EBS to broadcast 13 AI dramas, including Spring, Spring and Camellia Flowers

EBS will present the new program ‘EBS AI Literature Hall’, which reinterprets Korean classical and modern literature using generative AI, starting this October 16.

‘EBS AI Literature Hall’ is a program that introduces stories and characters from familiar Korean literature through new dramas using generative AI. A total of 13 dramas will be produced and broadcast based on 11 Korean literary works, including Kim You-jung's ‘Spring, Spring’ and ‘Camellia Flowers’, Hyeon Jin-geon's ‘Inspector B and the Love Letter’ and ‘Hometown’, and Lee Hyo-seok's ‘Blade of Grass’.

While preserving the stories and emotions of the original works, the program reinterprets Korean literature through modern visual grammar by adding new spaces, characters, and visual expressions.

Rather than simply reproducing the original works, it attempts various methods of reinterpretation, such as dramatizing the original narratives more dramatically depending on the work, moving them to new spaces, or having characters from different literary works meet within a single story.

The works were selected focusing on Korean literature that has been consistently covered in educational settings, such as works included in textbooks and those linked to the CSAT, and were filmed after consulting with relevant experts.

Kim You-jung ‘Spring, Spring’, Hyeon Jin-geon ‘Inspector B and the Love Letter’

Born as AI-based creative dramas

In the first broadcast on the 16th, the AI-based creative drama ‘The Gullible Man's Spring’, based on Kim You-jung's short story ‘Spring, Spring’, will be presented. Centered on the story of a man who, despite being promised marriage, struggles to achieve his goal, the original's unique humor and wit are unfolded in a more dramatic drama format. It vividly depicts the relationship between the male and female protagonists surrounding marriage and the pleasant situations that occur in the process, delivering the fun of the original with a new visual sense.

As the second work, ‘Secret’, based on Hyeon Jin-geon's short story ‘Inspector B and the Love Letter’, will be broadcast. While maintaining the main story and character relationships of the original, instead of realistically reproducing the era and space of that time, the story was newly composed by moving it to a unique space that seems to lie on the boundary between reality and unreality. Through the direction of characters and spaces with a cold and restrained atmosphere, the inner self that Inspector B is hiding and the strange and ironic emotions of the original are visually expressed. In particular, by utilizing generative AI, a unique space and atmosphere where reality and imagination intersect were implemented, allowing the familiar work to be experienced with new images and senses.

Next, ‘So Close, Yet Out of Reach’, based on Lee Hyo-seok's ‘Blade of Grass’, and ‘Where Are You From?’, based on Hyeon Jin-geon's ‘Hometown’, are scheduled to be presented.

‘So Close, Yet Out of Reach’ is a work that unfolds the diverging emotions and relationships of characters under the constraints of the era, set in the 1930s when even love was not free. Through generative AI, the spaces and atmosphere of the time were reconstructed to newly implement the characters and emotions of the novel in today's visual language.

‘Where Are You From?’ reconstructs the landscapes of poverty, wandering, and loss experienced by the people of Joseon during the Japanese colonial period through AI animation.

In addition, works spanning modern literature and classics such as Kim You-jung's ‘Camellia Flowers’, Lee Hyo-seok's ‘When the Buckwheat Flowers Bloom’, Hyeon Jin-geon's ‘A Society That Encourages Drinking’, Jo Wi-han's ‘The Tale of Choe Cheok’, Kang Gyeong-ae's ‘Salt’, Choe Seo-hae's ‘The Escape’, and the anonymous ‘The Quarrel of the Seven Friends of the Women's Quarters’ will be presented. Each work attempts a new visualization of Korean literature in different ways.

A single director from planning to video completion

Meeting Korean literature anew through generative AI

‘EBS AI Literature Hall’ is produced in a form that expands the production method presented in the 2025 first-of-its-kind generative AI single-person production pilot ‘EBS AI Short Drama Theater’ into a regular program. For each work, one director takes the lead and directs the entire production from planning to video completion.

It showcases a production method that utilizes generative AI as a creative tool to implement characters, spaces, and scenes, expanding the director's imagination into video. By combining the expertise and creative experience accumulated in existing broadcast production with generative AI technology, it expands the expressive range of creators and presents possibilities for new visual expression.

The four directors who directed and produced the program, Jeong Yeong-jae, Choe Ji-yeong, Gu Tae-rim, and Kim Jin-ho, stated, "We hope it becomes an opportunity for teenagers to understand Korean literature more familiarly, and for the middle-aged and elderly to meet familiar literary works again through the fun of new videos and dramas."

Consisting of a total of 13 episodes, ‘EBS AI Literature Hall’ will be broadcast every Friday at 1:55 PM on EBS 1TV from Friday, October 16, 2026, to Friday, January 8, 2027. After the broadcast, it can be rewatched on the EBS website (www.ebs.co.kr).

Read the original (Korean)