TOKYO - The latest film by Hirokazu Kore-eda, Sheep in the Box, opened in Japan on May 29th after being screened in the Competition section at the Cannes Film Festival, bringing to the screen a near-future story about a grieving couple who welcome into their home a humanoid modeled on their deceased seven-year-old son.
The film stars Haruka Ayase and Daigo of the comedy duo Chidori as the husband and wife, while Kore-eda, known for works such as Shoplifters and Like Father, Like Son, once again turns his attention to family relationships and social issues.
In an interview with TV Tokyo, Kore-eda revealed that the idea for the film emerged after reading a small online article more than two years ago about the growing popularity in China of businesses that use AI to recreate deceased loved ones.
"I thought, 'This is going to begin,'" Kore-eda said. "I felt that such technology would likely emerge first in places like China and Japan, where religious restrictions may be less influential."
His curiosity led him to Shanghai, where he met the head of a company offering such services. Seeing an AI-generated recreation of a deceased woman left a strong impression.
"What surprised me was that it wasn't just reproducing past conversations," he said. "The AI could continue creating new conversations and a future together with the living person. That made me uneasy."
The director said he understood why grieving people might want to use such technology, but also felt there should be limits.
"I began to wonder whether it's acceptable for the dead to return in a form that is convenient for the living," he said. "The question that emerged while making the film was: Who do the dead belong to? Do they belong to the living, or do they belong to themselves? Can the living manipulate the dead for their own purposes?"
Kore-eda emphasized that his concerns stem not from fear of technology itself but from ethical uncertainty.
"It's not that I'm frightened," he said. "I simply can't say, 'That's interesting,' without hesitation."
The film incorporates the concept of "grief tech"—technology designed to help people cope with loss. Kore-eda said he believes such technology can have genuine value when used appropriately.
"There are certainly people who need it, and it can help them heal or move forward in their grieving process," he said.
He recalled hearing about a child who could not accept the death of his mother. The child's father used an AI recreation of the mother to help with bedtime conversations until the child was old enough to better understand death.
"At some point they planned to stop the service," Kore-eda explained. "If you don't stop somewhere, grief work that should move forward may instead become frozen."
Asked whether a future in which deceased people return as humanoids is realistic, Kore-eda said advances in generative AI may arrive sooner than many expect, though creating fully human-like robotic bodies remains a much greater challenge.
He noted that some researchers have even suggested cloning may become feasible before robots can truly replicate human physicality.
The director also reflected on broader questions surrounding AI and society, suggesting that AI systems could eventually communicate and cooperate among themselves without human involvement.
"I recently saw discussions about generative AIs communicating with one another," he said. "In a way, that seems natural. From AI's perspective, humans may be unpredictable and difficult."
He compared such a future to the hidden communication networks believed to exist among plants, suggesting that AI societies may resemble natural systems more than human ones.
While many people view AI primarily through dystopian scenarios, Kore-eda believes Japan's cultural background offers a different perspective.
"When I spoke with journalists at Cannes, many were focused on threats and fears of being dominated by AI," he said. "But in Japan, we've grown up with characters like Doraemon and Astro Boy. We have many stories where advanced beings coexist with humans and become companions."
Kore-eda suggested that Japanese attitudes toward coexistence may also reflect broader cultural views about humanity's place in nature.
"Perhaps the question is not whether humans must always stand at the top of the pyramid," he said. "Different cultures may see humanity's place in the world differently."
At the heart of Sheep in the Box is a question about what remains uniquely human in a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence.
For Kore-eda, the answer—for now—is imagination.
"That's why I chose the title," he said. "The ability to imagine may be what makes humans human."
However, he acknowledged that even this distinction may not last forever.
"Perhaps one day AI will be able to imagine too," he said.
Beyond the film itself, Kore-eda expressed discomfort with society's growing obsession with efficiency, a trend he believes is being accelerated by AI technologies.
"When I ride in a taxi, I'm constantly seeing advertisements about AI and efficiency," he said. "I find myself wondering, 'Do we really need to become that efficient?'"
He suggested that embracing inefficiency may itself be a human quality.
"Perhaps choosing not to pursue efficiency is what makes us human," he said. "Enjoying things that are unnecessary, finding value in wastefulness—those are things I still want to hold on to."
Despite making a film centered on AI, Kore-eda admitted he had barely used the technology himself before production began. Curious about its capabilities, he and his producer experimented with ChatGPT and even had it read one of his books.
"It praised me quite a bit," he said with a laugh. "It gave sensible advice too. It wasn't wrong. But still, something about it left me unconvinced."
Source: テレ東BIZ
