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China AI Movies

Chinese Film Foundation Plans to Use AI to 'Revitalize' 100 Classic Kung Fu Films (msn.com) 58

Posted by EditorDavid from the enter-the-dragon dept.
"The China Film Foundation, a nonprofit fund under the Chinese government, plans to use AI to revitalize 100 kung fu classics including Police Story, Once Upon a Time in China and Fist of Fury, featuring Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Bruce Lee, respectively," reports the Los Angeles Times.

"The foundation said it will partner with businesses including Shanghai Canxing Culture & Media Co., which will license 100 Hong Kong films to AI companies to reintroduce those movies to younger audiences globally." The foundation said there are opportunities to use AI to tell those stories through animation, for example. There are plans to release an animated version of director John Woo's 1986 film A Better Tomorrow that uses AI to "reinterpret" Woo's "signature visual language," according to an English transcript of the announcement....

The project raised eyebrows among U.S. artists, many of whom are deeply wary of the use of AI in creative pursuits. The Directors Guild of America said AI is a creative tool that should only be used to enhance the creative storytelling process and "it should never be used retroactively to distort or destroy a filmmaker's artistic work... The DGA strongly opposes the use of AI or any other technology to mutilate a film or to alter a director's vision," the DGA said in a statement. "The Guild has a longstanding history of opposing such alterations on issues like colorization or sanitization of films to eliminate so-called 'objectionable content', or other changes that fundamentally alter a film's original style, meaning, and substance."

The project highlights widely divergent views on AI's potential to reshape entertainment as the two countries compete for dominance in the highly competitive AI space.... During the project's announcement, supporters touted the opportunity AI will bring to China to further its cultural message globally and generate new work for creatives. At the same time, they touted AI's disruption of the filmmaking process, saying the A Better Tomorrow remake was completed with just 30 people, significantly fewer than a typical animated project. China is a "more brutal society in that sense," said Eric Harwit, professor of Asian studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. "If somebody loses their job because artificial intelligence is taking over, well, that's just the cost of China's moving forward.... You don't have those freestanding labor organizations, so they don't have that kind of clout to protest against the Chinese using artificial intelligence in a way that might reduce their job opportunities or lead to layoffs in the sector..."

The kung fu revitalization efforts will extend into other areas, including the creation of a martial arts video game.
The article also includes an interesting statistic. "Many people in China embrace AI, with 83% feeling confident that AI systems are designed to act in the best interest of society, much higher than the U.S. where it's 37%, according to a survey from the United Nations Development Program."

Chinese Film Foundation Plans to Use AI to 'Revitalize' 100 Classic Kung Fu Films More | Reply

Chinese Film Foundation Plans to Use AI to 'Revitalize' 100 Classic Kung Fu Films

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  • "Many people in China embrace AI" (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    China is an authoritarian society. If the government says AI is good, this it is good. People in other societies who prefer to think for themselves are less likely embrace being told what to do by "AI"

    • Do you have a concrete example of such a society?

      • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

        by martin-boundary ( 547041 )
        Yes. There's this society where people say some convicted felon is good and should make all decisions. They attack anyone who disagrees, belittling them and sending them death threats. So obviously, that makes them less likely to embrace being told what to do by "AI", because they'd rather be told what to do by "convict".

    • I wouldn't say just China. Other Asian countries have a rosy view of AI as well.

      The problem is what is AI used for. In other countries, it is used for building stuff, helping patients out with eldercare, adding precision to industrial equipment.

      Here in the US, AI is mainly used to disrupt communications, inject propaganda, attempt to scam people in more narrowly targeted ways, and take jobs. (Businesses bragging that their art team can all be replaced by an /imagine prompt does not help). Because AI has

      • I don't know about countries, but people in Southeast Asia certainly don't seem to like "AI". As soon as it appears in WhatsApp, they try to figure out how to disable it, like everywhere else that it nags users. And they generally don't even know what Google is, or any of its apps, let alone llm. The internet here is basically WhatsApp and Facebook (and shit ass Line in Thailand).

    • It's certainly some cultural effect I don't think it has to do with the level of authoritarianism. Look how cash is phasing out in Sweden, while Germany resists transition to electronic payments. At some point you're happy with your workflow and you don't want someone to break it, in particular if you're already big and powerful.

      In the case of AI a number of high-skill people in developed countries are happy with their skills, the established system that put them there, the amount of money they can make, an

      • In the case of AI a number of high-skill people in developed countries are happy with their skills, the established system that put them there, the amount of money they can make, and see AI as an unnecessary challenger. OTOH people in developing world see AI as an opportunity to get skills and finally reach work opportunities to challenge the established class or the established countries, so they embrace it.

