All Except the Cast Are AI… A Shocking CJ Film ‘Apartment’ With a 500 Million Won Production Budget

The Boundary Between Live-Action and AI Breaks Down… The Shocking Debut of Korea-Style Occult Thriller ‘Apartment’

A Co-Production of ‘CJ ENM’ and ‘Google’ Creates a Chilling ‘Occult Thriller’

Unveiled on the 30th at Seoul’s CGV Yongsan iPark Mall, ‘Apartment’ filled the theater with viewers’ gasps and screams. The eerie storyline of Yumi, the protagonist who sees the souls of the dead, delivers overwhelming tension.

‘Occult films’ were hard for even audiences with no tolerance to look away again and again. On the 30th, at Seoul’s CGV Yongsan iPark Mall, ‘Apartment’ was packed with the chilling atmosphere the film exuded and the audience’s bursts of reaction.

‘CJ ENM’ and ‘Google’ joined hands to present ‘Apartment’, a Korea-style ‘occult thriller’ depicting the strange incidents that befall Yumi—the protagonist who sees the souls of the dead—in a new apartment. The work will be unveiled immediately next month on the online video service (OTT) ‘TVING’.

Ahead of the press event, the screening reveal showed the astonishing results created by combining live-action filming and AI technology. The performances by actual actors were rendered so vividly that it was difficult to tell them apart from a live-action film.

A Visual Revolution for the ‘AI Hybrid Film’ That Blurs the Line Between Reality and Fantasy

From the subtlest emotional nuances of the characters to even the eerie creatures, the ‘visual effects’ realized by AI feel as natural as live-action. While some ‘uncanny’ moments do exist, the overall assessment is that it introduced a new paradigm for cinematography.

The Upsides and Downsides of the ‘AI Technology’ Displayed Amid Overwhelming Immersion

The facial expressions and voices that capture the characters’ delicate changes are perfectly connected to reality. The protagonist waking from a nightmare and being startled to the point of disbelief, or the mother’s emotional arc as she loses a child and breaks down in tears, gives viewers deep immersion.

Above all, the astonishing point is that the backgrounds, lighting, and even eerie creatures (monsters) created by AI are as natural as live-action. The apartment that serves as the main stage feels like a real residential space, and the added eerie creatures are enough to maximize the unique fear factor of ‘occult’ stories.

That said, in some scenes, the limits of AI-generated images are exposed and can interrupt immersion. In a scene where a character eats food, objects appear as if randomly generated by AI rather than store-bought products, creating an awkward feeling. Even in terms of visual aesthetics, AI’s distinct ‘smooth textures’ stand out, and it can feel uncanny—like a human actor performing inside a precisely crafted animation background. Rather than focusing on the film’s own narrative or completion, attention is drawn to the technical achievement of ‘AI hybrid film’, making it difficult to fully lose yourself in the work—an aspect that is regrettable.

A Miracle for One Hour Completed for 500 Million Won… AI Ascends as a ‘Game Changer’ in the Video Industry

A production process innovation that completes a feature film at about 20% of the usual production budget. With advances in technology such as ‘OpenAI’, efficiency across the ‘entire content production process’ is expected to be maximized in earnest.

AI Rises as a ‘Game Changer’ Through Cost Reduction and Process Innovation in Production

Even so, the fact that a feature film worth an hour was completed with a mere 500 million won in production cost carries significant implications for the video industry.

‘Jeong Chang-ik’ ‘CJ ENM’ AI studio team leader said, “Under the existing production method, at least five times or more would have been spent,” adding, “When using AI, there is almost no difference in production cost between ordinary scenes—like the protagonist drinking coffee in a cafe—and spectacular scenes where massive monsters are defeated.”

In practice on-site as well, AI technology is regarded as a ‘game changer’ that changes the landscape of production processes. ‘Jeong Chang-ik’ said, “Watching shots that hadn’t been resolved for days being completed in a single day through AI technology made me feel the overwhelming efficiency.”

Actor ‘Kim Shin-yong’, who played the role of a security guard, said, “Unlike the usual chroma key filming, I could act while directly seeing the background realized in real time by AI, which made it easier to stay immersed.” He added, “I was also able to match my acting tone by checking right away special effects scenes where black blood splatters.”

As AI technology is rapidly developing—such as ‘OpenAI’ recently unveiling a new image generation model—it is expected that the visual awkwardness currently being pointed out will be overcome soon as well.

‘CJ ENM’ plans to further upgrade its AI production pipeline in earnest, using this ‘Apartment’ project as a stepping stone. ‘Baek Hyun-jeong’, in charge at ‘CJ ENM’, emphasized, “AI is an unstoppable flow of the times.” She added, “We are pushing forward work to introduce AI processes into the overall production of content—dramas, films, animation, and more—so that we can raise both business efficiency and work quality at the same time.”