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After Journey to the West: Embarking on an AI 'pilgrimage
Báo Tuổi Trẻ
09:27
"After Journey to the West" serves as a testament to the strides AI is making in television production, while also demonstrating that the market is increasingly betting on the potential of this technology.
A scene from the AI-produced television series "After Journey to the West" - Photo: Mango TV
A television series featuring no human actors and no location shooting has just premiered during Hunan TV's prime time slot. This is "After Journey to the West"—a series produced entirely using AI, with visuals generated by ByteDance's Seedance model series, while the Mango Lingchuang platform, developed in-house by MangoTV, handled production coordination.
First, it is necessary to take a cautious view: before becoming an AI television series, "After Journey to the West" was a work with a relatively limited audience. "After Journey to the West" is adapted from a novel originating from the late Ming to early Qing dynasties. It is one of the three famous books that follow the mythological novel "Journey to the West."
The story takes place more than 1,000 years after Sun Wukong attained Buddhahood. As the true scriptures are misinterpreted by the world and society falls into chaos, the immortal stone on Mount Huaguo cracks once again. Sun Xiaosheng—the second generation of Sun Wukong—along with Tang Banjie, Zhu Yijie, and Sha Di, begins a second journey to the West.
In terms of production time, a traditional television series usually requires 1-2 years. Meanwhile, "After Journey to the West" took only 4 months to complete 30 episodes - Photo: Weibo
Immediately after airing on the evening of August 31, Mango Super Media—the production company—saw a rare 20% daily limit increase for two consecutive sessions, boosting its market capitalization by over 10 billion yuan. The upward trend also spread to many media stocks such as Huanrui Century, Huace Film & TV, and Chinese Online.
Notably, "After Journey to the West" is not the first AI film to be broadcast during a satellite channel's prime time slot.
The difference with "After Journey to the West" is that it is the first widescreen series produced entirely using AIGC to be broadcast during the prime time of a satellite channel. The series consists of 30 episodes, each 40 minutes long, airing at 8:00 PM, the prime time slot, via a nationwide satellite television system. To a certain extent, this shows that the Chinese broadcasting system has begun to recognize the broadcast conditions for AI series, bringing AI content into the mainstream content system for the first time.
Given this major trend, the impact of technology on the film industry will not stop here - Photo: Weibo
AI is reshaping many industries, and this is no longer just a slogan. "After Journey to the West" seems to signal the "moon landing moment" for the industrialization of film and television through AI. From script to final product, the entire production chain is operated with AI. The methods of content production, and even the production resources of film and television companies, are becoming very different from before.
In March, the AI short film "Huo Qubing," which caused a stir across the internet, was also made on an AI creative platform. With only about 3,000 yuan in computing costs, the work reached 500 million views. Of course, the aspects worth viewing calmly are also gradually becoming clear. The challenge for AIGC series lies not only in whether the first episode is engaging, but also in whether the audience will stay until episode 30.
Because characters and stories remain the soul of a film. This also means that the capabilities once considered the strengths of traditional film and television companies—from script development and IP management to aesthetic sensibility—will become even more valuable in the AI era. After "After Journey to the West," the "pilgrimage" of AI cinema has only just begun.
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