Short Film Review: One More Pumpkin (2023) by Kwon Han-si

One More Pumpkin is the first AI film we review in Asian Movie Pulse

Kwon Han-si was born in 1993 in South Korea, he graduated from Chung-Ang University with a film studies degree. His short films such as Man of Na Manza (2021) and The Bystander (2020) were awarded for the best short film at Chungmuro Short Film Fesitval. Awarded at various film festivals, he is the CEO of a production company ‘STUDIO FREEWILLUSION Inc’ in AI-generated video content. Considering this is the first time I watch and review an AI-generated movie (“One More Pumkin” utilizes AI technologies such as T2I (Text-to-Image), I2V (Image-to-Video), and AI Super-Resolution) I was really curious to see something that could be a significant part of the future.

The short begins in a rather fast pace, showing an elderly couple amidst a film with huge pumpkins, while narration states that they have lived over 200 years, despite the fact that the Messengers of Death would not have missed this news. It turns out, however, that one Messenger of Death did come to the couple’s house, but the treatment he received essentially turned him into the victim, through the help of soup.

As the couple are revealed as something completely sinister, their whole life story takes a completely different turn, which actually affects everything around them, pumpkins, crows and Messengers of Death included. Lastly, the English the voice that we heard narrating, turns out it belongs to a mother of two children who is trying to teach a lesson about the blights of greed.

Kwon Han-si and his associates have come up with a series of impressive images, that truly fit the supernatural horror aesthetics of the 3-minute short. If the humans do look somewhat artificial (pun intended) and video-game like, the SFX that lead to death, scary faces inside soups, diabolical pumpkins and a number of other horrific ‘apparitions’ look exceptionally well.One could say that, at least for now, AI is more suited to be implemented in the technical aspect of a film than in the acting, although this is definitely just the beginning.

On the other hand, the rapid pace does not allow the viewer to truly distinguish the quality of the imagery, as the frames interchange with thunderous speed. This gives an appealing sense of speed to the short, but still makes it a bit difficult to follow. The story also seems rather intriguing, and it would be interesting to see it unfolding in a bigger duration. Lastly, the narration voice is appealing, although the word pumpkin is thrown around too many times.

As a first glimpse at AI movies, “One More Pumpkin” was definitely an intriguing experience, and the ‘taste’ that the film leaves is definitely a positive one. However, there are still a lot of issues to overcome, and we will see where this new approach will lead, perhaps in its competition with 3D and CGI filmmaking.