“Miss Buyer” Uses AI Magic to Replace Lead Actor Zhai Tianlin’s Face After His Scandal in 2018

Zhai Tianlin gets replaced by Yang Shize
Yang Shize replaces Zhai Tianlin in the series Miss Buyer

A few years after his scandal, Zhai Tianlin‘s past actions seem to have come back to bite him once again. The actor was set to star in the modern drama Miss Buyer 买定离手我爱你 opposite Tina Tang Yixin. However, when accusations of academic plagiarism against him surfaced, not only did it cost him his PhD, it seems he soon found himself out of job as well.  Four years after it was shot, Miss Buyer finally secures a premiere date and announced that Zhai Tianlin who was originally cast as the male protagonist in the series has now been replaced by Breaking Dawn actor Yang Shize. It appears all this is thanks to the magic of AI. Zhai Tianlin originally played fashion industry maven Zhao Mo Yuan who constantly butted heads with Tang Yixin’s rookie Di Yike.

Zhai Tianlin Yang Shize
Photo: Zhai Tianlin (L) and Yang Shize (R) / Weibo

When Tang Yixin’s scandal exploded three years ago, the project which wrapped filming in 2018 was also put on hold.

AI Face Swapping Keeps Shows On Air

Remember how medical series Healer of Children scrambled to swap out singer-actor Tong Zhuo’s face following the huge public outcry when he offhandedly mentioned faking his graduation date to retake the gaokao after failing the first one? HoC’s production had to quickly swap out his face with actor Li Huan’s just to ensure it won’t happen. Seems Miss Buyer also took a page out of their book and used face swapping deep fake technology to save itself from being completely cancelled.

What do you guys think of the trailer? Can you totally tell they pulled a bit of a switcheroo through face swap tech? I can’t really tell honestly if I didn’t know what production had done. Also, he didn’t really get much screen time in the drama’s official trailer to be able tell. Maybe the face shape perhaps could be a indicator since Yang Shize’s looks a touch rounder IMHO? Or the bits in the trailer where it went a bit blurry. Nonetheless, you can take a closer look yourself when Miss Buyer premieres tomorrow June 2.

Yang Shize replaces Zhai Tianlin
Some more screenshots from previews released by Miss Buyer of Yang Shize

As for shows on the verge of being cancelled because of the scandals attached to its stars like Night Wanderer or Golden Hairpin , does this perhaps mean there’s still hope yet that it’ll be hitting the small screens in the future (after some face swapping magic of course)? Perhaps, in a few years time it’s possible.

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7 Comments

  1. HL- Hoh Liu

    June 1, 2022 4:27 AM
    • unicorn

      June 1, 2022 5:42 PM
      • HL- Hoh Liu

        June 1, 2022 10:25 PM
    • Jo

      June 1, 2022 6:21 PM
  2. Jia

    June 1, 2022 11:38 PM
    • Applefish

      June 2, 2022 3:02 AM
      • Jia

        June 2, 2022 7:32 PM

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