Rôjin to rabudôru: Watashi ga shochô ni natta toki...

Interesting and somewhat noble failure. The problem is the script has two pretty good ideas going, but it isn't able to combine them in any meaningful way. The film only runs about an hour long, too, so it all feels more like the kernel of a film than an actual one. The main plot line is about an old man and the sexy maid droid he has had since he was a teenager. When he first got it, it was state of the art, but unfortunately not sexually functional. When the technology to make these droids sexually functional came about, his model was too old to update. But he loves the thing and won't let it go. As an old man, the droid's battery has gone dead and is pretty much impossible to replace. It's quite a sweet story, maybe even a tad too schmaltzy at times (the ending of this half of the story is especially cheesy), but it's good material. Japan, of course, is big on robots and the future probably will include this sort of thing. It's a good subject to explore, the ways this technological development will change society. And the whole robots and their relationships to humans theme is a common and always interesting one in science fiction.

Now the second plot line running throughout Maid Droid isn't nearly as successful, though I still think it has a kernel of a good idea. It's about a serial rapist robot and the female detective who is trying to capture it. The actual solution to what this rape-bot is is pretty clever, and kind of hilarious (not to mention filthy). The thing is, they just never are able to integrate this subplot into the more emotionally involving maid droid plot line. I don't think that task was impossible, though. This plot also deals with a robot-filled society, and with some connective tissue between the two plot lines, I think the film could have functioned much better. As it is, it feels like a prototype for a much better film.