'We all die alone" is a thought voiced by the famous (Hunter S. Thompson and Orson Welles among them), but it seems to state the obvious. We also all have toothaches alone, do we not?

In Koji Fukada's "Sayonara" a terminally ill young woman (Bryerly Long) inhabits a blighted land with a humanoid robot as her only live-in companion. Meanwhile, the entire population is heading for the exits. Alone she becomes indeed, with nothing obvious about her situation at all.

Based on a short one-act play by Oriza Hirata, and made in collaboration with Osaka University roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, "Sayonara" is both a dramatic experiment and a sci-fi speculation. The heroine and her robot companion (an Ishiguro creation named Geminoid F) are heralds of a future that, given the natural intimacy of their relationship, feels as though it has always been with us.