24-06-2025
AI ‘Upgrades' to Kung Fu Classics Deserve Zero Stars
Opinion
Chinese studios' plan to use artificial intelligence to upgrade 100 films in the genre is unnecessary and risks creating a flat, homogenized viewing experience.
By
Jason Bailey is a film critic and historian whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Vulture, the Playlist, Slate and Rolling Stone. He is the author, most recently, of "Gandolfini: Jim, Tony, and the Life of a Legend."
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When it comes to artificial intelligence, most folks seem to fall into two diametrically opposed camps, according to several polls. There are those who believe it to be nothing less than a technological revolution that will significantly change every aspect of how we live, and others who dismiss it as the emperor's new clothes, an ecologically irresponsible, not-ready-for-prime-time pipe dream that produces error-ridden prose and eye-sore attempts at illustration.
China Film Foundation and its partners' recent announcement of the Kung Fu Film Heritage Project reminded me why I'm in the latter group.
