Film

Award-winning AI Films & Original Stories

Sunflowers — Directed by Yong Jik Lee

Sunflowers

2025 | 7’38” | 4K | Color | Korean & English Subtitles

Written & Directed by Yong Jik Lee

  • Best AI Winner (2026), 17th New Media Film Festival® Los Angeles, USA
  • Best AI Film Nominee Cannes World Film Festival

The film explores the intersection of history, memory, and future ethics through a unique fusion of storytelling and emerging technology. Inspired by forgotten chapters of the past, it reimagines human struggles and institutional failures while asking how we might design a more responsible future. The narrative connects historical events with speculative visions, inviting audiences to reflect on dignity, resilience, and the evolving relationship between humanity and technology.

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Director’s Statement

For over two decades, I have trained young creators in 3D and digital art through vocational education. Yet within me remained a quiet yearning — to express my view of the world through my own lens.

Cinema became the language I longed for, but the barriers of capital and system rarely allowed an individual voice to emerge freely. The rise of AI technology cracked those walls, and through that narrow opening I found a ray of light.

Sunflowers grew from this intersection — a story about how history, memory, and future ethics collide when humanity faces systems of exploitation and technological displacement. Through a hybrid pipeline blending AI imagery with traditional craft, the film asks how we might remember the past while imagining more responsible futures.

Sunflowers marks my first step onto the international stage — a testament to an era where technology once again liberates human imagination.

Sunflowers still — bus on a foggy city street at night
Sunflowers still — boy in red sweater at night
Sunflowers still — figure in water under the moon
Sunflowers still — industrial corridor with glowing chambers
Sunflowers still — scientist with sunflower DNA helix
Sunflowers still — tractor in sunflower field at night
Sunflowers still — robots working in a laboratory hall
Synopsis

In 2045, the rise of AI beyond human intelligence has made human labor unnecessary, turning countless people into a surplus population. In search of survival, many desperately look for new forms of work. At that time, John Magnus, the CEO of Sunflower Corporation—a company producing future food made from sunflower seeds—announces large-scale job openings on his farms. However, behind Magnus’s offer lies a hidden motive: to exploit people for his own greed. One day, Logan, a 10-year-old boy, finds a Sunflower Company advertisement and excitedly tells his father about the opportunity. Filled with hope, Logan, his father, and many others board the bus bound for the Sunflower farms—believing they are heading toward a new beginning.

Theme & Vision

The film explores the intersection of history, memory, and future ethics through a unique fusion of storytelling and emerging technology. Inspired by forgotten chapters of the past, it reimagines human struggles and institutional failures while asking how we might design a more responsible future. The narrative connects historical events with speculative visions, inviting audiences to reflect on dignity, resilience, and the evolving relationship between humanity and technology.

Historical Inspiration

The film was partly inspired by the testimony of Hideo Shimizu, a former member of Japan’s Unit 731, whose account of wartime human experimentation continues to raise urgent questions about memory, responsibility, and the ethical limits of science and power.

Production Notes

Technically, the work is created through a hybrid production pipeline. Approximately 60–70% of the imagery was generated using AI, combined with traditional 3D modeling, digital compositing, and precise editing. AI was not employed as a replacement for creativity, but as a collaborator—expanding visual language and enabling experimental approaches that traditional methods alone could not achieve. Human artistic direction remained central throughout, guiding AI outputs toward a cohesive and emotionally resonant vision.