Asia’s most visible AI filmmaking experiments are no longer just short demos.
Singapore became the most visible case in August, when two AI-generated productions timed to National Day drew praise, curiosity and heavy criticism. CNA reported that Bersama Majulah and Trace Project were both set in fictionalised versions of Singapore and were timed for release on August 9. Fortune later described the pair in a more pointed way: neither film starred a human actor, and everything apart from their scripts was generated by AI.
That distinction matters because it separates them from productions that only use AI for a background, a storyboard or a visual effect. In these projects, the performer on screen was part of the generated output. For viewers, that made the debate less about a software feature and more about whether a film can carry local identity when the bodies, faces, motion and much of the screen world are synthetic.
Bersama Majulah, produced by Singapore-based Edenstone, is a spin-off from the company’s Spore Fall universe. CNA reported that the short film depicts a fictional Lionara facing a spore outbreak, with recognisable references to Singapore landmarks. Spore Fall’s own media page described the project as human-written and AI-realised, with AI used to enhance visual effects and environments while narrative and character development stayed in human hands.
Trace Project, produced by FizzDragon, took the feature-length route. Mothership reported that the 64-minute AI-generated sci-fi film had a single scheduled public screening at Golden Village VivoCity on August 9, then was expected to become available through the FizzDragon app. FizzDragon founder and CEO Pax Chen told Mothership the film was produced by a smaller team of about 10 people across three countries, compared with more than 130 creators from 13 countries on FizzDragon’s earlier feature Pirate Queen: Zheng Yi Sao.
Lianhe Zaobao later reported that Chen said the Trace Project team used about two to three months and a production budget of roughly S$160,000. The film was also a test of whether a small AI-native team could make something that reached a cinema screen.
The backlash exposed a quality-control problem, not just taste
CNA reported that online critics described the AI visuals as “AI slop” and called out lifeless characters, dialogue and accents. Lianhe Zaobao reported more concrete complaints about Trace Project, including Singapore flag errors and military-uniform details, and reported that Chen said the team had corrected flag and uniform mistakes after feedback.
Those details explain why the National Day timing mattered. A film can be technically experimental and still be judged by the cultural standards of the moment it chooses to occupy. When a project presents itself as a Singapore-origin story on Singapore’s national holiday, continuity errors and cultural omissions become part of the product, not just rough edges.
China shows what happens when AI changes the cost of a bet
China is testing a different model: scale. CNA, citing the China Netcasting Services Association, reported that about 128,000 microdramas were released in China in the first quarter of 2026, with more than 95% of them, or about 122,000 titles, generated entirely with AI, without cameras or live actors. A year earlier, that figure was near zero.
The number sounds like audience victory, but it mainly measures supply. Yicai reported that the AI short-drama market had reached CNY24 billion with more than 280 million users, yet also noted that only 267 of 44,200 new AI dramas added to Douyin in April, or 0.6%, passed 100 million views. Cheaper production creates more lottery tickets. It does not guarantee more hits.
Fortune reported that some large companies in Hangzhou were using AI to generate 100-minute dramas for under 20,000 yuan, about US$2,981, citing Caixin Global. That price point explains why producers are willing to flood short-form platforms even when many releases disappear quickly. It also explains why actors, editors and crew in high-volume categories feel pressure first.
Hong Kong is also moving AI characters into mainstream broadcaster experiments. Fortune reported that TVB released the 10-episode short drama You, and Only You in September 2025, describing it as the first of its kind in Hong Kong to feature AI-generated characters, and said the broadcaster was using virtual actors in advertising campaigns.
Hybrid productions may be the practical route for longer work
The most commercially useful version of AI filmmaking may not be the fully generated film. It may be the hybrid production, where real actors remain on screen while AI replaces expensive sets, locations, extras and some visual-effects work.
Singapore’s Crooks is an example. CNA described it as the country’s first AI-hybrid drama, with actors performing on live-action sets while AI builds the environments around them. CNA also reported that more than 50 crew members across production, technical and editing roles were being reskilled for the project. The Edge Malaysia reported that the Crooks team used AI to create costly environments, reduce lighting work by an estimated 50% to 70%, generate additional inmates for a prison scene and cut overall costs by about 30%, according to executive producer Boi Kwong.
South Korea’s The House, also referred to in some coverage as Apartment, points in the same direction. KoBiz reported that CJ ENM shot the 60-minute occult thriller in four days on a KRW500 million budget, with real actors performing against green screens while backgrounds and visual effects were AI-generated. CJ ENM said the film used Google AI tools including Imagen, Nano Banana and Veo in the production pipeline.
This model is less dramatic than a synthetic cast, but it answers a more immediate business problem. It can reduce location, set and effects constraints while preserving human performance, which multiple Singapore industry figures told CNA remains one of generative video’s weakest points.
The next test is a nationwide theatrical release
TechNode reported that Bona Film Group’s Sanxingdui: Future Past, a 100-minute AI-produced theatrical feature, is scheduled for nationwide release in China on October 23, 2026, after securing an official screening licence. TechNode reported that all characters are original digital creations, not digital replicas of real actors, and that a professional team of more than 100 people kept creative direction and final artistic decisions in human hands.
The production claims show how far this has moved beyond prompts. TechNode reported that the film took two years, used more than 1.2 million source images and went through more than 100 full-film iterations. The hard task is not generating one impressive shot. It is keeping characters, costumes, lighting, environments and emotional continuity stable across a feature-length story.
Tool companies are moving toward that same problem. A Media OutReach release published October 9 said Singapore-headquartered Topview AI had launched Film Studio in July 2026, claimed five million registered users across its platform and said 40% of its users create AI films and dramas. As company-supplied figures, those numbers should be read cautiously. Still, they show how vendors are positioning AI video around connected scenes, shot control and complete stories rather than isolated clips.
Festival programming is changing too. Nanyang Film Festival’s AI Film Forum, scheduled for October 10, 2026, is set to bring together filmmakers, AI companies, production companies, streamers and creative professionals from China and Indonesia for case studies, demonstrations and business matchmaking.
Authorship and rights remain unresolved
Across these markets, AI is splitting filmmaking into smaller layers: human concept, generated footage, synthetic or live performance, tool-driven iteration and human review. Each layer raises a different question.
If an actor performs on a green screen and AI creates the room, the rights issue is different from a film where the performer is synthetic. If a broadcaster creates virtual actors, the labour question differs from a director using AI for storyboards. If a microdrama is generated entirely by AI, viewers still need to know what was made, who made the creative decisions and whether real performers’ likenesses or training data are involved.
CNA reported that performers in Singapore lack the kind of collective-bargaining framework for AI protection that exists in the United States. That leaves more responsibility on individual contracts, production ethics and platform disclosure. It also means labels such as AI-generated, AI-assisted and AI-hybrid cannot be treated as interchangeable marketing language.
Media companies should not treat AI as a shortcut around craft. The teams that benefit are likely to be the ones that keep human story judgment, legal review, cultural detail, continuity checks and performance direction inside the process. In filmmaking, the generation step is getting cheaper. Trust is not.
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