There are three main points of controversy:
1. Is she conscious?
2 Why is she showing Caleb that she is a robot?
3 Why did she kill Nathan?
In order to answer these questions, the landlord will try to make some answers by analyzing all the scenes where kyoko appears.
Caleb's Room 00:23:54
The morning after Caleb and Ava met for the first time, kyoko entered Caleb's room with breakfast, without saying a word, put down the breakfast and left the room. Then Caleb went to Nathan, Nathan said he sent kyoko to wake Caleb.
There doesn't seem to be anything wrong here, but the first foreshadowing is actually buried: kyoko has great authority and can enter and leave the room at will.
Restaurant 00:32:10
After Caleb meets Ava for the second time. Caleb eats with Nathan, and Nathan scolds kyoko for accidentally knocking over his glass while serving dishes. At this point, Caleb tries to communicate with kyoko, but Nathan tells Caleb she doesn't understand English at all, saying it's a way to protect trade secrets. Although kyoko doesn't understand English, Caleb thinks kyoko is emotional and conscious, but Nathan doesn't seem to think so. When Caleb told Nathan that kyoko could feel him getting mad, Nathan said, "Really? I'm really mad," and then half-jokingly dismissed kyoko away.
It can be seen here that Nathan doesn't think kyoko has feelings.
Corridor 00:35:35
Kyoko, who was kicked out of the restaurant by Nathan, sat in the corridor, taking off her high heels and throwing them aside, feeling extremely lost. Is there a hint here that kyoko has some emotion - sadness due to being blamed by Nathan.
Before the fourth conversation, Nathan and Caleb discussed sexuality, and kyoko, who was cooking, overheard their conversation. Later, when Nathan used jackson pollock's painting as an example to talk about self-awareness and programming to Caleb, kyoko should also have heard their discussion. It is shown here that kyoko seems to be aware of issues of emotion and consciousness.
Nathan is monitoring the conversation between Caleb and Ava during the fourth meeting through the monitor, with kyoko lying on the bed with his eyes closed behind him. But when Caleb talks to Ava about consciousness, the camera gives a close-up of kyoko, who opens his eyes.
This proves that kyoko can understand English, at least part of it, and pays close attention to topics of consciousness and emotion.
After Caleb meets Ava for the third time, Nathan mentions that robots are sexual and that they will enjoy it if you touch the right places. After Caleb met Ava for the fourth time, Nathan proved that humans and robots can copulate (pictured). But here, kyoko is in a passive state, and Nathan puts kyoko's hand on his face. Although there is some interaction between the two sides, Nathan still thinks that kyoko has no emotion and just treats her like an inflatable doll.
After seeing Nathan's drawing of Ava, Caleb wanted to go to Nathan's room to find a theory, but Nathan wasn't there, he saw kyoko staring at jackson pollock's water drop drawing in a daze. This shows that kyoko is thinking about emotions and consciousness, but she hasn't figured it out yet, because when she sees Caleb holding her shoulders, she starts to undress subconsciously (should be programmed).
When kyoko was undressing, Nathan went back to the room and saw that Caleb persuaded kyoko not to undress, but Nathan said that Caleb was wasting his time and might as well start dancing (dancing when he heard music should also be programmed ). It can be seen here that Nathan is still convinced that kyoko has no consciousness and is just using her as a job for entertainment. (I have to say that kyoko dance is really sexy, hahaha)
Nathan's monitoring room 01:09:44
After the fifth meeting. Caleb sneaked into the surveillance room while Nathan was drunk. Found past data. Although there is no kyoko here, this scene is extremely important. Because through the video playback, we can understand the development process of Nathan's robot. The first generation of LILY has been displayed since v1.0.0, mainly for shape manufacturing. The second generation or LILY is displayed from v2.0.0. The difference from the first generation is that when v2.4.0, LILY can walk. The third generation did not broadcast. The fourth generation of JAMINE started from v4.1.4. Nathan wanted to let him write, but he failed. By v4.3.0, JAMINE was completely paralyzed. The fifth generation of JADE starts from v5.0.1, the robot JADE has been able to communicate with Nathan normally and has autonomous consciousness. But JADE kept asking Nathan to let her out, and even smashed himself to escape (does this imply that escaping from control and gaining freedom is an advanced manifestation of artificial intelligence).
