In three to five years, AI puts debut and veteran directors on equal footing
Zheng Zhi observes that film production has always meant an all-or-nothing gap between those with resources and those without—until AI drove live-action costs down exponentially. In the next three to five years, he predicts, a resourceless young talent and an acclaimed director will stand on equal ground; from then on, it will matter only whether you have something worth shooting.
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He stumbled into directing only after vetoing every other candidate
While writing *The Forest Within the Forest*, Zheng announced it would be his last screenplay—he planned to focus on novels instead. Over two years of pre-production, he rejected every director the producers suggested. Finally, someone asked if he simply didn't trust anyone else with his vision, and he reluctantly took the chair himself. He'd never shot even a short film before, yet went straight into a star-studded feature with Yu Hewei and Gao Yuanyuan. Everyone who saw the finished film was struck by its sophistication.
— Zheng ZhiHis most vivid memory from filming had nothing to do with the camera
Early in production, Yu Hewei flipped his electric bike while filming an oncoming-traffic scene and was hospitalized. The crew steeled for the worst—they might not be able to shoot that sequence. Yu sent a reassuring message saying he'd return soon. The team flew to Hainan to wait anyway, and one night the three creators got trapped in pitch darkness at the base of Wuzhi Mountains nature reserve. They spent nearly ten minutes watching fireflies in absolute black. That moment—not a single frame of footage—remains Zheng's most indelible memory from the entire shoot.
— Zheng ZhiThe hardest lesson a first-time director learns is how much to cut
The rough cut ran nearly four hours—originally more of a micro-historical epic. But theaters and the market wouldn't accept the length. Cutting from four hours to two and a half went smoothly; after that, every cut meant scraping away two or three minutes at a time. The final cut landed just under two hours. Zheng admits this reflects raw inexperience: you can write a hundred scenes, but a debut director has no instinct for how long each should play. This math—deciding what to cut—proved harder than the shooting itself.
— Zheng ZhiAI fundamentally changes who can afford to direct a feature film
Zheng argues that film budgets have always created a binary divide: you have resources or you don't. But once AI drives production costs down exponentially, the coming three to five years will see a penniless young talent and an established veteran standing on level ground. Then the playing field shifts from 'who can mobilize what resources' to 'who actually has something worth shooting.' This is technological equity, not mere cost reduction.
The age of art forms that unite an entire nation is over
Zheng's generation of Northeast writers—called the ‘三杰’, or three peaks of the Northeast renaissance—would have achieved vastly different fame if born two decades earlier, during the avant-garde literary boom. Luo Yonghao ran several deep dives on this using AI, and every major model reached the same conclusion: mass art forms will likely never emerge again. Audiences will only fragment further across niche interests. It's not a bad thing, but it does mean the experience of a whole country debating a single work may be permanently gone.
— Luo YonghaoHis heavy use of dialect was a calculated marketing move, not authenticity
Zheng admits his early work leaned heavily on Northeast dialect—a deliberate stylistic hook, the kind successful writers of Liu Zhenyun's and Wang Shuo's generation also wielded when starting out. He gives a telling example: he was the editor of the Hong Kong edition of Moyan's *Red Sorghum*, published after the Nobel Prize win. The edition contains at least fifty typos—all because Shandong dialect words failed to convert from simplified to traditional Chinese, and even a Shandong-native copyeditor couldn't decipher them. His new novel does the opposite: he's nearly abandoned dialect entirely.
— Zheng ZhiHe got published through a crush his roommate had on the same girl
At 19, while cramming for the college entrance exam, Zheng finished his first novel. A Hong Kong roommate—who'd grown close to him over a mutual crush on the same woman—took the manuscript to Beijing to show his father. The father gave it a score of 85 and recommended he submit it. Zheng printed it out, walked into Writers' Publishing House, and pitched himself to an acquisitions editor for nearly an hour straight. The editor didn't refuse on the spot. Months later came an email: the manuscript had ‘a chance’ of being published. Zheng had expected the classic story of dozens of rejections before acceptance, but it was ‘too smooth from the start’—it got published outright.
