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Recently, a photo of Jackie Chan’s “rejuvenation” sparked heated discussion!

Action superstar Jackie Chan's new film "Legend" was released on July 12. It was circulated online that he looked "rejuvenated" and that he had used AI to change his face back to his twenties.

On July 15, the official Weibo account of the movie "Legend" announced that the cumulative box office had exceeded 70 million.

Controversial! Cost exceeds 300 million yuan, with digital people performing over 70% of the roles

Despite all the hype, the results of "Legend" were not as expected.

Some netizens feel that the rejuvenated Jackie Chan looks exactly like his son Jaycee Chan (small picture).

It is reported that the LegendCost over 300 million RMBAs the plot involves different eras, Bona Film Group used AI technology to restore the 27-year-old Jackie Chan (commonly known as AI face-changing technology).Moreover, the digital man Jackie Chan appears in more than 70% of the films.With the market's expectation of a sequel to "The Myth", "The Legend" still failed to break 100 million yuan at the box office five days after its release. You know, the box office of the previous work "The Myth" 19 years ago was 97 million.

In the daily box office rankings on July 14, the film fell to fourth place, behind Inside Out 2, which had been released for 24 days. The film's Douban score was only 5.5 points, which was also low among the summer movies.

The biggest controversy caused by "Legend" is "AI Jackie Chan", which was also the main selling point before the movie was released.

Many viewers who have watched the movie seem dissatisfied with the effect of Jackie Chan's "rejuvenation". Many people said that Jackie Chan's crying looks like laughing, which is distracting. Some audience members couldn't help laughing. In addition, some netizens also pointed out that the film abused face-changing technology and the audience couldn't tell whether it was the actor himself, which was confusing.

Moreover, using AI as a marketing point has obscured some other highlights of "Legend", such as Kim Hee Sun's cameo, the real-life war scenes, and the occasional Jackie Chan-style action comedy. Of course, these few highlights can hardly cover up the old-fashioned and weak plot of the movie itself.

It is worth noting that it is not the first time that AI has been used to "rejuvenate" actors. "Gemini Man" directed by Ang Lee was released in 2019. The film used AI technology to make two Will Smiths, who were 23 years apart in age, "love and hate each other" on the screen. Even though AI technology has reached the world's top level, the discussion of the ethical issues of cloning in the film was still criticized by movie fans for being clichéd and lacking in novelty.

As the main producer of "Legend", Bona Film Group recently released its 2024 semi-annual performance forecast, predicting that its half-year loss will be between 108 million yuan and 153 million yuan. The financial report explained that since the national movie box office in the first half of the year was lower than the same period last year, the fixed costs such as rent and depreciation of theaters were high, resulting in an increase in the loss of the cinema business compared with the same period last year.

Latest response

Director: I hope you can be more tolerant

In the official Weibo of the movie "Legend", director Tang Jili also said that AI technology is not perfect and is still under continuous research, and he hopes that everyone will be more tolerant.

Jackie Chan: I refused at first

On the afternoon of July 11, at the press conference for the movie "Legend", Jackie Chan said that his movies have always been shot with real action scenes, and he hesitated when he heard that technology was being used to create an "AI Jackie Chan" image to act. But after watching several films produced with AI technology, he decided to give it a try.

At the press conference, Jackie Chan expressed his amazement at the rapid development of film and television technology. "I have been in this industry for decades, and I don't even know what many machines are used for," he said. "Our technology is very advanced now, and the gap between domestic and foreign technology is not that big. Many foreign animation productions or synthetic renderings are done in China. Chinese and foreign film and television people are advancing through exploration."

Previously, "Jackie Chan's hair and beard have turned white" was also on the hot search, and many netizens lamented that the 70-year-old Jackie Chan suddenly made people feel the reality of time.

Netizens quarreled

Netizens’ reviews are polarized. Judging from Douban’s reviews, the reputation of this movie is currently polarized.

Many netizens said that the actual texture presented by AI is very worrying and did not achieve the ideal effect.

But some viewers who have watched it said that the effect is quite good, the fighting scenes are beautiful, and the scenes are very immersive.

Using AI to produce short plays reduces the cost to 1/4

In July, the two giants Douyin and Kuaishou each launched their first AIGC+ short dramas. On July 6, the trailer for "Shanhai Qijing: Cutting the Waves" was released, which was supported by Kuaishou's video model Keling AI. On July 8, Douyin's video model Jimeng supported the AIGC science fiction short series "Sanxingdui: Future Revelation".

Chen Kun is a post-80s director. "The Mirror of Mountains and Seas: Breaking the Waves" is his first short play created with AIGC. Chen Kun told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter,"In the future, we don't need to worry about our actors' reputations collapsing."Chen Kun said that in the mid-term creative stage, no shot was completed, and all were materials generated by the workflow of text-to-video and image-to-video.

Chen Kun introduced that compared with the production cost of traditional short dramas, the cost of "Mountain and Sea Mirror: Cutting Through the Waves" is one-third to one-quarter of the former, and the number of staff involved is one-tenth of that of traditional crews.

"Is the work perfect? ​​Not perfect, but you can still see the 'AI feel'." Chen Kun said that the most criticized thing now is the expression. For example, in AIGC works, when a person speaks, only the mouth moves, and the dynamic matching between the mouth shape and the face is not that high; for example, when a fist hits the face, the facial reaction and action interaction are not particularly good. But he believes that technical problems can be solved through technical iteration.

【Detailed report:】

Summer movie box office exceeds 4.5 billion

According to CCTV News on July 16, the total box office (including pre-sales) of the 2024 summer movie season has exceeded 4.5 billion yuan, and the movie "The Silent Killer" is currently ranked first in the box office schedule.

Source | 21st Century Business Herald (authors: Zhou Hui, Bi Fengzhi, Chen Shan), China Business News, CCTV News, public information

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Editor of this issue: Liu Xueying

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