        I don't entirely agree with your summary of AI in developed countries. I think the fears around it being used to manipulate, propagandize, and conquer are at least as important as the jobs competition, and possibly more so.

        OTOH, your view on AI in developing countries is intriguing. I'd not considered that before, but it makes a lot of sense. Thanks for a rational and novel view of the situation.

    • "Revitalize" is probably another word for imposing the moral standards defined by the CCP.
      "Green follows green leader, purple follows purple leader."

  • Looks like I have to figure out what that even means in a communist country

    • Communism has never existed. There are just various levels of authoritarianism and socialism around capitalism.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      We have the same thing in Europe. It's an independently run non-profit, which the government is invested in, and sometimes the government directs broad policies, or appoints key people.

      Depending on the type of company it can work well, or it can be quite bad. An example of the latter is government influence over the BBC.

    • You first have to figure out why you think China is anything other than a pretty standard state-capitalist state with a red flag and a standard anthem. Really, they model themselves on the USA for quite a few things, except the ones at the top like to stay there as an inherited feature.

      The USA is just lagging a bit, you'll get there eventually. Capitalism and a truly free society cannot coexist long term.

      • You first have to figure out why you think China is anything other than a pretty standard state-capitalist state with a red flag and a standard anthem. Really, they model themselves on the USA for quite a few things, except the ones at the top like to stay there as an inherited feature.

        With regard to your "inherited feature" comment, the USA seems poised to model itself on China. Since Trump won his second presidency, my wife and I have been commenting on how cute it is that people think he'll be gone in four years. Hell, we're not even convinced that midterm elections will be held this time around.

  • so fucking offensive (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Those movies were made in Hong Kong when Hong Kong was in no way shape or form part of China. It was 100% a British colony. (Even still, Hong Kong is not supposed to be part of China except in the narrowest sense, but that's gone out the window.) China has no claim to them. It's the equivalent of Disney shitting over Star Wars because they bought Lucasfilm and they got the films as part of the deal.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pjt33 ( 739471 )

      It was technically Chinese territory on a long lease to the UK. A suitable analogy for people from the USA would be Guantánamo Bay if the lease had a fixed term rather than being indefinite as long as the US keeps up the payments.

  • Why don't they use AI to 'Revitalize' 100 brand new kung fu films?

    • Or better yet, use AI to "revitalize" 100 shitty movies. That would actually be a useful application of such technology.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Same reason why Cameron just used AI to upscale all his old movies to 4k. Terminator 1/2, Alien/Aliens, True Lies, and a load more. They look awful, completely messed up. All the actors look like bad waxworks of themselves, things in the background are often horribly distorted, and the whole movie looks like YouTube grade AI slop.

      There is potential for AI to bring older movies to a newer audience. They could make it look like it was shot on modern cameras, instead of 80s film stock. They could update locati

      • I guess you downloaded a crappy ai upscaled version.... Or your TV still has its digital 'enhancements' on high...

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          There are some captures here:

          https://www.joblo.com/true-lie... [joblo.com]
          https://aftermath.site/true-li... [aftermath.site]

          It looks objectively terrible.

          • That does look pretty bad, Tom Arnold in the Tom and Arnie picture just jumped out at me as having the uncanny valley thing going on which shouldn't be a thing with real photos of real people.

            All the more stupid because they're 4K AI upscales of 1080p of... 35mm movies. They could have just gone back to the film and rescanned it. I'm guessing laziness is a factor here? They'd rather spend gobs of money on a computer doing this thinking, despite decades of experience telling us otherwise, that computers will

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              If I were being cynical I'd say it was a cash grab. Produce a 4k Bluray and sell it to unsuspecting buyers who assume it will be an upgrade to 1080p. Then in another decade release a remaster from rescanned film.

              Apparently when they scanned it last time the process degraded the film, so the idea was to do an archival grade scan and never need to touch the reels again. Apparently they didn't go a very good job of it though.

              They should just give these projects to fans. Look at the effort to produce higher qua

      • Speaking as a musician, pure noiseless digital recordings are by no means embraced as the highest ideal format. Why has vinyl made a popular comeback? Sound "quality" is subjective.

        Back to visuals. If you watch a classic black and white movie, I would argue that is part of the whole charm. Would Dr Strangelove be better in colour? I'm going to say, it's a matter of opinion.

        I heard an early recording of Glenn Gould playing Kunst der Fuge variation 3 on an out of tune piano, objectively a pretty bad soundin

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Don't get me wrong, I do like those old movies the way they are, for me they don't need updating.

