At that time, the movie " legend " was released. Jackie Chan When he saw his young AI clone, he recited a poem with emotion: "In an instant, the black hair and white hair, who will I tell you when I grow old? If the spring breeze has pity for the flowers, Can you allow me to be a teenager again?" This video was widely circulated on the short video website.
Jackie Chan said: "I can't go back as a teenager, but movies can let me go back." At the age of 27, he is galloping on the battlefield and has a relationship with the fairy princess Nazha. He has undoubtedly become the biggest star of the movie "Legend" What to watch.
"Legend" stills
Director Tang Jili and Jackie Chan have collaborated for more than 30 years, and jointly created signature kung fu comedies, "Police Story 3", " Red Zone ", " Myth ", " Chinese Zodiac " Works such as " Kung Fu Yoga " bear witness to the friendship and tacit understanding between the two.
In 2005, Tang Jili and Jackie Chan's "transformational work" "The Myth" was released. It changed the previous Hong Kong martial arts routines and used the Qin Dynasty as the background to tell the story of unforgettable love and the ancient and modern scenes. It can be called the masterpiece of movies at the beginning of the century. "The Originator of Time Travel" achieved a box office success of US$120 million worldwide when it was released, and is regarded as a classic of Sino-Korean co-productions.
Later, "Myth" was filmed as a TV series, starring Hu Ge and Bai Bing. During the years when IP was most popular, Tang Jili publicly stated that he would not make a sequel to "Myth". Many years later, Tang Jili "broken his promise". What made him change his mind was that, on the one hand, he was inspired by the majestic vastness of the Western Regions and had new story inspiration; on the other hand, the development of new technologies gave him the opportunity to "collaborate" with the younger Jackie Chan.
"Legend", which puts old wine in new bottles, has been released for three days, and the box office exceeded 50 million. Among Jackie Chan movies, it is not a good result. The Douban score is 5.5. Like many of Jackie Chan's films released in recent years, it always makes people feel helpless that "Lian Po is old."
"Legend" box office exceeded 50 million poster
Bona President Yu Dong once said when previewing "AI Jackie Chan" at the Shanghai International Film Festival, "The emergence of AI technology will make movies no longer a regrettable art." But obviously, at this stage, the effect of AI in supporting movies in this way is not satisfactory. During the film's release, when Tang Jili was interviewed by The Paper, he did not shy away from the many frustrations in the film's completion. However, "Legend", as a trial work in which AI technology is deeply involved in large-scale Chinese film production, still has a positive significance that cannot be ignored.
The following is director Tang Jili’s sharing of his experience on this collaboration with “AI Jackie Chan”.
Director Tang Jili
[Dialogue]
ai's creation of "restrained" Jackie Chan is a big step forward in film technology
The Paper News : There was a previous interview saying that you once refused to make a sequel to "Myth". When did you start to feel that "Myth" "Can I continue to write a "sister chapter"?
Tang Jili : I once said that I will not make a sequel to "The Myth" because the story of Princess Yushu and General Meng Yi is complete enough and it is difficult to extend a sequel from it.
The turning point happened three years ago. I saw a documentary about the Hexi Corridor. It recorded that Huo Qubing established China's first military horse farm during the Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, led 800 cavalry deep into the hinterland of the Xiongnu, and was later named the Champion Marquis. After watching the documentary, I rushed to the northwest again and visited the Gansu-Hexi Corridor and Xinjiang, and was deeply touched. Canyons, deserts, and desolate places, the sense of vicissitudes of life makes me admire them. We are all feeling exhausted now when we drive back to the northwest with the air conditioner turned on. In order to protect our country’s territory from foreign invasion, the martyrs’ cavalry traveled thousands of miles. What kind of scene is that? This kind of experience made me determined to make a movie about Huo Qubing.
I originally wanted to write about Huo Qubing, but there are more restrictions on "major historical figures", so I chose fictional characters around him, which can better create a romance that expresses the love between children in troubled times. I watched "Doctor Zhivago" when I was a child, and I loved the feeling of separation between people and their loved ones in the context of war. From that time on, I loved it. So I chose to shoot "Legend".
