Chinese AI Drama 'Later Journey to the West' Ranks No. 1 in Prime Time... Production Costs Reduced to 1/10th

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is changing the landscape of the video content industry. A long-form drama produced solely with AI backgrounds and AI actors, without filming actual actors, has proven its industrial impact by ranking number one in prime time on Chinese home screens.

According to a T Times TV video, news has emerged that the AI-produced long-form drama 'Later Journey to the West' recorded the number one prime-time viewership rating immediately after its broadcast in China. This work is a long-form drama planned for 30 episodes, characterized by using AI technology to implement backgrounds and characters instead of live-action filming of actors. 'Mango Excellent Media', the parent company of the producer Mango TV, saw its market capitalization increase by approximately 2.5 trillion won over five days, including hitting the upper limit for two consecutive days after the drama aired.

Production costs reduced to 1/10th level... Emergence of AI directors called 'Gacha Players'

The greatest competitiveness of AI dramas is overwhelming cost reduction. According to the cast in the video, the production cost per episode of 'Later Journey to the West' is around 180 million won (900,000 yuan). In particular, for action scenes, while it used to cost about 4 million yuan to create a 3-minute sequence using traditional live-action production methods, utilizing AI has lowered this to the 3–4 yuan level. This figure represents approximately 1/100th of the previous cost. Regarding total production costs, the participant explained that as items such as actor appearance fees and set production costs, which accounted for 80% of existing costs, were replaced by AI, production costs could be reduced to 1/10th of the level of existing methods.

These changes have led to the emergence of new job categories. The video reported that the term 'Gacha Player' (ppopgisa) is used locally in China to refer to personnel who generate videos through AI. This is because the characteristic where the output varies greatly depending on the prompt (command) input is similar to drawing cards in online games. These individuals do not stop at simply entering commands; they perform the role of 'AI directors' who coordinate composition, story consistency, and emotional expression, and they possess an organizational structure that collaborates with development and art teams.

Technical limitations and challenges... "Storytelling and immersion are key"

Despite the technical achievements, viewer reactions are mixed. While the overwhelming visual beauty and scale implemented by AI, especially the cute portrayal of animals, received positive evaluations, elements that hinder immersion, such as stiff facial expressions of characters or awkward dialogue, were pointed out. The participant emphasized that "there is an evaluation that it is still difficult for AI to surpass the acting skills of real actors," and noted that storytelling and characterization are as important as visual beauty.

Currently, AI video technology is optimized for generating short videos in units of 15 to 30 seconds, leaving technical homework such as the deformation of character shapes during the process of stitching them together into longer videos. To solve this, the production company is reportedly making efforts to increase completeness by introducing human skeletal control systems or using 'frame interpolation' techniques to insert new frames into awkward sections.