Man in Hanbok

Man in Hanbok (Hanbok ibeun namja) is a feature-length historical fantasy of about 66 to 67 minutes, depending on the source (cine21 lists 66, KOBIZ and MHN say 67), rated 12+ in Korea. It is adapted from the novel of the same name by Lee Sang-hoon, who also directed it, and it opened in Korean cinemas on 21 May 2026. Its official trailer and film are on YouTube, where the upload had about 1,300 views on 10 October 2026 and the trailer on the humortv channel about 4,700.

Coverage says generative AI was used from planning and screenplay development through to the final video, with no real actors or sets. A Korean press report names the tools as Midjourney, Nano Banana, Kling and Veo 3, with each scene's prompts written in ChatGPT and Gemini and then realised in cinematic language. The Korea Film Council's KOBIZ says the Joseon court and the streets of Renaissance Italy were reconstructed entirely through AI imagery. Maeil Shinmun credits its stills to Midjourney v7 and Nano Banana, and MHN says Lee chose to focus on the novel's narrative and human emotion rather than on showing off technology.

Lee Sang-hoon is described by the Korean outlet AVING as a former SBS comedy programme director who also directed the films Mapado 2 and Don't Tell Papa, as well as a novelist. The novel was earlier adapted into a stage musical, whose opening run was reported as sold out; that 2025 musical is a separate work with the same title. Credits differ by outlet: cine21 lists Box Media as the production company and Bluefilmworks as the distributor, while other reports name Bluefilmworks as the producer, and it describes the film as Korea's first 100% generative-AI feature.

The film won the Grand Prize at the 2nd Korea Artificial Intelligence Film Festival in February 2026 and was invited to the Busan International AI Film Festival and the World AI Film Festival. It was chosen as the closing film of the first Buyeo International History Film Festival on 2 May, and KOBIZ reports a distribution deal at Hong Kong FilMart. In Korea it opened on 21 May, the same day as another AI feature, I'm Popo. cine21 shows an audience count of 647 without saying when it was taken.

MHN reports that audience response at festivals centred on its completeness as a film rather than novelty, and says it avoids the uncanny valley by putting character emotion and story structure ahead of visual effects. Maeil Shinmun notes that AI-made films generally still fall short of commercial films in visual quality and polish, without a specific critique of this film. AVING calls it a new path for global K-content, which is the outlet's own assessment.