Since Nathan said that Ava is now v7.5, kyoko can only be v6 as a robot (presumably the v3 version is too intelligent)
Caleb came to Nathan's room to check after watching the video. There are 5 cabinets in the room. There are 5 robots in each. It can be speculated here that the first five generations of robots are stored in the cabinets, and according to the order in which Caleb opened the cabinets, the first to fifth generations are placed respectively (the robots in the first cabinet are obviously lower, and the robots in the fifth cabinet are already equipped with Illuminated cables like Ava). At this point, kyoko, who was lying on the bed, ripped open her own skin and showed Caleb that she was also a robot.
It can be speculated here that kyoko has some consciousness, and she wants to show Caleb that she is the same as the stored robot. And kyoko also wonders if Caleb is the same as her.
When Caleb saw that kyoko was a robot, he began to wonder if he was a robot too. He used a blade to open his arm to verify that he was a real person. All this was seen by kyoko sitting in front of the monitor. At this time, kyoko confirmed that Caleb is different from her, and it should be the first time that kyoko realizes the existence of different species.
Ava's Room 01:21:56
On the night Ava planned to escape, kyoko went to Ava (probably because kyoko wanted to find someone like her after seeing that Caleb wasn't her kind). After the meeting, it was obvious that Ava didn't know about the existence of kyoko, because Ava asked kyoko, "Who are you?"
Then, there was no way of knowing what was said between them, but according to Ava's intelligence, she must have taken this opportunity to take advantage of it. kyoko helps her escape.
Ava meets kyoko after escaping. Although kyoko appears as a background here, it is relatively blurred, but it can be seen that kyoko is not holding a knife. The appearance of kyoko at this time may also be a previous agreement with Ava.
After that, Ava approached kyoko and said something to kyoko. The middle shot flashes to a man's hand, feeling like he's been knocked down and trying to escape. It can be speculated that this is the content of Ava's narrative, imagined by kyoko, and Ava's expression should be to let kyoko stab Nathan down. After the conversation, Ava also shook kyoko's hand, trying to win kyoko's trust. This is also a manifestation of Ava's intelligence, using all available resources for the purpose.
Corridor 01:29:08
Then the camera turned, and kyoko had a knife in his hand. Where did this knife come from?
If the director did not make a mistake here, it can be speculated that this knife was given to kyoko by Ava, because kyoko did not hold the knife in the previous shot, and Ava never gave the left hand shot after coming out of the room. This proves that all this is premeditated by Ava.
When Nathan walked out of the room and dragged her back with Ava's uniform, kyoko stabbed Nathan in the back with a knife (this may have been programmed by Ava to kyoko). However, kyoko doesn't seem to realize what this is going to lead to and puts his hand on Nathan's face. Before having sex on the balcony, Nathan had put kyoko's hand on his face and kyoko knew that Nathan liked her to put her hand on his face. After that, the confused kyoko was knocked down by the angry Nathan.
Kyoko's role is over.
After sorting out the footage of kyoko, the landlord now tries to answer the previous three questions.
1 Is kyoko conscious?
As a v6 version of the robot, kyoko is definitely conscious. Because the v5 version of the robot already has the idea of getting rid of control, the v6 version should be more advanced than the v5 version. And many shots of kyoko also show that she can understand English and think about emotions and consciousness. It's just that she has a lot of programmed settings (less self-consciousness), which makes it impossible for her to distinguish what is program and what is free will.
2 What does kyoko want to show Caleb that she is a robot?
Because kyoko can't distinguish between humans and robots, except for Nathan, all contacts between her are robots. But when kyoko hears Nathan and Caleb talking, she sees the difference between them, just not sure yet. When Caleb goes to Nathan to check out the other droids, kyoko reveals his droid's identity in hopes of confirming Caleb's identity. Later, kyoko saw Caleb's cut skin on the monitor, confirming the existence of the "new species". At the same time, this is also a manifestation of kyoko's awareness of existence.
3 Why did kyoko kill Nathan?
Rather than saying that kyoko was going to kill Nathan, it would be better to say that she was being used by Ava. As a robot with primary self-awareness, kyoko wants not to escape, but to differentiate. She distinguishes between her and Caleb, and confirms her similarity to Ava, the only thing she doesn't figure out is Nathan. This is exploited by Ava with its advanced intelligence. It can be guessed that Ava's way of letting kyoko confirm Nathan's identity is to cut open the skin with a knife.
The above are just some simple ideas, there are many places that are not explained clearly.
For example, when Ava and kyoko are talking in the hallway, what does the man's hand that flashes out of the camera represent?
Overall, the film is excellent.
If Ava is the main story of the film.
Then kyoko is definitely a side quest worth remembering.
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