‘Sheep in the Box’ Review: Kore-eda’s Sweet but Limp Sci-Fi Fable About a 7-Year-Old AI Humanoid
The film 'Sheep in the Box' by Hirokazu Kore-eda presents a gentle sci-fi narrative about a couple who receive a humanoid AI replica of their deceased son. Despite its intriguing premise, the film is criticized for its lack of engagement and depth. Overall, it feels more like a collection of ideas than a cohesive story.
- ▪The film revolves around an architect and her husband who lose their son and later receive an AI replica of him.
- ▪Critics describe the film as sweet but lacking in emotional depth and engagement.
- ▪Kore-eda's previous works have been more impactful, making this film feel less polished in comparison.
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| Original publisher | Variety |
| Canonical URL | https://variety.com/2026/film/reviews/sheep-in-the-box-review-hirokazu-kore-eda-1236751690/ |
| Publication time | Sun, 17 May 2026 23:44:29 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-05-18T00:03:21.133Z |
| Last seen | 2026-05-18T00:03:21.133Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | FGXa96RtdIOC |
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| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
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| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
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Home Film Reviews May 17, 2026 4:44pm PT ‘Sheep in the Box’ Review: Kore-eda’s Sweet but Limp Sci-Fi Fable About a 7-Year-Old AI Humanoid It's the Japanese director's gentle version of a high-concept tech fairy tale. Except that it mostly just sits there. By Owen Gleiberman Plus Icon Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic @OwenGleiberman Latest ‘Sheep in the Box’ Review: Kore-eda’s Sweet but Limp Sci-Fi Fable About a 7-Year-Old AI Humanoid 10 minutes ago ‘Paper Tiger’ Review: Miles Teller and Adam Driver Get Ensnared by the Russian Mob in a James Gray Film With More Atmosphere Than Plausibility 1 day ago ‘The Beloved’ Review: Javier Bardem Is Powerful as a Filmmaker Directing His Estranged Daughter in Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s Making-of-a-Movie Drama 1 day ago See All Courtesy of Neon The Japanese…
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