Jackie Chan during the "Myth" (2005) era
AI Jackie Chan in "Legend"
The Paper News : At what stage did you decide to let AI join the creation of this film? What challenges does the application of AI technology bring to this film?
Tang Jili : Jackie Chan and I both like history and often talk about our favorite heroes, including Yue Fei, the Overlord of Western Chu, and Huo Qubing. These heroes were all very young at the time, but Jackie Chan was already 37 years old when I met him when we worked together on "Police Story 3: Super Cop." I have watched Jackie Chan's movies since I was a child. I especially liked " Drunken Master " and " Young Master " when he was young. At that time, he was handsome and cute. It can be said that as a director, I missed Jackie Chan when he was young. This kind of miss has become a regret. I would love to see Jackie Chan play Huo Qubing who is from 17 to 24 years old.
Jackie Chan during the era of "a plan " (1983)
Jackie Chan during the era of "Police Story 3: Super Cop" (1992)
More than two years ago, I learned about AI technology, including deepface deep camouflage face-changing technology. I saw a friend’s demonstration and I thought it was quite fun. The idea of using AI technology to support film shooting came up.
When I first learned about that technology, it could only be clearly displayed on a small screen like a mobile phone because of its low pixels. Moreover, the face-changing technology was limited in many aspects. For example, if the angle of the face exceeded 45 degrees, the face-changing technology would be the same as Not on.
And in the past two years, although there have been some applications in this area in Chinese movies, no movie has truly created a brand new character. For example, Wu Jing and Andy Lau showed how they looked when they were young in movies, but the roles they played when they were really young were relatively simple. Such rejuvenation operations are actually artificial "making people younger" rather than creating a person. Young, vital characters.
But this time, we want to create a new, real "character". In the movie "Legend", an archaeologist unearthed a batch of Xiongnu jade pendants unearthed from a war horse in the Han Dynasty. Once the jade pendants were unearthed, both the master and the apprentice dreamed of the same young man. The Jackie Chan that appears in the vision is actually the Jackie Chan they dreamed of, not the Jackie Chan we have seen in reality. Since it was Jackie Chan in the dream, we used AI to make many different versions. In the end, we all liked the current version better.
Jackie Chan and ai Jackie Chan in "Legend"
The Paper News : What is the creative process like?
Tang Jili : We input a large amount of image data of Jackie Chan when he was young. AI technology generates images of Jackie Chan's young face and converts these static images into dynamic videos. We made AI Jackie Chan of different age groups, and the feelings presented are completely different. The background of the story of our play is the resistance against the Huns. It is relatively serious, with a feeling of fighting, sorrow, and soul-stirring. Therefore, in different versions, I chose to use a more restrained way to express it, not as a character. A more lively version that is more familiar to the public.
The Paper : Yes, the eldest brother’s previous roles were relatively lively. It seems that he himself has never played such a “reserved” role.
Tang Jili : Jackie Chan has a sense of freshness. You will find that he is personable, polite, and very noble. This sense of freshness is what I hope to bring to everyone through AI technology. experience.
The Paper : Is this choice related to some limitations of AI itself? Will the script be adjusted based on the actual situation of AI?
Tang Jili : When we started shooting, AI technology was not yet mature, so there were many situations during the shooting process. For example, turning the head beyond 90 degrees would not work, or something would block the face, making it impossible to track. These are all It's difficult.Including some literary and opera scenes, the actors' subtle expressions are required, but the expansion and contraction of digital people's eyes and pupils cannot be completed, including some facial expressions and movements, so we have to use expression capture and animation similar to those in "Avatar" The motion capture method is then applied to the digital human body. During the production process of
, we shot every shot and every expression, some of which were shot many times, not only to capture the different feelings brought by the subtle differences between the expressions, but also because the skin needs to be changed during the face change process, and There are a lot of details to do, such as the special effects of tears on the face, knife wounds, and raindrops falling on the face. Face-changing is really a complicated process.
Tang Jili on the set
The Paper News : There are many dynamic scenes in this film, and it is easy to turn your face or have your face blocked by other moving objects. How were those moving parts resolved later?
