Lee Gyu-lee is a business writer at The Korea Times, focusing primarily on IT & telecommunications, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and KOTRA. Prior to this, she has covered a wide range of cultural news, from film, television and K-pop to lifestyle and fashion.
INTERVIEW Tang Wei explores AI, emotions in heartwarming sci-fi drama 'Wonderland'
Chinese actor Tang Wei plays the role of Bai Li in the new sci-fi drama film “Wonderland.” Courtesy of Acemaker Movieworks
By Lee Gyu-lee
Chinese actor unveils relations with director-husband Kim Tae-yong
Chinese actor Tang Wei shared that her latest film “Wonderland,” about a fictional artificial intelligence (AI) service that recreates deceased people, reflects the warmhearted lifestyle of its director and her husband of 10 years, Kim Tae-yong.
Actor Tang Wei / Courtesy of Acemaker Movieworks
“I like movies that deeply provoke my thoughts. And I think this movie will draw various reactions from the audience. Before filming ‘Wonderland,’ I used to think that evolving AI technology was a bit scary,” the actor said during an interview with The Korea Times at a cafe in Jongno District, central Seoul, Monday.
“The movies about AI that we've been seeing so far tend to be dark, violent and somewhat frightening, but ‘Wonderland’ is different in that it's heartwarming. It directly reflects the sincerity, warmth and hope that director Kim Tae-yong has in his life.”
The new sci-fi drama film, set to hit the local theaters Wednesday, revolves around an AI platform service called Wonderland, which allows people to video chat with a virtually created version of a deceased person. To reunite with their loved ones, a young flight attendant Jeong-in (Bae Suzy) and a Chinese single mom Bai Li (Tang) request the service to communicate with them through video calls.
Bai Li requests to create an AI version of herself to hide her death from her young daughter, making her daughter believe that she is on an archaeological expedition abroad.
Tang has most of her scenes talking through a video call to her daughter and her older mother, who is skeptical about the service and stays aloof from the AI version.
“I mostly had to act alone, imagining against a jade-colored background (for graphics) while looking at my phone. The AI version of Bai Li doesn’t have flaws like a real-life person and doesn’t have emotions, so expressing it was very challenging,” she said.
“But since it was a type of acting I hadn't done before, it was also quite fun … I approached the role thinking that, when she transitioned from the real-life Bai Li to Wonderland’s AI version, there would be no sadness or regret, but only a perfectly positive demeanor.”
A scene from the film “Wonderland” / Courtesy of Acemaker Movieworks
The actor has seen the making of the film from its early development to production, alongside her husband who scripted and directed the film. The director-actor couple married in 2014 after working together on the 2010 film “Late Autumn” and welcomed their daughter in 2016.
“I actually had a lot of discussions with director Kim from the phase of developing its script. In the script, there is a role of a mother. And since my husband and I are both working, we have little time to spend with our daughter. So we would often communicate through video calls at times. He was trying to give our daughter of her mom and dad's presence from a young age, which led him to come up with the plot.”
The film not only explores Bai Li’s relationship with her young daughter but also captures her trying to be a better mother figure than when she was alive. Tang expressed that playing a mother character after having a child felt different.
“This time, playing a mother from the perspective of an actual mother made me realize that my previous acting was not very genuine. When I was working with the child actor, I approached it more cautiously with the mindset to protect the child,” she said.
“I also felt that my acting has reached a new level. I believe that an honest lifestyle is most important as an actor since acting is honed through daily life. As life goes on, we become wiser, more generous and more understanding, which changes my acting too. I think I've been able to grow step by step thanks to the directors who have been able to draw out that inner self of me.”