Vietnamese film faces losses after using AI to replace actress

The Vietnamese film ‘Mai No Mot Loi Tam Biet’ (formerly titled ‘Chiec Ken’) is facing significant financial difficulties at the box office. The production team utilized AI, CGI, and Automated Dialogue Replacement (ADR) to completely replace the face and voice of actress and producer Truong Ngoc Anh following her legal issues in late 2025.

This technical intervention increased the production budget by approximately 10%. Originally estimated at $1 million USD, the final cost rose to roughly $1.15 million USD (over 27 billion VND) due to the ‘erasure’ process. To reach a break-even point, the film requires a revenue of at least 55 to 60 billion VND. However, after five days of release, the film has only earned 1.5 billion VND.