Tang Jili : Yes. There are a lot of horse riding scenes in the movie, and people's faces and bodies move up and down, which is really difficult. If it were all done by AI digital people, it would become animation production, and we are always a domestic film with a limited budget. For example, Hollywood's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" did a great job, but their special effects costs have exceeded our costs for the entire movie.
This is like what I often see in the news about Huawei. We do not have self-developed chips, but we cannot give up on developing chips. There must be many dissatisfactions in the research and development process. Over the years of reform and opening up in China, we have always been trying to cross the river by feeling the stones. Since you want to be the first to eat crabs, you must first be brave, and secondly, you must take a lot of risks. In the movie
, due to the plot, many new problems were added during the filming process that were beyond the difficulty I originally imagined for our technical team to overcome. We have been making progress during the filming process. We have just From the beginning to the final post-production, we changed many expressions and shots many times. If it didn't work once, we would do it again.
The Paper : As a director, how would you evaluate the performance of "AI Jackie Chan" as an actor this time?
Tang Jili: To be honest, after the completion of this film production, I am not very satisfied, but I also feel very proud. The pride lies in that I can overcome many difficulties and create a young, 27-year-old Jackie Chan. There are some scenes that are actually done well enough, but after the promotion of AI technology, everyone's focus shifted from watching movies to watching technology, and focused on the final presentation of the technology, so I felt it was not good. But on the whole, it can vividly create a general and a character like Jackie Chan when he was young. For us, film technology has taken a big step forward, but we must also admit that this big step still has shortcomings.
I remember that when I was filming "The Myth" in 2004, we were also limited by the technology and budget at the time. The Tiangong in the movie was presented using domestic technology and computer special effects. For me, as a screenwriter and director, I feel that Chinese movies are in great need of original works, so "Myth" was the first time-travel movie, and it was done at a risk. When the results came out, I was actually not satisfied with it at the time. However, there are some viewers who are willing to forgive my shortcomings and let me know that Tiangong is not perfect, but the floating feeling makes the audience feel innovative and creative, so they are willing to tolerate it.
"Legend" stills
The Paper News : "Myth" was a blockbuster back then, and this time "Legend" also has a very grand part. Really tens of thousands of horses were used to shoot "Thousands of Horses". In the special effects In such a developed world today, why do you choose this way?
Tang Jili : This part was very difficult to shoot, especially the horse part, including the frozen scene, which was very difficult in all aspects. But I think when making a big movie, I hope the audience will go to the cinema to watch it. In recent years, many sketch-style movies have sold very well. No one is willing to shoot big scenes, hoping to make big money with a small cost.
As a filmmaker, I think I should choose Thousands of Arms because I have read history since I was a child. In history textbooks about the Three Kingdoms, Yue Fei, and Huo Qubing, we cannot really imagine the scene of "thousands of armies". Hong Kong films don’t have this condition. Hong Kong is too small. But this time I happened to go to Xinjiang, where there is a military horse farm, and there is a Tianma Festival in Zhaosu County. They will gather more than 10,000 horses at that time. All we need to do is communicate well and let the herdsmen stay for two more days for us to shoot. I can afford the extra two days to complete the scene with thousands of troops on the screen. I think it's worth it.
I hope that the audience can truly feel the battle situation when our martyrs' cavalry went deep and traveled thousands of miles. If the difficulties they experienced cannot be shot realistically and are simulated with computer special effects, it will actually be difficult to impress the audience.
70-year-old Jackie Chan is still fighting for real. Human beings cannot be replaced by AI
The Paper News : You are an action director. This time you used a digital double. Do you think it can help solve the problem of high-risk martial arts operations?
Tang Jili : In fact, not much can be solved yet. There are some movements that we can splice together, such as somersaults and falling from the horse to the ground. Our people and horses will use them separately: the horse will fall first, and then the people will fall in conjunction with the horse's movements. People do fall, but they no longer fall while riding a horse. Of course, the overall movements would be safe if purely digital people were used, but the production of fight scenes is very time-consuming and difficult to make them look good. The only way is to capture them through motion and then add animation. So all of our fight scenes were shot live.
