Mei Ah Entertainment may be one of the biggest and oldest media distribution companies in Hong Kong – it is currently in its 42nd year of operations – but it has always learned to adapt quickly with the times, from its roots as a VHS distributor during the city’s golden age of cinema to riding the digital wave.
And now, it’s entering the AI short drama sector. During this year’s FilMart, the entertainment giant unveiled a series of short dramas generated with the help of AI.
The initiative represents a deliberate push to reimagine the studio’s rich catalog of classic IP for a modern audience, blending the nostalgia of familiar titles with the limitless possibilities of new technology. Over the past few years, Mei Ah has already been experimenting with short-form storytelling, collaborating with platforms like Douyin to turn beloved films into bite-sized dramas.
Now, the studio is taking the next step, using its own production teams and proprietary tools to create a slate of AI-assisted projects that allow pre-production, shooting and post-production to progress simultaneously. The company said that this gives creative teams unprecedented flexibility, as directors and designers can iterate quickly, refining aesthetics and story beats in real time. The goal, it said, is not to replace human creativity, but to expand it — allowing filmmakers to explore ideas that were previously too costly or complex to realize.
Some projects venture into genre extremes. Horror titles, for instance, are being crafted with generative tools that allow for intricate design and atmospheric effects, enhancing the terror. Meanwhile, historical epics reimagine Ming dynasty battalions fighting fantastical monsters, using special effects and visuals in ways that traditional production might find prohibitively expensive.
Lau Ho Leung, the director of one of the AI short films, “Kung Fu and Never Die,” experiments with Chinese martial arts and military tanks. “I thought AI was super attractive and was wondering how we should go about it and what stories we could tell,” he said. “I picked this narrative.”
Underpinning the initiative is a collaborative, all-in-one production platform developed by Mei Ah. “We like to take advantage of our platform to unleash our creativity,” the platform’s director, Wayne Tam, said. “From the storyboard to the design of characters and pre-visualization, we can harness our own filmmaking experience and embed it in the system.”
If the experiment succeeds, it could redefine how classic IP is reinvented, opening the door to new genres, formats, and imaginative possibilities. “If you are receptive to AI, it will be good for the trade,” said Tam.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com ’
