Raphael, a science-fiction feature that its makers say was produced entirely with generative AI, opens in South Korean cinemas on 25 November 2026. The Korea Times presents it as the latest sign that AI film is moving from short online clips to feature length. It follows Steelay, a 90-minute action film by Seol Woo-in made with no live actors or physical sets, which reached cinemas in October.
Raphael is co-directed by Yang Ik-june, Moon Shin-woo and Jung Joo-won, and produced by Mateo AI Studio together with the AI content lab of MBC C&I. The Korea Times gives a running time of 138 minutes, with 14 months of editing spent keeping faces and movement consistent. An AI FILMS Studio write-up from May instead listed 80 minutes and a September release, so the details have either changed or the accounts differ. The plots differ too: the Korea Times describes an android weapon, built in the image of a dictator, who finds his humanity after meeting an unregistered child and the last human bride, while the May account describes an android who meets a Catholic priest on a path to faith and redemption.
“We cannot block the arrival of AI, and it is more important to make one or two films ourselves to understand it rather than engaging in emotional debates.”
Jia Zhangke, Chinese film director, to the Korea Times · koreatimes.co.kr ↗
The film grew out of a 2024 programme run by the culture ministry and KOCCA, where the three directors met before founding the studio. Their earlier short Mateo won the 2024 Korea International AI Film Festival. According to the Korean Film Council, full production began in August 2025 and ran about nine months with a team of seven, using around a dozen Kling AI features, with Photoshop to hold the look together. Yang has put the usual alternative at a crew of 150 to 300 and up to $2m, but says cost is not why they used AI and that the common idea of it as simply cheaper and faster is a misconception.
Raphael opened the 2nd Busan International AI Film Festival in 2025, and Yang showed about five minutes of footage at a Kling AI session at the Cannes film market on 18 May. MBC C&I had already shown it at Hong Kong FilMart in March. Festivals are widening their doors as well: the 30th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival took feature-length AI works into its competition in July.
A frame from Paradise Lost Universe, director Yeon Sang-ho's short AI-made spin-off of his Train to Busan world
Captured from CJ ENM Movie's YouTube channel · Image: The Korea Times
The Korea Times also draws on two directors. Yeon Sang-ho made a four-part AI spin-off series, Paradise Lost Universe, in two weeks, set in the world of Train to Busan. Speaking in Seoul on 14 October, he called the quality of AI work decent but said it will not easily replace real actors, because AI is the sum of common patterns and cannot capture individuality. Jia Zhangke, who has made three AI shorts in two years, spoke at Busan last month and said human emotion has to stay part of the process.
About Raphael
Raphael is billed as South Korea's first fully AI-generated feature film. It is co-directed by Yang Ik-june, Moon Shin-woo and Jung Joo-won and produced by Mateo AI Studio with MBC C&I.
The directors met in the 2024 New Media New Technology Lab, run by the culture ministry and KOCCA, then founded Mateo AI Studio and set up the co-production with MBC C&I. Their earlier short Mateo won the 2024 Korea International AI Film Festival. Full production began in August 2025 and ran about nine months with a team of seven, using Kling AI tools. Raphael opened the 2nd Busan International AI Film Festival in 2025.
The piece notes fear among creators over their rights, and that technical novelty alone has not delivered box-office success for earlier AI releases. How Raphael performs after 25 November is the test of whether audiences will pay for an AI-made feature.