Professor Shuji Hashimoto, director of the humanoid robotics centre at Waseda University in Tokyo, has a theory: robots need a solid dose of those Japanese manners (don't we all?) encompassed in the Japanese word kansei, which includes feelings, mood, intuitiveness and sensibility.

ENGADGET: Japanese prof thinks robots need emotional sensibilities

The sentimental strain is both unconvincing and ungrounded, but in the all-too-rare moments when Murphy, who invests with psychodrama the role of a misfit learning manners, lets himself go the movie comes brilliantly to life.

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