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a premiere date and announced that Zhai Tianlin who was originally cast as the male protagonist in the series has now been replaced by Breaking Dawn actor Yang Shize.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.
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.
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.
Source: 1
HL- Hoh Liu
I personally dont feel comfortable with such technology… If it can be used so easily, anyone can do the same elsewhere to deep fake anyone… It feels so wrong… Some may find it a clever technology, but it is just wrong to me.
unicorn
It is already used in many other areas. The entertainment industry is not the first. They are just making use of existing technology to save their show. To be able to replace a full frontal face and for such a long show in such a seamless way, do you realize how advanced the technology already is? Now we even have a complete A1 news anchor. Technology is technology. It’s just like a knife, an equally useful or murderous tool. Right use or wrong use, it all depends on the user, isn’t it?
HL- Hoh Liu
That is very true…in the hands of those that wants to take advantage of others…this technology can cause so much harm… Even video evidence will be doctored etc… Yes you are right, it is technology…and what was impossible 50yrs ago…is not so anymore. It will just progress further.
Jo
Yang shize face looks so big in the drama and some scenes are horrible. Probably a skip for me
Jia
I’m so confused. I don’t think the actor in the clip looks particularly like Yang Shize. Did they meld the two men’s faces together with the AI? If anything, I think it still looks more like Zhai Tianlin. Is the trailer already updated?
Applefish
@jia you are not the only one, I was also wondering if I’m just seeing Zhai Tianlin lol. I think what it is is they take the eyes, nose and mouth and put it on the face, so the face structure is that of the old actor, and so it’s hard to see the difference between the original actor and the replacement. Also the head feels wrong compare to the body lol.
Jia
Thank you Applefish. I slowed down and paused the frames where he appeared multiple times. I thought I was seeing things I wasn’t supposed to see lol.