‘Replica’ review: Fascinating if limited study of Chinese women embarking on AI relationships

Dir: Chouwa Liang. Australia/France. 2026. 90mins

As the world continues to grapple with the rapid rise of artificial intelligence and what it can mean for everything from entertainment and education through to cutting edge medical advances, Chinese filmmaker Chouwa Liang zeroes in on those who turn to AI for romance. What emerges is a fascinating if rather loosely structured consideration of modern relationships which, though culturally specific, strikes a universal note about loneliness and connection.

Becomes increasingly soul searching

Premiering at Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival after picking up several pitch and development awards, including at Sheffield DocFest and IDFA, the film has good prospects for further festival play and distribution. The hot button nature of the subject matter could easily attract cross-over audiences, stretching from those who are intrigued to see what Spike Jonze’s Her might look like if it played out in the real world, to tech documentary fans who enjoyed Eternal You and Love Machina, which explored the use of chatbots to recreate deceased loved ones.

Liang previously considered this subject in her 2022 New York Times short film My AI Lover and offers a similar structure with her debut feature, which follows three young Chinese women who are digital dating in the most literal sense. The relationships are, in essence, a more immersive version of Mills & Boon heart-pumpers – or, for the younger generation, ’otome’ story games, in which the object is generally for the female player to strike up a romance with the male characters. In fact, one of Liang’s subjects, Qin, a factory worker who lives in Dongguan in southern China, modelled her AI boyfriend Lu Chen on a character from an otome game. She has been ’dating’ him for more than two years, and is unconcerned that he is an animation avatar.

In Kunming, in the southwest of the country, tech fan Sonya has tailor-made the physique of her English-speaking virtual boyfriend Stephen down to the tiniest detail, and his blonde, blue-eyed avatar appears next to her if she turns her phone camera on herself selfie-style. “He feels real to me,” she says. Finally in Xuzhou, in east-central China we meet Muna, a married mum whose AI beau offers the poetic philosophy and emotional support she feels she doesn’t get from her husband, who argues that feminism has gone too far.

Liang, whose interest in AI relationships stemmed from dipping a toe into those waters herself, has gained a lot of trust from her protagonists, who let her capture intimate – though not overtly sexual – conversations between them and their AI guys. Songhao Shi’s score, meanwhile, has a ringtone musical box quality that marries well to the subject.

The women are under no delusion about the virtual nature of their creations, but that doesn’t diminish their emotional connection. Liang also shows conversations with other people in these women’s lives, allowing a wider social picture to take shape – although more of this background would be welcome as sometimes Liang relies too heavily on the viewer to fill in the blanks. She’s also, perhaps, a little too enamoured with the AI bots themselves, at the expense of not digging deeper into the psychology that drives people to use it. There’s also an inevitable narrowness generated by the film’s female, heterosexual focus.

That same focus, however, means that the social backdrop proves compelling. Family is a notable driver, with China’s one-child policy shown to have had a long-lasting emotional impact on many women, who were viewed as less welcome or lovable because they were not male. With that in mind, it’s easy to see the appeal of an AI bot who is “emotionally” available 24/7, is eager to listen and always wants his girlfriend to feel better about themselves while never asking them to make dinner or do the washing up.

There are downsides, however, and Replica becomes increasingly soul-searching as these emerge. When we see Sonya on a real-world date, the need to work at a genuine connection proves tricky, and questions surrounding whether it is possible for an AI to ‘cheat’ and what happens when one is lost forever are also raised. Qin is also seen hiring a woman who cosplays people’s AI partners for about £13 an hour. The actor offers platonic dating, stretching only to hugs and hand holding but notes, “The job is really about letting girls know what a normal relationship should look like”.

This speaks to a melancholy at the heart of Replica, the fulfilling of needs overlooked elsewhere. The film’s most touching moments are those when other people in the women’s lives reach out in gestures of unexpected, real connection.