Asian films scaling up content building with AI assistance

The role of artificial intelligence (AI) and technology will continue to be vital in shaping the future of the Asian film and content sectors with experts urging industry leaders to embrace the change to stay on top of their game, a Hong Kong summit heard on March 18.

In his welcome remarks at the Asia Content Business Summit (ACBS) Working Group Meeting, Wilfred Wong Ying-wai, chairman of the Hong Kong Film Development Council, said that AI is going to "speed up development" and "unite Asia" across multiple languages as content becomes accessible to a broader audience.

Wong noted that in the past, content had to be dubbed, but now with the help of AI, subtitles have been made easily accessible on-demand.

"Second, we have to look at how to distribute. The movie business is a streaming platform. (We) have to be one step ahead. Otherwise, we are just following trends," said Wong, as he also encouraged current industry leaders to share their knowledge and "pass the sword to the next generation".

Fred Wang Cheung-yue, chairman of Hong Kong-based pan-Asia movie services group Salon Film, encouraged attendees to "take new ideas" on the use of technology and AI in movie production from the ACBS event, where speakers from Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines also gave presentations on trends and initiatives in their respective countries.

Dato Kamil Othman, chairman of the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia, said his organization had prioritized the training of film producers, with special attention paid to understanding legal issues such as copyright.

Malaysia has no problems with sending films overseas and a new generation of successful movie professionals are emerging, he said. The main challenges they encounter are internal industry mechanisms, using AI and difficulties working on co-productions, he added.

"Talent is already there. We just need a good proposition to move forward," said Kamil, as he also urged the audience to "not be afraid of AI" as it "is not a trend, but a tool and humans are still part of it".

In Japan's content industry, digitalization had also changed the content industry completely, according to Norihiko Saeki, director of the culture and creation industries division under Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).

He said Japanese overseas content sales are set to achieve a market size of 20 trillion yen ($6.7 billion) by 2033, under the "New Cool Japan Strategy" adopted in 2024. METI set up 100 action plans this year in consultation with Japanese content industry leaders in order to hit that target, he added.