News Analysis: As AI reshapes Chinese cinema, filmmakers race to adapt

by Xinhua writers Zhang Yunlong, Yang Shujun

BEIJING, April 25 (Xinhua) -- As China cements its place as the world's second-largest film market, bolstered by global hits like "Ne Zha 2," a new force is rapidly altering the creative and industrial landscape: artificial intelligence (AI).

AI dominated the conversation at this year's Beijing International Film Festival. For filmmakers, the question is no longer whether AI will reshape Chinese cinema, but how to keep up with it. Forums and project showcases revealed an industry scrambling to adapt -- embracing AI's possibilities while confronting its challenges.

One of the festival's key early discussions on AI came in a forum titled "AI Film and Television Creation: Opportunity or Trap?" Screenwriter Liu Yi, best known for co-writing the "Wolf Warrior" blockbuster series, described AI as a "ping-pong partner" of creativity, using tools like DeepSeek and Doubao to generate posters, character designs and script prompts. Yet, he cautioned, "The real torment of creation -- the inception of core ideas -- still rests on human shoulders." AI, he argued, boosts efficiency but still falls short of revolutionizing the creative process.

Director Yu Baimei, co-director of 2020 comedy "My People, My Homeland," experimented with video generator Kling for a short film last year. He likened AI to a "superhuman library" which excels in research but requires human curation. Yet he predicted that within years, AI could evolve beyond being a mere tool to automating higher-level creative decisions -- a prospect both thrilling and unnerving.

This tension between opportunity and disruption resurfaced at the festival's Technology Forum. "AI lacks consciousness but brims with creative potential," said Huang Tiejun, a professor at the School of Computer Science at Peking University, emphasizing AI's role as a collaborative partner rather than a replacement for human creators.

The AI researcher envisions AI as a new productive tool, one that expands artists' creative boundaries without encroaching on their creative sovereignty.

Director Lu Yang, whose 2021 fantasy film "A Writer's Odyssey" merged a story-within-a-story structure with visual spectacle, shares this vision. He acknowledged AI's efficiency gains in specific production workflows but stressed that achieving a true qualitative transformation in cinematic art will take time.

"Technology has always been a means to a creative end, never an end in itself," he said, urging filmmakers to adapt narratives to meet evolving audience tastes shaped by short videos and gaming.

Voices from the animation sector offered a nuanced perspective. Yu Zhou, co-founder of Light Chaser Animation -- the studio responsible for visually sumptuous hits "White Snake" and "Chang An" -- also underscored the primacy of content and audience connection over technological fanfare.

"AI is still taking its first steps on a long journey," he said. "The real competitive edge is in how studios build and develop their own internal knowledge systems."

AI's practical applications dazzled at the festival's project showcases. Bona Film Group unveiled an AI-powered sci-fi micro-series based on the Sanxingdui archaeological site, using generative tools for script writing, visuals and virtual reality. Meanwhile, tech firm Kunlun Tech introduced Mureka, an AI music model that composed a festival theme song in just five minutes.

Yet beneath the optimism, concerns loomed, particularly over job losses. While some believe AI will democratize creativity, others warn of widespread disruption. "All industries are sunset industries now," Yu Baimei quipped.

AI's voracious use of existing works also raises thorny copyright issues. "AI is the ultimate plagiarist," the director said, noting how AI-generated content, like dinosaur imagery drawn from Jurassic Park, blurs ownership lines. Current laws, which were designed for a pre-AI era, struggle to address this.

Veteran director Jia Zhangke, known for his gritty realism, offered a measured take. While open to AI's potential, he questioned its reliance on "secondhand" visual data. "We should explore AI, not prejudge it," he said, though noting that he still prefers capturing the real world through his lens.

As China's film industry navigates this AI-driven upheaval, its global ascent hangs in the balance. Chen Xuguang, director of the Institute of Film, Television and Theatre at Peking University, framed the challenge as a cultural mandate: "Chinese filmmakers must not only adopt AI -- they must define new industrial and aesthetic paradigms."

This vision, in his opinion, represents not just China's response to the AI wave, but also the necessary path to the center stage of global cinematic storytelling. ■