A Film Entirely Created by AI to Hit the Big Screen
by Lee Jonggil
Published 27 Apr.2026 08:00(KST)
Korea’s First Fully AI-Produced Film "I Am Popo"
"The Era of One-Person Production Has Begun,"
But What About the Quality?
"The biggest regret is that the film should have been released as soon as it was made last year, but it was delayed."
Director Kim Ildong made this remark at the press conference for the AI movie "I Am Popo," held at the Seoul Film Center on April 24. He explained that the gap between last year's technology and today's is significant, and if he were to make the film again now, the results would be much better. He summed up the rapid pace of development with a joke: "It's an advantage to learn AI as late as possible."
"I Am Popo," which is set to be released next month on the 21st, is the first case in Korea where every scene is filled with video generated by generative AI. Every character-including a runner walking a robot dog, a woman contemplating a home-cooked meal menu, and a news anchor-was created and animated by AI.
Professional voice actors provided the voice performances, and the script was written directly by Director Kim. Except for the voice actors, Kim completed the entire feature film alone, without any actors or filming staff, in just over two months. He stated, "With this work, I wanted to announce the beginning of the 'one-person movie' era."
The visual quality and overall completeness do not reach the level of conventional commercial films. For viewers, the experience is closer to observing the output of generative AI than watching a typical movie.
Current AI filmmaking technology exhibits several clear limitations. In particular, it struggles to maintain details, such as the same character appearing with slightly different faces in each scene. There are also consistency issues, such as abrupt changes in the background or character positions during scene transitions. Additionally, it falls short in depicting subtle emotional expressions and rendering natural dialogue scenes.
Nevertheless, attempts to produce AI-generated films are steadily increasing worldwide. The ability to drastically reduce production costs and time is attracting significant interest from independent filmmakers and those working on low-budget projects.
In fact, in China, a film titled "Soul Wave·Dream of Rebirth," for which AI handled the entire production process, is about to be released. All aspects, from character creation and scene composition to visual effects, voice synthesis, background music, and post-production editing, were managed by AI.
In Korea, director Kang Yoonseong presented the feature film "The Middle World" last year using AI. Actors such as Byun Yohan and Kim Kangwoo performed, while AI was utilized for scenes involving monsters, vehicle explosions, and building collapses. Although this approach significantly reduced time and costs compared to computer graphics (CG), some scenes were criticized for appearing awkward and unnatural.
AI video generation technology has rapidly advanced this year alone, with several large-scale updates. However, it is expected to take more time before the level of completeness seen in commercial film production can be achieved on set.
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