《Scented Soul Girl》4K restored version debuted at Beijing Film Festival

Recently, there have been ongoing discussions about the debut of the 4K restored version of "Scented Soul Girl" at the Beijing Film Festival.Regarding this topic, the public is also concerned about aspects such as plot setting, actor performance, special effects production, etc.Based on these, the editor specially came to have an in-depth discussion with you and show the essence of this drama.

Directed by Xie Fei, produced by Tianjin Film Studio and Changchun Film Studio, and restored by iQiyi, the 4K version of "Scented Soul Girl" was screened in Beijing at the just-opened 13th Beijing International Film Festival - RestoredClassic - the first appearance of the unit.In recent years, thanks to the secret assistance of AI (artificial intelligence) technology, the efficiency of restoration of old films has increased by 500 times, which has also enabled more and more classic films to be freed from their aging state and rejuvenated on the screen..

AI repair has many advantages

The movie - Xianghun Girl - is directed by Xie Fei, a leading figure of the fourth generation, starring Wu Yujuan and Siqin Gaowa. It is adapted from Zhou Daxin's novel - The Fragrance Oil Shop by Xianghun Pond - and tells the story of Xiang Ersao and Huanhuan.The tragic fate of two generations of Chinese rural women.In 1993, "Scented Soul Girl" won the Golden Bear Award for Best Film at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival.

This film was exclusively restored by the iQiyi-Xiamen University Film Restoration Joint Laboratory. After nearly 8 months of polishing, nearly 150,000 frames were refined frame by frame through iQiyi’s independently developed Zoom AI intelligent restoration technology.Only then did it finally realize its transformation and meet the audience again on the big screen with a new look of 4K resolution.

“The restoration of old films is a familiar topic. Every year, the "Restored Classics" section of the Beijing Film Festival is very popular. This year, 11 4K restored films were screened in the "Restored Classics" section of the Beijing International Film Festival.The film has aroused great attention. In addition to - Fragrant Soul Girl -, there are also - Sad City - Rouge Button - Hen in the Wind - The Fellows 《Tooth extraction》《Tess》《Chocolate》《Blood》《Twin Peaks: Walking with Fire》《Poetry》.

Classic restoration allows movie fans to once again immerse themselves in the story of time. Compared with previous manual work, the addition of AI technology in recent years has allowed more old films to wake up from their slumber. However, the challenge is also very difficult.After all, this is a rescue process that is a race against time. It is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and it once deeply troubled the film industry.The AI ​​repair method will have multiple advantages in the long term: not only will the repair efficiency and repair effect be improved, but its cost advantage will also gradually become apparent.

Because movie film is very delicate, it is easy to burn or deteriorate in high temperature or humid environments. Many old films have symptoms of mildew, contamination, discoloration, and hole shrinkage. Repeated screenings also cause problemsDamage such as scratches, flickering, dropped frames, etc.According to statistics from more than 130 film materials or collection protection institutions around the world, since the birth of movies, only about 10% of the total copies have been preserved.Data from the International Federation of Film Archives shows that about three-quarters of films produced before 1914 will disappear forever.Of the 3,000 films produced in China during the Republic of China, only one tenth still has copies.

Old images require emergency rescue, but restoration is an extremely complicated process that is considered a bottomless pit of time and money.A film has about 120,000 to 150,000 frames, which often requires a restoration team of more than ten people to complete. The workload is huge and requires great patience. Sometimes, only 4-5 seconds may be repaired in a day.The basic investment in repairing film is quite large.A film scanner costs tens of millions, and various restoration software and sound equipment are also worth hundreds of thousands to millions.Moreover, restorers are also very scarce. This job requires being able to endure loneliness and possessing superb comprehensive abilities.

In the past, the restoration of old Chinese films still required foreign aid. In 2012, the well-known Italian copy restoration company Laser S. Films assisted in the restoration of the films - Cross Street - and - Eight Thousand Miles of Clouds and Moon.The staff of this Italian company revealed the difficulties to reporters: - The sound condition of the original copy was very bad, and sometimes the dialogue inside could not be heard clearly.Generally speaking, it is impossible to restore such material without re-editing it.But considering that this copy is already an 'only copy', we will do our best to save it.A team of ten people worked non-stop for 2 months, reviewing the film, cleaning the film, scanning the negative, adjusting color, repairing and editing the video and audio.When you see the comparison at the end of the film before and after restoration, you will better understand how we saved the film cultural heritage of all mankind from the hands of ruthless time, picture by picture.“

Private companies actively join the main force of film restoration

Fortunately, in recent years, in addition to the main force in image restoration such as the China Film Archive, private companies have also actively joined in, and new AI technologies are also constantly learning and improving.In 2021, the clip of "The Eternal Radio Wave" restored by the AI ​​artificial intelligence black-and-white conversion technology independently developed by the China Film Archive was stunningly unveiled at the opening ceremony of the 11th Beijing International Film Festival, triggering”Red classic – craze.The restorers spent 7 months coloring 165,000 frames of images, using a combination of traditional restoration techniques and artificial intelligence coloring technology. They first completed the physical restoration, then scanned it in 4K, and restored it digitally in 4K.The technology removes any damage remaining on the film, and then uses artificial intelligence coloring technology to convert the black-and-white images into color images.

