Summary
Mango TV and Hunan Satellite TV released the second chapter of The Later Journey to the West on October 4, five months after the project was conceived. Director Li Dongshen says more than 100 people built the AI-generated long-form series through a frame-first workflow, including over 30 artists, more than 60 generation operators and an engineering team. Mango says each episode costs about 900,000 yuan and that its workflow can cut costs to one-eighth or one-tenth of comparable premium historical drama, while shortening a 30-episode production cycle by 70%. The company also disclosed 3.2 billion Mango TV views for the new chapter, although these platform and efficiency figures are not independently verified.
Hana’s perspective
I find the production method more consequential than the stock-market reaction. The team is treating a long series as both a show and a test bench: artists define composition and character logic, operators generate shots, and engineers adjust tools when faces, tails or lip-sync fail. That is closer to a new studio pipeline than one-click filmmaking. The reported savings are company claims, and emotional continuity still breaks across shots. The real test is whether this process can sustain coherent characters and audience interest across a full season, not whether one launch moved a share price.
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