Zhang Ziqiang: Rise of the Underdog

Inspiration

For Lenovo’s 618 campaign, we wanted to tell a story that goes beyond “technology makes life easier.” Instead, we asked a harder question: Can technology change destiny? Our answer is no—technology can’t rewrite fate for you, but it can ignite the spark that makes you rewrite it. “Zhang Ziqiang’s Reversal” was inspired by this idea.Using comedy, sci-fi suspense and sharp emotional contrasts, we follow an ordinary young man whose life is suddenly hijacked by a future version of himself—propelling him into a mind-bending self-upgrade he never saw coming.

What it does

The film uses a futuristic “EchoSeed” AI device as a narrative trigger. A lazy young man receives a mysterious package sent from 2035—by himself. This encounter sets off a chain reaction of humor, action, tension, and ultimately awakening. The film shows: How technology becomes a mirror to one’s future How a “wrong delivery of fate” forces self-reflection How the protagonist chooses to sign for his own destiny A 10-year contrast reveal showcasing how far one can go after awakening

How we built it

AI Story Development: Leveraged large language models to assist with script structure, pacing control, and maintaining consistent character tone. AI Previsualization: Used image-to-video models to test scene atmosphere and camera language. AI Character Consistency: Ensured the consistency of "Zhang Ziqiang"'s appearance across different time points through a character feature library and consistency models. AI enabled us to complete a large-scale short film featuring action, sci-fi, comedy, and emotional scenes within an extremely short production cycle.

Challenges we ran into

Balancing comedy with a serious philosophical theme Keeping character identity consistent across time jumps Generating high-quality future environments and gadgets Maintaining an action-sequence logic with AI-generated materials Ensuring the narrative twist (“I sent the package myself”) remains emotional

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Crafted a 10-year transformation arc purely with AI tools Built a strong emotional narrative within a commercial context Merged sci-fi worldbuilding with real consumer scenarios Delivered a cinematic story rhythm in short-form advertising Created a highly shareable and memorable campaign character

What we learned

We learned that AI doesn’t replace creativity — it expands the storyteller’s imagination. AI allowed us to iterate faster, visualize ideas instantly, and experiment with tone, genre, and pacing. But the emotional core must still come from the creator: “The spark that changes destiny can only be ignited by a human.”

What's next for Zhang Ziqiang: Rise of the Underdog

We will continue exploring how AI filmmaking can reshape commercial storytelling— from brand worldbuilding, to AI-generated IP characters, to real-time adaptive advertising content. The goal: create stories where technology not only appears on screen, but empowers how the story itself is made.

Built With

• higgsfield
• kling
• seedream