          This sort of thing has been happening in music forever though. Sample a riff, release a remix in the modern style, do a cover version. There are remakes of movies sometimes too, either decades later, or sometimes just because the original is in a different language and apparently subtitles are too much for some people. Also books, e.g. there have been modern updates of Shakespeare and Greek mythology.

          I'm not exp

          • Sure, this has been going on forever. What is the King James Version of the Bible?
            Arguably a power grab. Before that, only the "priests of the temple" could even read the Bible.
            Each translation is chance to rewrite the narrative... i.e. history is written by the victors aka propaganda.

            I respectfully disagree that it's not the worst idea you've ever heard. I'm not saying any of us can change that, but for a mature technologist, I'm now at a place where many would call me a Luddite. Why is Hollywood and Marve
    • Even the old films is a challenge. How do you get more entertainment value than the lip syncing of the classics?
  • Most people will now prefer to watch the original Star Wars trilogy in the updated edition with improved SFX etc. Let's see if using AI on these HK classics will yield a similar benefit before denouncing it.
    • We don't need sun for this. Paramount did a lot for Star Trek over the years, before "AI".

    • Let's see if using AI on these HK classics will yield a similar benefit before denouncing it.

      Take a measured "wait and see" approach rather than pile on based on preconceived notions? Where do you think we are?

    • Most people will now prefer to watch the original Star Wars trilogy in the updated edition with improved SFX etc.

      How would you know that?

  • Fix the dubbing (Score:3)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Monday July 07, 2025 @12:13AM (#65502244)

    Will uauauauau they uauauauua fix the uauauauau dub uaua ing?

  • Please do "Five Masters of Death", thank you.

    • But please don't touch anything Kurosawa!

      • A) that's Japanese.
        B) that's not Kung Fu.

        You might as well yell "don't touch Star Wars" and it would be just as relevant.

        • Which snark do you prefer?

          -You expect only relevant comments in slashdot? You must be new here.

          -Thank you for putting me in my proper place.

          -Your brilliance has blinded me.

          -Are you familiar with the relationship between Star Wars and Kurosawa?

          -I'm so very glad to finally meet an pseudo-intellectual that knows more about Asian film history and culture than I do.

          -Valid point, but so was mine.

          Just noting that I’ve lived in Asia for about six years including Singapore, which has ~60% Chine

  • China doesn't give a rat's ass what the copyright maximalists in Hollywood have to say. The restrictive bullshit rules they make up are not relevant anywhere else, not even codified in international treaties.

    That's why the Star Spangled Banner is an old Poem on top of a British drinking song, and "My country tis of thee" is the music of "God save the queen" and yet if Pharell took a few notes from some has-been nobody there's a multimillion dollar suit.

    The problem isn't "Chyna" nor digitization nor AI nor

  • ... 'objectionable content' ...

    I guess that's code for "bare breasts": It would be far more difficult to remove drug addicts and corrupt soldiers/politicians since they tend to be a central character in a movie. Plus, "think of the children" fanatics usually work hardest to eliminate everyday facts.

  • It sounds like they're just feeding frames into an AI that will shit out some terrible cartoon equivalent. Because hiring animators is too expensive.
    • It's a subtle and slippery slope from colorization to re translating the dialog to use "modern" or approved terms, then editing/changing plot to suit whoever is in power. Look at media in USA trading any semblance of objectivity to not attract the attention of Agent Orange. If orders or even suggestions come in from CCP, you follow them without question.

      Here's $16 million. Can we stay in businesses now?

  • I expect the best part of these movies were the fight scenes. The acting is wooden, performed by martial artists who have a few acting classes. The scripts are cliche and predictable. Just enough to glue together a transition to another fight scene with some 70's soft porn music.

    Even the movies we are making now for the action audience, mostly young, are a lot more sophisticated in comparison. I cant see some weird looking AI reproduction of high kicks in flares to wah wah peddle competing with that. And

  • Many people are up in arms about the use of AI, but one thing I didn't see mentioned is if this is using AI to restore the quality/enhance the visual/audio quality without making changes to the films in question. I know a lot of movies and shows from the 1960s through 90s have a somewhat washed out look to the color when you see them these days, so if AI can enhance the quality without changing the actual content, that would be a big positive.

    I agree that making CHANGES just to satisfy some political agen

  • Let’s call this what it is: not revitalization, but revisionism — strategic, algorithmic, and state-sanctioned.

    China’s new AI campaign to “reinterpret” 100 classic kung fu films — from A Better Tomorrow to Fist of Fury — isn’t just about appealing to Gen Z audiences. It’s about replacing the cultural memory of a violent, contradictory past with a safer, reshaped one. A digital restoration in the aesthetic sense, perhaps, but a political restoration in th

  • "Seven Fingers of Death."

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