Super Chapai: A stubborn racial proposition

If you find something about Robocop in Super Chapai, that's right. Back in 2003, Neil Blomkamp had made a short film known as the Poor Man's Robocop, and in this short film called Val, he established his personal imagery style of mixing low-fidelity coarse sound quality with seamless CG images. In the same way that Neil's feature film debut, District 9, was adapted from his old short film Aliens in Johannesburg, The Incredibles was an extension of his first short film, The Val, so it's no surprise that there are some minor Marks of Robocop.

It can be seen that Neil is an extremely stubborn person, not only obsessed with the subject matter that has not been fully developed, but also desperately expanding his short film work as soon as he seizes the opportunity, and has an almost fatalistic stubbornness to the environment he knows. As early as the "Ninth District" that made him famous, he had publicly stated: "Without Johannesburg, there would be no film, it is not that I have a story and then choose a city. In fact, I think Johannesburg represents the future, and I feel that the world will become like Johannesburg. Despite being robbed of a car in Soweto during the filming of "District 9," Neil has no intention of staying away, and once again focuses the camera on the area he is familiar with, reconstructing a mechanical future that is close at hand for us in that chaotic social context.

If you look at the film as an artificial intelligence, it is difficult to satisfy your pursuit of strict logic, and when you find that this is just another continuation of Neil's racial theme, everything is unblocked. The story is set in 2016 and revolves around the birth, self-growth and interaction with the human world of chapai, the world's first self-awakening artificial intelligence robot, placing it in a gangster environment to explore themes such as "the original goodness of human nature". As an artificial intelligence of human beings, Chapai, like the aliens in "District Nine" and infected humans, encountered exile and rejection in human society, and finally achieved "consciousness upload" or transfer similar to "Transcendental Hacker" in self-rescue. The film begins with it and the consciousness of the father of artificial intelligence being transferred to the new robot, respectively, and thus announces the birth of a new life form in human society. The story comes to an abrupt end, but the racial issue of human-machine conflict has only just begun.

The film features Dave Patel, an Indian boy in Slumdog Millionaire, who plays the "Father of Chapai", with Chapai being captured and voiced by Ninth District actor Sarto Copley, and "Wolverine" Hugh Jackman playing a supporting role in the film. The film does not have the celestial wonders of "Elysium Space" or the CG group portrait of "District 9", and Neil focuses on the details of the role of Chapai in a more realistic social environment this time. From the unfortunate egg breaking mechanical policeman to the birth of the "rabbit ear" Chapai, from the birth of the baby to the nightmare encounter of childhood, from the rebellion of the teenager to the epiphany of adulthood, all the way down to the infinite fun, especially the big gold chain learning bad period is the most pleasing. The intervention of comedy elements is also the biggest difference between "Super Chapai" and the previously depressed atmosphere of "Elysium Space" and "District 9".