kubrick's “The Shining” or Bong's “Parasite”.
Young Hara gives a good performance in the lead role as the boy with strange behavior to keep his secret hidden, ready to dash away from his mother at any moment, in a short that looks stylish and delivers on its promise.
But will artificial intelligence start replacing filmmaking talent in the near future? It may be a while yet before it can generate truly great cinema. Though, much like Seitaro's ailment, it may start sprouting up at an increased pace.
