Hong Kong A new Chinese genre is gaining popularity in the United States by moving in the opposite direction from American television programs, which are producing fewer and longer episodes.
Minidramas, often referred to as microdramas or vertical dramas, are soap operas that are shortened to one or two minutes per episode.
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Similar to a telenovela, each episode is divided into dozens of chapters, each lasting roughly two minutes and featuring all the typical soap opera tropes, such as corny romance, excessive drama, and a lot of cliffhangers.
In a video interview with NBC News, California-based retail business owner Jacarius Murphy said, “The revenge ones—oh, my God, they’re so good.”
Murphy like the romantic, vengeful, and fantastical elements of duanjuin Chinese minidramas. Rich characters, such a billionaire leading a double life or a top executive who is actually a vampire, are frequently portrayed by American actors in these stories.
According to Anina Net, a Los Angeles-based American actress who has spent the last four years working on minidramas, people desire this quick dopamine boost and may eat it as a snack while they wait.
Production companies have capitalized on the popularity of TikTok-style, short-form, vertically produced video content in China, where the genre first emerged. According to a March estimate by the state-owned China Netcasting Services Association, roughly half of China’s 1.4 billion citizens watch dramas in this format.
Last year, the business brought in $6.9 billion, which was more than all of China’s box office receipts.
According to Shanghai-based minidrama producer Kaidi Dai, the shows are still somewhat genre-limited, primarily romance-focused, and feature modern locations and lovely, controlling CEO clichés.
Now that the Chinese market has been sorted out, the same companies are moving into the U.S., where minidramas are becoming popular a few years after Quibi, a short-lived, short-form mobile streaming service, failed. The series may be found on websites like ReelShort, DramaBox, and GoodShort, which provide subscriptions, in-app purchases, and free episodes.
Minidramas can generate millions of dollars in income through a mix of user purchases and advertising, and they are significantly less expensive to produce than traditional TV shows. However, some adjustments are necessary to adapt them to the U.S. market, according to Chinese filmmaker Gao Feng, whose real name is Frank Tian, and who runs a minidrama production firm in New York.
His company engaged longstanding U.S. residents to create storylines that would appeal to American audiences instead of replicating Chinese entertainment.
In an interview, he stated, “I think that scripts determine 65-70% of a project’s success.” We should investigate other genres in addition to werewolves, CEO romances, and hidden identities.
Even though a lot of short dramas have been adapted from popular Chinese tales, he continued, a platform will have serious difficulties if it is unable to innovate consistently.
The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband, which focuses on a woman whose husband is wealthier than he seems, is one of the most watched television programs. In 2023, the Chinese-backed minidrama platform ReelShort, based in California, released all 60 episodes in less than 70 minutes.
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One IMDb review of the show, which as of Friday had received over 485 million views on ReelShort, says, “Hilariously bad, oddly addictive.”
In the entertainment section of Apple’s U.S. app store, the Chinese-backed short-video app has been in competition with TikTok as the most popular product.
In an interview, Yan Min, who assisted in planning an industry conference in China last year, stated that the appeal of short dramas has been firmly established by the short films on TikTok.
According to Min, ReelShort and other businesses were using TikTok and YouTube to advertise in order to draw in new customers and satisfy the changing watching preferences of younger generations, who have grown up with these platforms and are used to short, interesting material.
The movement has caught the attention of American entertainment companies. Disney announced last month that it was investing in DramaBox through its accelerator program, while Netflix announced in May that it was launching a vertical feed composed of snippets from its television series and films.
Even while American performers are increasingly being used in minidramas aimed at American audiences, for added realism, they frequently film in picturesque Chinese locales like the coastal city of Qingdao, which features Western-style homes and architecture.
We look for screenwriters and actors who were born and raised in the United States and who have an innately American aesthetic. Next, we add some Chinese aspects, said Ann An, a freelance producer based in Beijing who has worked on a number of minidramas aimed for international audiences.
Due to companies’ efforts to keep prices down, turnaround times in the business are extremely quick. According to An, a show with a budget of less than $70,000 may wrap up production in ten days.
Cliffhangers, however, are the main factor that makes minidramas successful since they entice viewers to keep paying for the next episode.
According to London-based minidrama director Apple Yang, the screenwriters are quite good at putting these cliffhangers in the right places.
According to Ying Zhu, a lecturer at Hong Kong Baptist University’s Academy of Film, it helps explain why minidramas are so popular even though their overall quality is occasionally lacking.
Make the conversation less robotic and more genuine. Zhu advised being humorous when feasible and scathing when necessary. If done well, one minute may convey a lot of information.