The Paper : In the second half of "Legend", Big Brother also contributed his signature, slightly funny fighting scenes. I have worked with him for so many years, and at this age, I have to design action scenes for the 70-year-old Big Brother. Will the focus be different when you are young than when you were young?
Tang Jili : In fact, there is no difference. I have been working with Big Brother for 33 years now. Since "Police Story 3" in 1991, I have been his director and martial arts instructor. So when we are doing tricks, people in the family class will report some of the things Big Brother can still do. He does the moves himself without using a substitute.
The characteristic of Jackie Chan is that he does all the moves by himself, so when we are doing tricks, we try to set the moves so that Jackie Chan can do them himself. So this time, you see, the eldest brother is already 70 years old. In the last frozen fight, he did all the throwing, rolling, kicking, every move by himself. This is Jackie Chan’s professionalism as an actor, and I admire him very much.
So, we created a young Jackie Chan, but there were no animated CGs or stand-ins in the fight scenes. As a director, I hope that the audience can see that Jackie Chan can still fight, and that he can fight so well and have such good skills. Moreover, when filming the scenes of young Jackie Chan, the eldest brother was actually on set every day.
"Legend" stills
The Paper News : From my personal perspective, when the fight scene behind Big Brother came out, I felt even more that AI cannot replace real people.
Tang Jili : Yes, it absolutely cannot be replaced. As AI technology develops, it will get better and better, and the pictures will become clearer. This is for sure, but the way its characters communicate with the audience and arouse the audience's love will still be different from real people.
So for me, this "Legend", including the script, I also hope to be innovative. For example, Zhang Yixing has never acted in a drama with so many laughs in the past. When writing the script, I hope to give the actors more diverse feelings to the audience.
Stills of "Legend"
The Paper News : In the past two years, everyone has discussed AI, including that AI can help the film and television industry reduce costs and increase efficiency. After practicing this time, I feel that making a movie of the size of "Legend" will be difficult due to the use of new technologies. What changes will it bring if you join? Does the film also use more virtual shooting technology this time?
Tang Jili: Yes, some scenes are very far away, such as the distant view of the Gansu desert, with more than a thousand cavalry, and I can't take them there. For these scenes, I will shoot empty shots first, and then come back and composite them. I think the most important aspect of AI's cost reduction and efficiency improvement is in art design, which really helps a lot.
Our original art team spent a lot of time painting the art scenes to be very realistic and beautiful. Now AI technology can provide us with many choices. As a director, in the past, if I wanted to design a certain scene, storyboard, or even create a script, I had to go online and go to the library to look up a lot of information. Now with AI technology, it can quickly give reference materials.
In fact, AI technology seems to be immature at present. The pictures produced by Sora are very real, but these are only things directed by Sora. They cannot represent Ang Lee, Zhang Yimou, Wong Kar-Wai, Jackie Chan or me, nor can they represent the feelings of different directors. .
Therefore, it can provide us with a lot of reference materials in the process of preview film, storyboarding, art design, and script creation, and it can be a very powerful assistant for us. However, I think it is still far from being able to become a real "director". There is quite a distance. Of course, with the development of technology, such assistants will become smarter and master more and more skills.
The Paper : After cooperating with AI Jackie Chan this time, will you still want to cooperate with it?
Tang Jili : The copyright still belongs to Jackie Chan and Bona. If the shortcomings and limitations of this stage can be overcome in the future, there may be opportunities in the future. At present, it seems that AI will take some time to perfect in terms of pixels and skin texture on the big screen, including detailed acting skills. But I am still very optimistic about the potential of digital people in this regard. For example, if a person plays his life from his twenties to his seventies, if he can only find other actors to replace him at the age of twenty, the audience will It will still be easier to get into trouble. However, if AI technology matures, some similar long-term story content in the future can be completed by the same actor.
The Paper : I saw that you had imagined that you could collaborate with Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung again through AI.
Tang Jili : Because we have cooperated before, but now it is impossible. But when AI technology matures, nothing is impossible.
