Breaking Bones, Bodies, and Laws in ‘U Loves You’

GL Recaps Taiwan

2023-11-27
10:38

‘Robots are just robots, not humans. Robots are not allowed to have relationships with humans. Robots are not allowed to make humans sad, only happy’. These fundamental rules apply to every robot that has been made; however, what will happen if a robot meets a human that will enamor her enough for her to break these laws? Let’s all find out in the GagaOOLala original film, ‘U Loves You‘.

The Taiwanese sapphic film ‘U Loves You’, which debuted in 2021, stars Wang Yu-Xuan and Wang Yu-Pin, sisters nominated for Golden Bell Awards. This 25-minute film, directed by Chen Hung-I, who also won Best Director recognition at the Taipei Film Festival, combines artistic and ala VHS-style camera angles. It tells the story of U, a robot who has always considered herself to be flawed until she meets Lin Min, an eccentric video editor who captures her attention. Along the way, U learns that her creation and beliefs are more complex than she had previously thought.

Warning: Spoiler alert. Read at your own risk.

Before seeing her regular chiropractor, U, the female robot, charges herself. U has always believed that she is flawed and feels different from other robots, which is why she thinks seeing a chiropractor will help. The chiropractor has previously advised her to simply return to the factory to reset herself if she truly wants to straighten her mind as she helps her break what she feels are knots within her body. There, she runs into Lin Min, a human who she knew from her job as a delivery robot and a regular customer. U watches Lin Min’s session after her own and saves it to her database. She waits for Lin Min to conclude her session before discreetly following her home.

In the meantime, Lin Min, a video editor who works from home, struggles to balance the new video she is editing and the numerous flings she communicates with online. She doesn’t recall ordering anything but one day gets a delivery from U. U signs the receipt for her, much to her confusion, and cheerfully leaves. Lin Min opens the package and makes use of the massager she finds inside. While working on her video, a scene where the man asks the woman to go out strikes her as reminding her of U when she delivered the massager. The next day, Lin Min places another order for takeout, but this time, she goes out of her way to speak with U rather than just having it delivered to her door. She lights up a cigarette and tells U to sign the receipt for her. U’s database retains the picture of a burning cigarette. Sometime later, she orders again from U, who practices asking her to go for a walk before knocking on her door. To U’s surprise, Lin Min gestures for her to enter her home, where she at last puts her practice into effect and asks her out.

After that, the two go to a cafe, where U tells Lin Min everything she has brought for her and comes to the conclusion that she doesn’t enjoy going out. Lin Min says that working from home is something she likes. When U asks Lin Min if she has a partner, she just responds that she doesn’t need love. As this was happening, Lin Min started to link her legs under the table with U’s. They begin to go out together, strolling around the city with their hands tightly clasped. U begins to visit Lin Min’s home more frequently, even without deliveries for her. U notices that a part of her body feels hot, but she’s not sure if it’s her heart as she watches Lin Min work on the video she still needs to finish. She touches her chest, where her heart is, and listens to it while she watches Lin Min. She discovers that Lin Min’s heart beats melodiously. Meanwhile, Lin Min tells her that she wants to be someone with no heartbeat but doesn’t explain why. On the other hand, U wishes she had a heart and asks Lin Min if she could have half of hers.

Watch ‘U Loves You’ on GagaOOLala.

While they are hanging together one day, Lin Min eats the apple that you cut in half before giving her a seductive glance. They visit their chiropractor after that, and she remarks that they are beginning to resemble one another. The two of them, she continues, are an example of the creator’s secret, which is as simple as to love and be loved. She assists them in practicing joint chiropractic exercises that they can perform at home, twisting their bodies around. After returning, they did more of the chiro routines before experimenting with red lipstick, which ends with them sharing a passionate kiss. The chiropractor’s words ‘to love and be loved’ reverberate in U’s mind when she later appears in an unknown office.

A few days later, despite Lin Min’s best attempts to be intimate, U is noticeably quieter than usual. One evening, U asks Lin Min whether she doesn’t want to live a typical life like everyone else, one in which she will eventually become a mother. In response, Lin Min says that having someone who never ages is better than having an annoying child to raise. Sometime later, U is seen doing the chiro routines that the chiropractor taught her, twisting and bending her body until she suddenly starts swimming on the couch, unable to control herself. Later, Lin Min excitedly opens the door when someone rings the doorbell, thinking that it is U. To her surprise, a new delivery robot greets her and gives her a package she didn’t order. Upon opening it, she sees a backpack inside, designed with a smiling robot on its face. The eyes on the robot’s face lit up after Lin Min whispered, ‘I love you’. She eventually completes the video she has been editing for a long time the night after she walks outside while wearing the backpack.

Writer’s Thoughts

‘U Loves You’ is a film that invites viewers to decipher its symbolism and metaphors, presenting an old-school and retro tale of a robot and a human falling in love. The movie begins in the middle of U’s life, but it seems as though she wasn’t always like the other robots in the first place—not just after she met Lin Min. It’s evident that there’s always something strange she feels about herself, hence the visits to the chiropractor in the hopes that once her body is twisted or bent, like untangling knots, she’ll become more normal. Though initially believing she doesn’t need love to the point where she wishes she had no heart, Lin Min, an eccentric and homebody, begins to explore the world with and after U, which may be the greatest display of her love towards her. In the end, she acknowledges that she has fallen in love with U, who, on the other hand, experiences more defects as she gives herself over to the sensation of being in love. Perhaps the apple, which is shaped like a heart and is forbidden, just like the one from the story of Adam and Eve, is a metaphor for the forbidden love between U and Lin Min. ‘U Loves You’ is a movie that might be for viewers who want to see films that will make them think and want to interpret every moment of it.

Enjoy watching ‘U Loves You’ on a bigger screen because GagaOOLala is now available to watch on your Smart TVs by downloading the app on Google Play, Amazon Appstore, and Roku.

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