Hit 2016 Romance C-drama Love O2O with Yang Yang and Zheng Shuang Gets Re-released by Youku Streaming 10 Years Later with Female Lead Ai Face-swapped with Actress Wang Zhu Yue
Money must be tight in the C-ent streaming world lol, because this is just wild if not all that surprising. This week streaming platform Youku quietly re-uploaded all episodes of its hit 2016 romance C-drama Love O2O that starred Yang Yang and Zheng Shuang in then breakout roles, but this version has the female lead AI face swapped with rising actress Wang Zhu Yue along with a slightly different Chinese title. It was called 微微一笑很倾城 (Wei Wei Yi Xiao Hen Qing Cheng) but is now simply titled 一笑倾城 (Yi Xiao Qing Cheng). All of Zheng Shuang’s dramas were pulled in 2021 she got into successive scandals with tax evasion and having babies via surrogacy in the US. But this was one of her biggest hits and also Yang Yang so it looks like Youku wanted to spend a little bit of money on the AI face swap to get the drama back onto domestic streaming and hopefully continue to make money. The drama was only pulled in domestic Mainland streaming so international viewers have continued to be able to watch it along with Zheng Shuang’s other works, so I’m not sure the domestic audience has appetite to re-watch a now quite dated drama with AI face swap technology clearly noticeable.
They’re probably doing this cuz they’re running short on investment to fund new projects. They are also testing the waters. Honestly, an AI face-swap is going to look so ridiculous on a hit drama like Love O2O! 😂
Youku is doing great financially, surprisingly well ever since mid 2025.
“Chinese e-commerce and entertainment giant Alibaba has taken a $1.2 billion goodwill impairment charge against its video-streaming operation Youku. The move was disclosed on Wednesday as Alibaba revealed its financial results for the October to December 2023 period, the third quarter of its current financial year.” – IMDB, 2024
The financial reports before 2025 disclosed losses from YouKu that the mother company Alibaba had to write off.
” In the quarter ending March 31, 2025, Alibaba reported that its Digital Media and Entertainment Group (which includes Youku) saw revenue rise 12% year-over-year to RMB 5,554 million ($765 million). Crucially, the segment’s adjusted EBITA turned positive, a milestone driven directly by Youku reaching individual profitability.” – Yahoo Finance
While Youku is performing better in 2025, that does not mean they are free from investment challenges. In corporate finance, reversing prior losses and securing targeted investments are two entirely different dynamics.
Youku is doing more than fine financially. Bringing in reports from before the period I mentioned shows absolutely – nothing.
That’s the whole point, Youku’s turn of financial standing is a well known and discussed topic.
You brought up nonsense that they are doing this because they need money. They don’t. Especially not from an old drama that was restored more because of its status than anything else.
Oh well, by that logic, you’ve proved nothing either based on a single year. You can’t just dismiss the health of the entire Chinese showbiz industry, which Youku is definitely a part of. lol. I don’t know why you insist that Youku is doing great financially just because of a single year of improvement. A single year of growth is not definitive evidence of long-term financial health.
This is wild LOL.
AI is weird. But then it’s not like the OG FL had any expression. So we probably won’t notice the change lol
Must they be so petty. This has to be the most ridiculous thing ever lol 😂 old fans might have a good laugh but those who have never seen the original is what I would be most curious if they notice or not? Weird and as far as I know most dramas with ai face swap so far have not turned out successful. Because it sticks out like a sore thumb. 🤦🏻♀️ will be interesting to see when they do actual ai characters instead of human 🙄. my mom has this odd obsession of watching AI short dramas that are so silly and to the point so robotic and fake that it just cracks me up. Will they or won’t they succeed in their Ai endeavors? 🤷🏻♀️
Define successful. Pursuit of Jade had an AI face swap, as did Legend of the Female General, Love Has Fireworks and other dramas. But most of them have not been a main lead. I think Love Never Fails is the only one, which replaced the FL Yuan Bingyan. But Night Wanderer and The Golden Hairpin are waiting to air, and both have replaced the ML.
I think just airing, and attempting to recoup production costs, probably counts as a success for some of these dramas.
Just airing and recouping yes but the first ai female lead swap just kind of flopped in reception probably due to bad script and overall story. I just still think swapping face now is silly for this specific drama. What’s done is done must they swap now? Or is airing somehow giving her a paycheck they don’t want to send her way like residuals or something? So far minor characters have been scrubbed fine but if it’s the leads where focus is due I believe that one brocade drama that seven tian was in not long ago got critiqued for the male main lead villain role being replaced because it was distracting and unnatural looking. It just seems weird. It still takes away from a natural way of the overall production. Those three success you speak of had such a large ensemble though of actors that if it’s a minor character it’s like whatever though. I guess it is a matter of time and practice of how they implement Ai and whether they can get it just right to where not a soul would notice. Like when movies use too much cgi or special effects till it looks like a Pixar animation or a game story video instead of realistic. Or even robotic looking. That is how I have viewed most Ai content I have seen in general not referring to whatever is to come for
Dramas now though.
I agree with Rero. Is the money made from airing a 10 year old contemporary drama with a face-swapped FL going to be good enough to make it worth the cost of face-swapping? Love O2O was a success at the time and for a few years after, but it hasn’t aged as well as other big hits from that era of cdramas.
I guess I should finally watch Ashes of Love from my to-watch list before they face-swap Deng Lun.
Ridiculous.
Wtfffff
Perhaps it’s an experiment? One that doesn’t cost a huge investment I’m assuming. At least guaranteed certain audiences – the curious, loyal fans, the unaware. Maybe it gives them an opportunity to advance AI technology. They’ll find out how having a mainlead AI’d goes down with the view to releasing more.
I watched a few episodes of the original and very recent watched about half an hour of the Jin Boran film and yes, I’m curious and would at least start to watch, just to see how it is.