Youku has brought back Love O2O, a Chinese romance that once dominated streaming, under the new title A Smile Is All It Takes, using AI face-swapping to replace its original female lead, Indiatimes reports. The series went back online on Youku on 24 September, nearly a decade after its first run, following a filing change completed on 1 September.
Rather than reshoot, the producers put actor Wang Zhu Yue's face over Zheng Shuang's in the existing footage of the role of Bei Wei Wei, while Yang Yang's performance as Xiao Nai is left as it was. Only the female lead changes; no scenes were recast or refilmed. The relaunch also upgrades the picture to 4K.
The drama had been pulled from streaming after Zheng Shuang was caught up in controversies including a tax evasion case and was barred from the entertainment industry, taking one of the most popular series of its time offline with her.
The swap has set off wide debate among Chinese viewers about how the new version was made, and some at first assumed the heroine had been turned into an AI-generated virtual character. The new cut lets the show stream again without Zheng appearing in her original form.
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