In Olivia Minhyul Bae’s Servo, an adorable–if clumsy and moody–robot makes friends with an overworked office worker after the man buys it as a personal assistant for his home. At first, the two don’t get along; the man even vaguely wonders aloud on the phone if he should return it. However, the robot learns to be more productive and the two become friends, playing video games and eating dinner together. When the company insists on mandatory updates, however, the robot’s owner becomes distressed and tries to refuse them.
The real success here is Bae’s animation, which is seamless, and Junghwan Sul, who plays the gruff office worker. With its giant eyes and expressive pupils, Servo the robot is able to give a convincingly anthropomorphic performance. It appears chagrined when it drops a dish, joyful while gaming, and empathetic when the man is sad. Servo’s fractious movements, the way it flails its body or shifts its head, produce a kind of charming ugliness that makes it far more human. The film also includes some charming moments between robot and human, including a sweet moment in which the robot makes a birthday meal for his owner.
The movie also speaks to the profound loneliness of the office worker automation. Except for a short phone conversation with a customer service representative, the human protagonist never interacts with any other human. Instead, his only vessel for emotional expression is this robot, which is perhaps not coincidentally also his servant. Furthermore, the man’s enjoyment of the robot seems clearly linked to its behavior, as he beats it when it fails (a very odd note in the film that just doesn’t work). The main character’s inability to emotionally connect with this object only when it is well behaved makes him seem emotionally childlike as well and makes his loneliness even more disturbing. Whether intentional or not, the film makes it seem that the flaw isn’t in the company that wants to upgrade but in the protagonist. Instead of worrying about the robot’s upgrade, perhaps the good-looking, wealthy office worker should simply get out more? It’s unclear if the film is trying to make a larger comment about contemporary intimacy or if the protagonist is merely a misanthrope, a slippage that may leave the audience unsure if this is a comedy or a tragedy.