iQIYI Premieres “Mystic Tales: The Spider Lady’s Vendetta”, Bringing China’s Supernatural Folklore to Life Through AIGC

BEIJING, July 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — On July 23, iQIYI, China’s leading online entertainment platform, exclusively premiered “Mystic Tales: The Spider Lady’s Vendetta” on iQIYI and iQIYI International, making it China’s first AIGC internet feature film released under an Internet Drama and Film Distribution License. Co-produced by Beijing Dream Big Innovation Technology Co., Ltd. and iQIYI, the film runs for more than 60 minutes and was created using AI tools throughout the entire production process, marking a notable milestone in the commercial viability of long-form AIGC filmmaking.

A Story Rooted in Chinese Mythology

“Mystic Tales: The Spider Lady’s Vendetta” opens the “Mystic Tales Trilogy”, an AI-generated film series drawing on the rich tradition of classical Chinese mythology. The story follows a paper master with no memory of her past, who ventures with a mysterious figure into a hidden realm between the living and spirit worlds, hunting three mystical objects that hold the truth she has lost. As the truth slowly surfaces, the film unfolds as a story of obsession, redemption, and the complexity of human nature, rendered through a distinctly Eastern gothic aesthetic.

An End-to-End AI Production Pipeline

“Mystic Tales: The Spider Lady’s Vendetta” was built by a team of over 20, using a full AIGC pipeline spanning creative development, prompt engineering, visual asset generation, AI-assisted redrawing, 4K output, and post-production. New roles – including AI asset effects artists and prompt engineers – worked alongside directors and screenwriters, reflecting a new model for professional film production.

Throughout the creative process, human imagination and artistic judgment remain irreplaceable at its core. Drawing from classical Chinese mythology, the team developed more than 200 character and visual asset designs, with lead characters undergoing more than 10 rounds of exploration. “AIGC’s capacity for rapid iteration allowed us to continuously test different visual directions and validate concepts in a compressed timeframe, pushing our creative expression and visual presentation further with every pass,” said AI Director Haiyang LIU.

The real value of AIGC lies in helping creators move beyond the limits of traditional film production, bringing imagination to life faster and more efficiently than ever before. But it does not lower the bar – it demands that creators command a composite skill set spanning art, lighting, performance, and technology, said Director Xiangcheng ZENG. Chief Producer Cheng JIANG added that advancing model capabilities are steadily resolving the field’s hardest problems – from scene detail and complex spatial staging to character performance and consistency – pointing to deeper collaboration between human creativity and AI on the horizon.

iQIYI’s Expanding Commitment to AI-Powered Content

“Mystic Tales: The Spider Lady’s Vendetta” is the latest milestone in iQIYI’s growing commitment to AI-driven filmmaking. The platform’s “Peter Pau x iQIYI AI Theater“, which launched in 2025, marked an early foray into short-form AI-Generated content. This year, iQIYI deepened its support for AIGC creators with expanded technical and platform services and introduced a time-limited 20% additional revenue-sharing bonus for qualified AI content.

With this premiere, AIGC filmmaking crosses from proof-of-concept into commercial reality. iQIYI aims to continue developing its AI content ecosystem, widening the creative and commercial opportunities available to filmmakers, and bringing audiences a new generation of imaginative storytelling.

CONTACT: iQIYI Press, press@qiyi.com 

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SOURCE iQIYI Inc.