In 2018, iQiyi, together with film technology restoration companies such as Xi Film Group and Jiangsu Huaxia, began to manually restore classic films, and launched the Global Classic Copy Restoration Plan with New Faction Culture Media. The resolution of restored films can reach 4K.Some films have achieved Dolby Vision picture quality with more delicate light, shadow and color. The first phase will take four to five years to restore copies of classic Chinese films by searching for copies around the world at a rate of three to four copies per year.Carry out rescue and restoration, and bring the restored film to the world's leading film festivals for screening.

On October 27, 2020, Xiamen University and iQiyi established a joint film restoration laboratory to restore the classic anti-Japanese film - Xiaobing Zhang Ga.And the one that appeared at the Beijing Film Festival this time - Fragrant Soul Girl - is also a restoration work of the joint laboratory.Although there is the help of AI technology, manual steps are still indispensable. IQIYI related people said that the restoration process must first clean, dust and remove mold from the original projection film, and then use the film scanning equipment to scan frame by frame to generateFor digital files, in this process, iQiyi ZoomAI video repair technology intervenes to automatically repair scratches and jitters; the third step is - art repair -, manual intervention, such as adjusting the overexposed part of the video, manual color grading, etc.At the same time, we need to communicate with the film's creator and restore the film according to the creator's ideas. At the same time, we will also make up for the technical limitations in the past when materials were scarce during the restoration - secondary creation - according to the director's intention, and make up for the mistakes left by the director during filming.Pity.

This time, director Xie Fei was very satisfied with the restoration effect of "Scented Soul Girl". He said that the version of 4k digital restoration technology is very clean and beautiful, giving this 30-year-old movie a new life.

ZoomAI can freely combine built-in algorithm modules according to the characteristics of the repair content, such as scratch repair, super-resolution, intelligent frame insertion, color enhancement, face repair, etc., to achieve fully automatic - one-click repair - to ensure the high quality of the picture.Reduction degree.Compared with traditional frame-by-frame manual restoration, the restoration efficiency after using ZoomAI is 500 times higher than that of manual restoration, ensuring that when faced with large-scale precious image heritage that urgently needs restoration, it can be rescued and protected efficiently and at low cost.iQIYI has applied ZoomAI intelligent restoration technology to restore more than 150 classic movies, such as - Mu Guiying takes command - Tunnel War - Dongfanghong - Li Shuangshuang - etc., combined with post-production manual refinement, among which90% of the movies restored reach 4K high-definition quality, and 14 old movies reach the highest standard of Frame Qi Pictures MAX.In addition, iQiyi has also repaired and enhanced a large amount of UGC content, and completed intelligent frame insertion production for more than 20,000 popular TV series and animations.

AI technology is constantly learning

What’s interesting is that AI technology has been constantly learning in the past few years. After accepting a task, AI will tirelessly replace old ones with new ones, but it cannot appreciate some artistic details.For example, when talking about the restoration of "The Eternal Radio Wave", Wang Zheng, a film restorer at the China Film Archive, said that during the coloring process, AI technology has to go through tens of millions of pictures, and then one by oneZhang went to identify it, and finally it applied color in a weighted manner. Therefore, after the restorer finished the AI ​​coloring, he often found that the clothing of the volunteers had serious color differences - the result calculated by AI was blue, but the realThe color should be yellow-green.In order to refine this matter, we rented some costumes of the Volunteer Army from the props team at that time, and then created a large amount of data for it, and then trained the AI ​​technology.”The heroine Lan Fen in the film had a brighter face when she joined the underground revolutionary work. But in the later period, after Li Xia was arrested, her life was much harder, and her lipstick became very light at this time.Therefore, the color number of the lipstick still needs to be verified and coordinated by the restoration team based on the character's personality and destiny.

iQiyi ZoomAI is also constantly learning from its teachers. During the restoration process of old films, some senior experts provide manual guidance, and the obtained image parameters are then used by iQiyi AI algorithms for deep learning and continuous optimization.This kind of training will allow the AI ​​to learn some of the essence of repairing old images as they were before, which is the secret of most restorers in dealing with old images.

Industry insiders said that in the future, if the technology of using AI to intelligently repair videos can further mature, users will be able to use 5G to use AI technology to further enhance more originally clear media, and then reap the benefits on video websites.A better viewing experience allows more viewers to enjoy the immortal charm of old movies.

Having said so much, I believe everyone already knows that the 4K restored version of "Scented Soul Girl" has made its debut at the Beijing Film Festival. I also know the direction of the story in the future. Even if you have any doubts in the future, don't worry.The line class will continue to provide you with relevant plot analysis.