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Fan Bingbing watches AI-generated microdramas now and then. She’s just not convinced they’re doing China’s young audiences any good.
The Chinese star made the remarks at a Busan International Film Festival press conference,
where she presented Wayne Wang’s “Diary of a Mad Old Man,” screening in the A Window on Asian Cinema strand, and Ivan Tan’s short “She Said,” which world premiered in the Wide Angle section’s Asian Short Film Competition. It’s her third visit to the festival.
Pointing to the popularity of AI-generated microdramas in China, Fan questioned whether they offered younger viewers the artistic nourishment she had found in cinema. “I feel that young people in China aren’t being fed very well,” she said, referring to the screen content they consume.
Fan pointed to 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.”
At a special talk following the screening of Park Chan-wook’s “The Handmaiden,” her selection for the festival’s Carte Blanche program, Fan spoke of her fascination with the danger and freedom embodied by the film’s two female leads. “I first watched this film 10 years ago. Because it had never been released in China, I had to make a special effort to find a way to see it,” she said. “But the impact it had on me is just as powerful 10 years later.”
She also recalled serving alongside Park on the Cannes jury in 2017, describing him as courteous and gentlemanly. Though he spoke sparingly, she said, “His observations were incisive.” Fan added that she would be delighted to work with him if the opportunity arose.
Reflecting during the talk on what has sustained her commitment to acting over three decades, Fan placed her career within the wider development of Asian cinema, which she said had found its place and voice over the past two decades.
“Actors of my generation in China hold themselves to an internal standard,” she said. “We belong to a generation that connects what came before with what comes next. We have a responsibility to carry that legacy forward, and we hope to be remembered ourselves.”
Fan described her belief in “yuanfen,” the Chinese concept of affinity or connection shaped by fate. “You can’t force the connection between an actor and a role, or between an actor and a director,” she said. “But I believe that only by continually accumulating experience can you keep challenging who you are and extend your life as an actor.”
Fan largely disappeared from Chinese screens after a 2018 tax evasion case. She has since worked outside China, winning the Golden Horse best leading actress award for Malaysian drama “Mother Bhumi” and starring in Korean-language feature “Green Night.”
Fan joked that she had been “forced” to adapt as her work took her beyond a fixed screen image and across languages, though she said she was grateful for the pressures that had led her toward unexpected roles.
“Following the storyline that fate gives me, and doing justice to my abilities as an actor, is already a source of happiness,” she said.
