Review for Erotibot

Introduction

I have an impulse control problem. I see a title that tantalises me, in a genre that I know to be cheap and cheesy, yet I have to indulge my curiosity anyway. It's the DVD equivalent of judging a book by its cover, and I really ought to know better by now, having reviewed Japanese low budget genre films like Geisha Assassin, Chanbara Striptease, Rogue Ninja and Tokyo Gore School. It's the combination of b-list acting, cut-rate effects, and exploitative titles and material that draws me in, in the hope that somehow the sum will be greater than the parts. I've been surprised by films like Alien vs. Ninja, and Hard Revenge Milly, but they are the exceptions that prove the rule. Yet there is always that hope, and that reflex action that has me acting before my brain kicks in. When Erotibot came up for review, I had requested the review disc before I even knew it! A film called Erotibot! What couldn't be brilliant about it!?


A young heiress named Tamayo lives with her three robots in a state of bliss, her every whim catered for. No. 1 is the smart, elegant, perfectly programmed butler, No. 2 is a powerful, former construction droid, while Sukekiyo is the robot she got for her 18th birthday, clumsy, bumbling, and apt to brain freeze whenever he lapses into daydream mode. Of course he dotes on his mistress the most, and it's her he fantasises about. Only there's trouble looming in Tamayo's world. Her father has suffered a stroke, and it looks like her inheritance is due. This annoys Tsukiyo, his granddaughter no end, especially as Tamayo's the illegitimate daughter he had with a servant. Tsukiyo wants the inheritance that is due her, and if Tamayo won't give it up, she'll just have to be eliminated. Meanwhile since Tamayo's come of age, she has certain needs that must be fulfilled. It's time for the droids to activate their sexbot subroutines.

The Disc

The film gets a 1.78:1 NTSC anamorphic transfer on this disc from Bounty Films. There are no issues with the transfer to mention, although the source material certainly is cheap and cheerful, digitally shot, and with interlacing artefacts apparent throughout. The lack of budget becomes apparent with the costumes, the special effects, and the limited locations, but half of the fun with these sorts of films is with the way that they tell their stories on the cheap. For audio, you get a DD 2.0 Stereo track, and a DTS 2-channel audio track, which seems a little like overkill, especially as the audio isn't all that great, the dialogue is on occasion a little muffled, and the music comes straight out of a daytime soap opera. The subtitles are legible throughout, free of error and correctly timed.


In terms of extras, you get the film's trailer, and interviews with Asami and Maria Ozawa. There's only the one link, and the disc plays Asami's interview first, in Japanese lasting 10 minutes, before continuing with Maria Ozawa's interview, in English lasting 20 minutes. There's no way of knowing the second interview exists until it starts playing. The actresses talk about their Adult Video careers and the transition to more mainstream movie acting.

Conclusion

I really ought to rein in that curious streak of mine. It will get me into no end of trouble. Or, as in this case, it means I have to devote 72 minutes of my life to watching something that fails in nearly every respect. Erotibot is by parts, soap opera, by parts soft porn movie, and with a little bit of slasher gore added onto the end. The day to day lives of an heiress and her trio of robot hand-servants is acted out with tiresome banality. The sex scenes are more comic than erotic, despite the adult video credentials of the lead actresses. Of course this is mostly because they are played for laughs rather than any attempt to stimulate the audience. And ten minutes worth of gore at the end of the film is hardly enough to appeal to the gore-hound demographic of the DVD buying public.


There are plus points to the film though. It has a somewhat wry and whimsical sense of humour, poking fun at the genre and slipping in more than a few references as well. Most of this comes from the character of the private detective that Tsukiyo hires to hack into Tamayo's robots. The in jokes and winks to the camera did put a smile on my face. There's also a rather hopeful dream device in the plot. I say hopeful as it tries to ape something like Inception, as well as making direct reference to Philip K. Dick's Do Android's Dream Of Electric Sheep. Indeed, the film's subtitle is Do Heiresses Dream of Erotic Androids Or Cup Noodles? But while trying for something complex, it really just falls flat, and in the end feels tiresome and clichéd.


Erotibot goes on the ever increasing pile of films that I deem ideal for post pub entertainment, the kind of films you watch while eating a kebab in a state of inebriation so extreme that you don't care that half of it is dripping down your shirt. I've got a worrying large number of films like that. I guess one more won't make any difference at this point.