Youku used an AI face swap to bring back a banned hit drama

Youku put a blacklisted actress's 2016 hit back on its platform on 24 September 2026 with the lead's face replaced by AI, and the replacement is the point of the release rather than a footnote to it.

The drama, "Love O2O", now streams as "A Smile Is All It Takes". The plot, the dialogue and Yang Yang's performance as the male lead are unchanged, the picture has been upgraded to 4K, and actress Wang Zhuyue's face sits over the original female lead's in every scene, according to IndiaTimes and VvipTimes. A filing change was completed on 1 September, clearing the return.

The original female lead was Zheng Shuang, whose career ended in 2021 after a tax evasion penalty and a surrogacy scandal. Chinese regulators directed that programmes featuring her not be produced or broadcast, and the drama was pulled from Youku in 2021 despite having reportedly drawn 28 billion views in total. The footage still had value even though she could no longer be shown in it, and the platform chose a face swap over reshooting the drama.

Wang Zhuyue addressed the swap on social media on 24 September, in comments reported by MyDramaList. "It is indeed a face swap that I personally authorized," she wrote, adding that she was the one responsible for the authorisation and that it had nothing to do with her company or the platform. She apologised to viewers whose memory of the character the new version does not match, and said she has moved to behind-the-scenes work. Born in November 1999 and signed to Huace, she has credits including The Rise of Ning and Les Belles.

Viewers split on the result. Complaints reported by VvipTimes and Trending on Weibo focus on the seam between the borrowed face and the original performance: expressions described as stiff, a head that does not move with the body, a slender frame carrying someone else's features. The relaunch still climbed to fifth place on Youku's in-app chart on its launch day, per IndiaTimes.

The consent side is cleaner than the craft. China's Cyberspace Administration and other agencies require platforms to label AI-generated content and to obtain consent from the people whose faces or voices are edited, and Wang Zhuyue says she gave hers. China's regulator has also acknowledged that nine of ten new Chinese micro-dramas are now made with AI, a figure reported by VvipTimes and Trending on Weibo. Chinese rules mandate explicit labels on AI-generated content, but no clear copyright rules exist for it yet, Reuters reported on 26 September in a report on China's AI video industry carried by Kyodo News, which leaves the ownership question open for a performance that now has two people in it.

What it could mean for creators is that the archive is becoming a production source. Removing a performer from finished footage used to mean reshooting, recutting or shelving the title. At current model quality it means commissioning a face, and the economics favour it whenever the underlying title still earns. The unresolved part is the one this release did not have to face: what the original performer is owed, if anything, when her enactment stays on screen and only her face is gone.

Youku has not announced the swapped version for release outside China; the original "Love O2O" remains on Netflix in selected regions.