The use of AI to upscale films into 4K transfers has been a controversial topic. When James Cameron’s classic films were announced to be converted into ultra-high definition, they were greatly anticipated due to the high-quality special effects and action sequences in his films and fans were thirsting to see it in crisp 4K resolution. Unfortunately, something became noticeably off with the image quality and people realized that they were upscaled with AI, which made for some unnatural smoothing and, in the case of Jaws 3, some really wonky background artifacts. While there is a great deal of debate with this method, Variety reports that the China Film Foundation and its partners are embracing AI to restore one hundred classic martial arts movies under an initiative called the Kung Fu Film Heritage Project.
This initiative will digitally remaster Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li films, among others, and AI will also be used to create a new animated feature of the John Woo/Chow Yun-Fat franchise, A Better Tomorrow. The new AI creation is to be titled A Better Tomorrow: Cyber Border and is being touted as the first fully AI-produced animated film.
The initiative will be in effect in time for the 27th Shanghai International Film Festival.
China Film Foundation chair Zhang Qilin made the statement, “From Bruce Lee to Jackie Chan, from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to Wolf Warrior, these films have shown the world the vitality and spirit of the Chinese people. They are our cinematic calling cards to the world.” Canxing Media chair Tian Ming confirmed that ten of the hundred martial arts films will have major priority in the first phase of development. The titles for restoration will include Fist of Fury, The Big Boss, Drunken Master and Once Upon a Time in China. RMB100 million ($13.9 million American) is budgeted for the initiative.
Tian explained, “AI is the brush, but creativity is the soul. Classic kung fu films embody China’s spiritual backbone. We’re inviting global partners to join this cultural and technological reboot.”
For A Better Tomorrow: Cyber Border, AI is being used in all production processes, from the screenplay to the modeling, to the animation, to the rendering. Producer Zhang Qing says, “This entire animated feature was made by just 30 people. AI has collapsed the barrier between creativity and execution. The production cycle has gone from years to months.”
