Busan — Fan Bingbing has spent three decades in front of the camera. She now watches the AI-generated microdramas that have become a boom category in China, and she does not believe the format is giving young viewers the cinema she grew up on.
“I feel that young people in China aren’t being fed very well,” she said at a Busan International Film Festival press conference, where she presented Wayne Wang’s “Diary of a Mad Old Man” and Ivan Tan’s short “She Said.” It was her third visit to the festival.
Her benchmark for what AI cannot do was Lee Chang-dong’s “Possible Love.” “Human performances contain so many emotions and expressions,” she said. “The performances in ‘Possible Love’ cannot be conveyed or replicated by AI.”
A legacy conversation, not a tech panic
Fan was at Busan partly to talk about Park Chan-wook’s “The Handmaiden,” her Carte Blanche selection. She first saw it ten years ago, when it was unavailable in China, and said its impact is just as strong today. She also recalled serving with Park on the 2017 Cannes jury, describing his observations as incisive, and said she would be open to working with him.
That pairing matters. Fan is making a prestige argument: some stories depend on human performance, and no distribution or production efficiency replaces that.
What this means for platform decisions
For streaming and content teams, the warning is a useful strategic filter. AI microdramas can drive session frequency at low cost, but they are not a guarantee of brand depth.
- Microdramas optimise for watch time and scroll velocity, not for rewatch loyalty.
- When an A-list actor questions the format, it signals risk for premium talent partnerships.
- Platforms still need a prestige slate to protect pricing power and advertiser perception.
Fan framed her generation as a bridge between what came before and what comes next. “We belong to a generation that connects what came before with what comes next,” she said, adding that Chinese actors of her generation hold themselves to an internal standard. She credited the concept of yuanfen—affinity shaped by fate—for her belief that an actor cannot force a role or a director connection.
The post-2018 running thread
Fan largely disappeared from Chinese screens after a 2018 tax evasion case. She has rebuilt outside China, winning the Golden Horse best leading actress award for “Mother Bhumi” and starring in the Korean-language feature “Green Night.” She described being pushed beyond a fixed screen image as difficult, but useful.
The takeaway for OTT services looking at India and Southeast Asia is specific: short-form AI content may be the fastest-growing slot on the app, but it is not the only thing that builds a durable screen brand. Her comments are a reminder to track loyalty and talent equity, not just session time.
Source: Variety
