《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, the 4K version of "Scented Soul Girl" restored by iQiyi was screened in Beijing at the just-opened 13th Beijing International Film Festival“ restored classic” unit made its debut.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 given new life 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.

Restoration of old films is a familiar topic. The Restoration Classics section of the Beijing Film Festival is very popular every year. This year, the 11 4K restoration films in the Restoration Classics section of the Beijing International Film Festival aroused great excitement.Great attention, in addition to - Fragrant Soul Girl -, there are also - Sad City - Rouge Button - Hen in the Wind - Fellows - Pulling Teeth from the Tiger's Mouth -Tess《》Chocolate《》Blood《》Twin Peaks: Fire Walking《》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, thisIt was a race against time and the rescue process was time-consuming and labor-intensive, which 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 such as mildew, contamination, discoloration and perforation shrinkage. Repeated screenings can also cause scratches and flickers on the screen., frame loss and other damage.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 and 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 the ability to endure loneliness and possess 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 Streets" and "Eight Thousand Miles of Road to Clouds and Moons".A staff member of the Italian company revealed the difficulties to reporters: “The sound condition of the original copy was very bad, and sometimes it was even difficult to hear the dialogue inside.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 film, 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 “ redClassic” 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 teamed up with film technology restoration companies such as Xi Film Group and Jiangsu Huaxia to begin manual restoration of classic films, and launched the Global Classic Copy Restoration Plan with New Faction Culture Media. The resolution of restored films can reach 4K, and some filmsAchieving Dolby Vision picture quality with more delicate light, shadow and color. The first phase will take four to five years to rescue copies of old Chinese classic movies by searching for copies around the world and repairing three to four copies per year.and restoration, and take the restored version of the film to world-renowned 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 restored 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 generateDigital 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 correction, etc.At the same time, we must communicate with the film's creator and restore the film according to the creator's ideas. At the same time, we will also make secondary creations according to the director's intention during restoration to make up for the technical limitations of the past when supplies were scarce and make up for the regrets left by the director during filming.

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“ and ensure high-quality restoration of the picture..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 movie restorations reach 4K high-definition quality, and 14 old movies reach up to “ Frame Picture MAX” standard.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 is blue, but the real colorIt 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."There is also the heroine Lan Fen in the film. When she joined the underground revolutionary work, her face was brighter. But in the later period, after Li Xia was arrested, her life was much harder. At this time, the color of her lipstick became very light, so, the lipstick color number“ 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.Such ”training“ will allow the AI ​​to learn some of the essence of ”repairing old images as before, which is the “secret” used by most restorers to deal 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 "Fragrance 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.