— Zheng ZhiA single thriller novel solved a financial crisis he thought might end his career
His first three serious literary works sold worse with each release. The third earned only 9,000+ yuan in royalties over two years. Zheng began to doubt the writing path was sustainable. He made a deliberate shift: ‘I just want to write a story people actually want to read.’ He wrote a mystery novel called *Swallow Whole*, serialized it online first, and ultimately sold 200,000 copies—his best-selling book ever. The royalties directly solved his financial crisis. ‘It saved me,’ he said, surprised even at himself.
— Zheng ZhiIn their own words · checked verbatim
The accident was when he was on the electric bike filming that head-on shot. The bike had a battery. He twisted the throttle—twisted it real fast.
意外就是骑倒气驴的时候 那个倒气驴有电瓶 那电瓶拍一个对冲镜头 就是他骑那个倒气驴 他拧电瓶 拧油门那玩意可快了
Zheng Zhi20:19
I always prepare for the worst. I told myself: this is bad luck, it probably won't work out, and we might not be able to shoot this sequence at all.
我总是按最差 做洗礼准备的那种 我说那就是这次运气差点 估计就是不太可能 就做好这批戏就别拍了 就拍不了了这么个准备
Zheng Zhi49:37
Sometimes when I see brilliant young novelists emerging after the golden age of the novel has passed—even though it's not really my problem—I feel a bit sad about it.
我有的时候看到小说的黄金时代过去之后 出现的优秀的年轻作家的时候 我就有一点 虽然这事跟我没关系 我就有点难过
Luo Yonghao1:07:49
And he also noticed: You're always catching the last bus—forever just barely making it. There's something deeply unsettling about that pattern.
而且他总结了 他说正直你老是 搭末班车 追末班车 对这个特别让人揪心
Luo Yonghao1:11:51
The one thing I feel bad about is that *Red Sorghum* probably contains more typos than any other book in Moyan's entire career.
我说这么个趣事 我特别对不起的一点是 那本书很可能是 莫言职业生涯中 错别字最多的一本书
Zheng Zhi1:40:01
This novel made money and solved my financial crisis, which opened up everything that followed. So it's everything to me. Everything. It saved me.
这本书挣了钱了 解决了我的生机问题 然后打开了一个局面 所以这本小说对我个人而言 很重要 很重要 救了我
Zheng Zhi2:25:21
I counted: three years had passed. I hadn't written a single word—or everything I'd written was garbage. I cried about it in the middle of the night.
我一数 三年过去了 我一个字没写出来 或者是写的东西都废了 就半夜哭过
Zheng Zhi2:35:27
Figures
| Swallow Whole sales | 200,000 copies | 2:24:21 |
| The Hedgehog filming days | 94 days | 56:37 |
| Zheng Zhi's high school class average college entrance exam score | 609 | 1:53:09 |
| University of Hong Kong annual tuition and living costs | 100,000 Hong Kong dollars | 1:56:10 |
| The Forest Within the Forest rough cut duration | nearly 4 hours | 21:19 |
| The Forest Within the Forest final cut duration | under 2 hours | 46:32 |
| I Only Care About You royalties over 2 years | 9,000+ yuan | 2:06:15 |
Glossary
- Anonymous Writers Program
- A 2018 literary competition initiated by Zhang Yueyue and Zhou Jianing where entries are published under code numbers rather than names, then open to public critique.
- Ten-Thousand-Mu Reforestation Scheme
- A large-scale investment fraud in Liaoning's history, disguised as a tree-planting initiative, later exposed as a swindle.
How to listen
Film critics and writers drawn to Northeast Chinese culture and the debut directing experience; also industry professionals tracking how AI is transforming film and television production costs.
Casting anecdotes (27:23–38:30) consist mostly of gossip with low information value; safe to skip if short on time.