Hal is a recently released movie that, like Time of Eve and Chobits, deals with robotic and human love, however it is a bit different. A robot named Q01 is asked to be transformed into a boy named Hal after the real Hal died in a plane crash. The robot is asked to do so in order to coax Kurumi, Hal's now ex-girlfriend, out her depression where she would not eat or even cry. The film starts off with robot Hal just trying to get Kurumi out of her solitude through fulfilling her wishes she had left behind on a Rubik's cube. As the robot Hal does this he is able to get closer and closer to Kurumi and she opens up more and more with Hal about what happened between her and the real Hal before the aeroplane accident. Just as things are getting better they also get more complicated as robot Hal runs into one of Hal's old friends, Ryu, who seemingly is oblivious to the fact he died. The robot also starts to assume Hal's place as Kurumi's lover, blurring the line between itself and the original Hal. Consquently the robot Hal tried to find out more about the past Hal and his relationship with Kurumi. It finds out about how Hal was forced in a gang, along with Ryu, and this made his personality overly pragmatic when it came to money and valuing things. This all comes to a head when the robot Hal invites Kurumi to a festival dressed in the dead Hal's kimono. Kurumi shares her memories and the two apologise to each other, and thus reconcile. Kurumi goes to the festival and two seem like a typical couple. However after the festival Ryu shows up again telling Hal he is still part of the group and talking as if he has made some arrangements with the group before even meeting Kurumi. Hal and Kurumi thus run away and manage to evade Ryu and his gang until a stair breaks under Kurumi and she falls into a stream. Hal goes to rescue her and is tackled by Ryu who confronts him on the whole situation. He reveals it was in fact Kurumi who died on the plane, that Hal was the one who went into a zombie like state and thought he was a robot, and that this Kurumi is not real. Bleeding Hal looks over to Kurumi, whose wounds show she is a robot, for confirmation. She manages to jump into the river below and is soon followed by Hal where he learns to accept all that has been revealed to him. We get a flashback of the doctor telling Q01 he needs to save Hal. He makes peace with this and says how he would not change a thing because his relationship was so good it was worth the heartache the accident caused him.
When I finished the movie I asked myself one question. What makes this or any twist in a movie successful? Obviously this twist is great because it creates a total role reversal. Hal is no longer the robot; he is the depressed one who must come out of some zombie like state. Not only that but we thought we knew about Kurumi and her motivations. But what creates a successful twist? I think it has to do with perspective and what we assume to be real with the premise of the film. This film totally films the first premise, that Kurumi is the one in need of treatment. Also, in terms of perspective, the main character (Hal in this case) must also believe and accept the premise and work on this basis. Hal assumes he is the robot helping the reclusive patient and he works off of this premise to help her. He often asks question to the doctor, who supposedly turned Q01 into Hal, about his task, about what it is like to love (as he is an “emotionless” robot), and about the old Hal. It shows he believes the shows premise and that we as an audience should do so too. Furthermore, Kurumi (who is really the robot, but whose thoughts we never really hear) refers to Hal as a robot, both in speech and in notes. So does the doctor who helps Hal with his task, but is really the one who came up with the idea of the treatment. Having the main character believe and act a way that assumes the premise of the film is right, when it will turn out to be wrong is how to set up a twist properly it seems.
There are points (or maybe hints) at which a twist could be guessed at, but it is easy enough to explain them away. The first of these is when Ryu, one of Hal’s old friends turns up and says they should catch up, before running off from the police. Why doesn’t Ryu know Hal is dead? Maybe he just never found out. It creates an interesting dilemma for the premise of the story, and testing the foundations of the film creates the mystery and suspense to keep the audience engaged. A film must also have these sort of hints because this hint (or rather character) should return and be used as the vehicle to overturn the wrong premises. So when Ryu returns the conflict that will reveal the twist starts. Ryu talks as if he and Hal have some understanding beyond the knowledge of Kurumi about their past life. He talks as if Hal got into a relationship in the first place for some notorious reason planned by Ryu. This conversation is beyond both Hal and the audience until the twist is revealed at last, when Hal is truly confronted by Ryu (bleeding rather than breaking like a machine) and then realises and makes peace with the fact that Kurumi is dead and her part has been played by Q01. The twist is wonderfully executed.
Not only is the twist of the film implemented very well but the consequences it has on parts other than the story itself is what make it truly great. Hal started of as a look into the human mind from an outside perspective. The “robot” Hal did not know what priceless was meant and after learning about it apologises for the mistakes the past Hal made about the buttons (and how they were priceless). In particular it explores the idea of what love is and how to love someone. The robot asks the doctor about love and what part empathy plays in it, feeling if he cannot feel it he cannot get Kurumi out of her shell. The robot Hal uses the wishes on the Rubik’s cubes to show his “love”. However, this whole robotic love intensifies as the robot Hal rather easily assumes the role of Hal, whilst at the same time thinking he is not Hal. Does he not realize this person died or something? It seems very much in bad taste but on the other hand he is a robot who perhaps doesn’t know about human thought (he didn’t know about priceless precious things) and maybe he sees this as a way to get Kurumi to come out. This is most vividly done when he wears Hal’s kimono and instead of understandably freaking out Kurumi it encourages her to open up to the fight she and Hal had before the accident. Of course this leads into apologies from both Hal and Kurumi over their button fight and the “robot” Hal is very comforting to her. They then to go to the Gion Festival together and it seems as though both are human. The audiences assumes they will reach a conclusion about love and what it will really mean for the robot after he successfully completes his task.
However, the twist not only changes the characters and the story it also changes the message of love the film portrays. We do not leave with a conclusion about robotic love. Instead we get a message of how worthwhile love is. Hal, in reconciling with Kurumi (or rather the robot Q01), thinks over the position he now finds himself in and what he has experienced both after the accident and before it. He accepts Kurumi is gone and cannot bring her back. However, he does not relapse into his old state that he assumed after the accident happened. The robotic therapy worked. He acknowledges the loss and hurt he has suffered and in making peace with he says that he would not change anything. He would not take back the love he had with Kurumi in order to stop his heartache, as the good undeniable outweighed the bad. He basically comes to the same conclusion Tennyson: “tis better to have loved and los than never to have loved at all”. We cannot make assumptions about robotic love as Hal was never truly a robot. The way he felt about Kurumi and expressed it in the events that surround and follow their apologies could just be because his actions towards Kurumi, who is really a robot but he doesn’t know this, are just part of his human, emotion-based decision making rather than some robotic calculation-based. Likewise we can’t make any conclusions about Kurumi as she never has dialogue (that we see) with anyone other than Hal and never seemingly muses about feeling love. She, for all we could know, just be playing the role as a brilliant actor. Everything Kurumi has done in the film becomes a mystery with the character reversal and thus we can’t really use her to expound any ideas or messages. I mean yes it still does question what constitutes real love. It provides the answer that working towards understanding one another is key but everything in Hal’s journey to find this out is a little undermined when we learn the one he is seducing is just a robot, not a real human.mthe message changes from discovery to memory in a nice paradox.
I started off this film interested by the premise, looking how androids would be portrayed and how robotic love would be tackled by the creators of this film. It started off this way but the twist changed this into a message about the value of love, and the loss of love. I thought the story was pretty interesting and the twist in particular, was well done. It used the main characters’ ignorance to support the premise and supporting characters’ roles as therapists to further affirm the premise to the main character and the audience as well. As a result I thought it was interesting to analyse this film around this plot twist and I hope you have enjoyed the read.
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