TechnoSwimmer | Jesus Christ

A micro drama is a short movie that is one and a half hours ortwo hours in length. It can be 100 to 120 episodes of one or two minutes each. You can complete three or more micro dramas in a day.

It has a few templates, but the protagonist invariably suffers insults and abuse in the beginning. There are loyal family members and friends who stick with him / her. There are more who want to put him / her down and embarrass him. The protagonist will make a comeback at the end and put to shame all who did not believe in him / her before.

There are mostly feelgood shows. The protagonist is either a powerful person who chose to stay low profile, a rich mogul, a person who has special abilities (special vision who could identify  treasures, great healing power, can tell the future, etc.) He / she would save the life of someone important and thus begin his / her road to rebound. Or he / she is a kind hearted person who helps an old person no one else wants to help.

However, a word of caution. It can get formulaic and repetitive. And the suffering of the protagonist can get unbearable. I have stopped many a show because I cannot take the persecution the protagonist is taking. An example of this is when the protagonist is the long lost daughter of a prominent family. However, someone else pretends to be the rightful heir and took her place. This someone also tries to make life a hell for the protagonist to prevent the parents from ever finding out.

There are a few routine formulas. I will list a few here.

1. Shopping for clothes. This is one of the first thing to happen when the protagonist helps someone important. The shop keeper will insult the protagonist, thinking he is unworthy of being a customer. It will end with the protagonist buying his clothes and the shop keeper losing her job.
2. Buying house. The additional step here is a helpful sales person who is respectful of the protagonist even when he / she does not look rich. This sales person and her manager with bad attitude will be fired. The helpful sales person will be promoted to the manager.
3. “Gambling stones”. The protagonist will compete against some opponents in this gambling. Each will buy a stone. The stones will be cut to reveal what’s hidden inside. The protagonist will of course pick something much more valuable.
4. Healing a patient. The protagonist was invited to look at patient. The bad guy (who is courting the daughter or the granddaughter of the patient) brings another doctor. The doctor tries but makes it worse. The protagonist saves the life of the patient. The patient gives the hand of his daughter or granddaughter to the protagonist for marriage.
5. Auction. The bad guys bid on a fake item with a high price. The protagonist got something at a very low price. The item turned out to be something very valuable. A common plot is that there is an original drawing hidden behind a fake drawing.
6. A feast. The wife of the protagonist has been getting help from the protagonist for many years. She decides to divorce him because he is useless. In the feast where she was to receive a multi-billion dollar (RMB) contract, she found out the contract is canceled. It is instead given to the new love of the protagonist.
7. One upping one another. The former in-laws of the protagonist and the person courting the woman will oppress the protagonist. Someone will come out to stop them. Someone else will come from the other side. This will repeat until the protagonist gets the ultimate victory.

Most of the time, the micro dramas are made available in popular video platforms. Most of the episodes are made available free. For example, the first 80 episodes are free. When you get hooked, you can pay for the rest of the 20 episodes. The production cost of a micro drama can be as little as RMB100000. The revenue of a good micro drama can be in the billions. USD 1 for 20 episodes or USD10 for 100 episodes does not look like a lot. However, it adds up. As it is, the fast-paced and binge-friendly micro drama is here to stay.