'I'll Never Go Back': '12.12: The Day' Director Embraces AI at Busan
The director of the Korean box-office hit "12.12: The Day" says he will never make films the old way again.
Kim Sung-soo told a Sunday session hosted by Kling AI at the Asian Contents & Film Market in Busan that AI has become part of his craft after he once viewed it as a destroyer of the film industry, according to Variety. The market is the buying and selling arm attached to the Busan International Film Festival, where producers and buyers meet to arrange financing and sales.
"Technology doesn't replace creativity. It shows what's in your imagination," Kim said. "I'll never go back to the way I used to make films."
His turning point was "Worm Train," an eight-minute short about a giant insect colliding with a packed train crowd. Kim built a nine-person team for the project, including an animation art director and a music director.
Only part of "Worm Train" was generated with AI. The rest was finished with conventional filmmaking methods, meaning live shooting, physical sets, editing and sound work as normally done. Kim is now developing a seven-part drama series the same hybrid way, according to Variety.
The series opens with a chase of nearly 15 minutes set on the Gyeongin Expressway. That sequence will first be generated with AI before the team refines it with standard tools.
Kim was joined on the panel by three other AI practitioners. They were Harry Hyun, director and chief executive of AI production company MooAm, Chinese animation director Li Wei, co-director of "Jiang Ziya," and Lee Sangwook, a producer and team manager at MBC C&I's AI Contents Lab.
Li presented "Born of the Tide," a 105-minute AI-animated feature about China's boat-dwelling Tanka community, according to Variety. "AI can generate many things, but the choice and the details all come down to the director," Li said.
Hyun described how MooAm organises its crews. The company looks for AI artists who have directed at least one live-action short. Its directing team includes an "AI coordinator" who decides which shots will be generated and keeps a continuity script for them, a running record that keeps characters, action and storylines consistent.
Lee outlined "Rendering Love," a short-form K-pop romantic comedy about a virtual idol group now in production at MBC C&I's AI Contents Lab. Barunson E&A, the producer of "Parasite," is developing the story, according to Variety.
Kim also addressed regulation. He said rules on commercial use and permissions should be settled before the industry sets any technical standards for AI. "In the future, we won't call AI movies 'AI movies,' just as we no longer call films 'color movies,'" he said.
What makes this stand out is the emphasis on hands-on control. All four speakers described AI as a fast way to visualise ideas, with directors and small specialist teams still making the creative calls.
The Kling AI session was part of a wider push at this year's market to explore AI filmmaking workspaces and ecosystems, according to the Busan International Film Festival. The 2026 festival runs Oct. 6 to 15, with generative AI and short serial dramas among the market topics.
