Watch Hinokio: Inter Galactic Love For Free

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Excellent but underrated film

Best movie of this year hands down!

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

(www.plasticpals.com) Hinokio: Inter Galactic Love (2005) is a tale of a sixth grader who was paralyzed and lost his mother in a car accident. Too depressed to leave his room, he's given a telepresence robot through which he attends classes (incidentally, this has started happening in the real world). His classmates decide to nickname the robot (and therefore Satoru) Hinokio, because the robot reminds them of Pinocchio and it's partly made from the wood of the hinoki cypress.Visually, Hinokio's design is one of the best I've seen on film (created primarily by Igarashi Design), and the special effects are pretty well done. It's mostly computer-generated animation mixed with a practical model for close-ups. Ultimately the film isn't about Satoru's robot, but his relationship with his distant father and the friends he makes at school.There are fairly realistic scenes of what daily life would be like with the robot, and what kind of trouble it might get into, but it does take liberties for the sake of the plot. For example, at the end of the day, rather than just disconnecting and leaving the robot safely at school, Satoshi actually walks home as Hinokio. And rather than speaking through the robot, he types messages through a speech synthesizer.However the attention to detail is still pretty remarkable; the robot's control center is a large hemispherical display similar to the one created by fuRo called HULL that controls the Halluc-II, mixed with a BMI. And while the robot can do a few things which are physically improbable, at least it's not magically given super-human artificial intelligence. At times the film switches to a first-person view to show us what Satoru sees through the robot's cameras, or into his computer games. He plays a secret massively-multiplayer online game called Purgatory, where he looks for his mother.It's cute, and is definitely meant for a younger audience, but the plot isn't too patronizing. It deals with real life issues faced by kids, like first crushes and single parents. It takes the time necessary to develop the friendship between Satoru and his schoolmate. His father, who works overtime at the robotics company that built Hinokio, struggles with how to connect with his son. It even touches on addiction to online computer games, and the use of robots like Hinokio in the military.However, at an hour and fifty minutes, Hinokio could benefit from a few more cuts. It is a bit let down at the end, with some cheesy spiritual stuff which is drawn out for far too long (and ends rather predictably), but overall it's not a bad flick.

I've just watched this movie. It's very touching and great story. they's no any technical features. indeed they don't make some real effect in movie. its only background. on first there are feelings of real people. and it's shown very great and subtly. you know, you just can't ignore feelings of this young boy and his new friends with their own problems. it is the movie about real life and real problems. i nearly started to cry when the basic character (boy) said to his father that he will never forget him. it's really strong moment of the film and then when he says about meeting with his mother. its really touching! i think you'll get a lot of pleasure when you'll be watching this kind story of little boy and very strong people around him.

To be completely honest, this is a film that I had little to no interest in watching. However, because a couple of my Internet friends seemed quite interested in it, I decided to give it a shot. Now I am glad I did. I was concerned at first that the film was going to be nothing more than a kid makes friends with a robot film, but Hinokio does not fall into this overdone plot device. Instead this film delves into a number of the ills of modern society in a fresh and entertaining manner.The film opens with Hinokio making its entrance into an otherwise mundane homeroom class consisting of such students as the nerdy Joichi, the hyperactive Kenta, and the teacher's pet Sumire. Also in the classroom is the moody Jun who, although a bit intrigued with the new "student", is not overly impressed by the new arrival. We soon learn that Iwamoto Satoru a young boy who is rehabilitating from a car accident controls Hinokio. The robot allows him to attend school and interact with other students while he recuperates at home. However, instead of being warmly embraced by his new classmates, Satoru, or Hinokio, is the victim of pranks. However, after he refuses to tattle on Jun, Kenta, and Joichi, the four soon become friends.While Satoru's relationship with his friends, especially with Jun, is the primary story, Satoru's relationship with his father, who the boy blames for the death of his mother, is also central to the film. Because of his reluctance to interact with the outside world and muteness with his father, Satoru resembles a Hikikomori, or shut-in, a social ill that has spread in modern Japanese society.At times humorous and at times quite moving, Hinokio is a good film to watch for those immersed in the violent films of Miike Takashi or the nostalgic oeuvre of Ozu Yasujiro. It reminds us that there are other films that while not overly artistic can really move an audience or just make one smile.

Emotional, thoroughly wonderful drama about loss, grief and friendship, and how we deal with those issues in various ways. This is a very intelligent film about just that; the robot, "Hinokio", beautifully serves as a metaphor for the inability of human interaction that the boy "Satoru" experiences after the death of his mother. His only means of communication with the outside world is "Hinokio", and together they ultimately break the silence between "Satoru" and the world outside.The acting is top-class, and the robotic effects simply awesome (some of the best CGI ever put on screen). A unique movie experience.