Flash marriage, raising children, and fighting with daughters-in-law: short dramas about the elderly have become a new traffic star

As a new form of entertainment, short plays for the elderly have begun to emerge on major platforms. With their compact plots, strong emotional conflicts and fast viewing rhythm, these short plays have quickly attracted the attention of a large number of middle-aged and elderly audiences. This article will explore the popularity of short plays for the elderly, analyze the social reasons and market demand behind it, and the impact of this trend on short play creation and marketing strategies.

In the past two months, many short plays with elderly people as the protagonists have been on the popularity list: "Flash Marriage at Fifty", "Fifty-year-old Lady Guarding the National Goal and the Great Summer Singing God Blowing Up the Audience", "Mother on the Gold List Is Honored by Her Son", "At Fifty, a Flash Marriage with a Domineering President"... The marriage, emotional and life stories of the elderly have become the "new traffic code" for the creation of current short plays.

This "aging-friendly" creative trend has also shown some signs in the long video market. In the past, the middle-aged and elderly were regarded as marginal groups, and the portrayal of the elderly in film and television dramas also played the role of setting off the protagonist. But in the past two years, such as "Grandma's New World", "The Long Season" and the recently launched "Please Take Care of Her in Your Body", all use the elderly as the protagonists, allowing the elderly to act as a positive pioneer image, stepping out of their families and children, and showing their awakening and self-worth.

Although both are about portraying the image of the elderly, there are obvious differences between short plays and long plays. Short plays are particularly particular about density and excitement. Many elderly protagonists in short plays are not absolutely positive, and their value lies more in stirring up the emotions of the audience. For example, in a short play about family affection, the mother is bullied and beaten by her second son, but eventually chooses to forgive him out of pity; there is also a sweet drama about the elderly dressed in the guise of a domineering CEO, in which the awakening and counterattack of the heroine are all based on the high status of the hero. With the layers of emotions stacked up, the audience is more likely to be attracted and can't help but pay for the short play.

It is an inevitable trend for the elderly to become the protagonists of the narrative. According to QuestMobile data, in March 2024, the penetration rate of people over 50 years old will reach 26.5%, and the population size will reach 320 million people, with huge emotional consumption needs. Moreover, the consumption power of the elderly should not be underestimated. The "China Aging Industry Development Report" predicts that by 2050, the consumption potential of China's elderly population will increase from 4 trillion to 106 trillion. In the eyes of many practitioners, the middle-aged and elderly are "high-quality audiences for short dramas."

1. How to tell the emotional stories of middle-aged and elderly people?

Many emotional needs of middle-aged and elderly people are often ignored. In China, parents are all “pure contributors”. When they are young, they work hard for their families and children, and rarely pay attention to their “self” consciousness. When they retire, they lose the focus of their lives and their voice in the family. They begin to feel empty and ignored, and need a carrier to release and carry.

Short plays fill this gap.

On the one hand, the short play itself is a product of strong emotions and fast pace. Content production can be centered around current hot topics and hot events that the elderly are concerned about. Elderly audiences can project their emotions and see themselves in the short plays.

On the other hand, the operating logic of short drama broadcasting platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou is relatively friendly to the elderly. They can choose the content they want to watch by swiping up and down, and the platform's algorithm will also promptly understand the emotional preferences of elderly audiences and make accurate recommendations.

Looking at the short plays for the elderly on the market, they can be divided into two categories: male-oriented and female-oriented. However, the stories they tell are essentially about emotional trivia, incorporating elements such as children's education, growth, family reunion, marriage and career, which are also the topics that the middle-aged and elderly groups are most concerned about. For example, in the short play "Flash Marriage at 50", which has been played more than 460 million times on Douyin, the two protagonists who are over 50 years old decided to go on a blind date because "I hope to have a companion when I get older." The simple lines just speak for the voices of most elderly people today.

"Flash Marriage at Fifty"

And the basic formula of skits also works well for senior content.

In short plays for the elderly, "torture first, then pleasure" is a common technique. In the early stage, the villain's evil is used to highlight the protagonist's kindness and pity, which arouses the audience's sympathy and paves the way for the subsequent reversal. In order to stimulate the "torture point" of the plot, many creative teams often use the first-person perspective shooting method to let the audience feel the emotions in the play.

The short play for middle-aged and elderly people produced by Micron, "Mother's Honor by Son", begins with the contrast of the two sons of the heroine - the elder brother is kind and tolerant, while the younger brother is selfish. The elder brother disappears in an accident, and the younger brother goes to college and has a girlfriend, and begins to change his face. He does not recognize his mother and calls her an old beggar. When his mother comes to the wedding, the younger brother is afraid of being exposed, so he wants to kill her with a bottle of wine. The repeated conflicts between mother and son make the audience constantly feel the fear of the younger brother and the pity of the mother, which further sublimates the abuse.

After the abuse, it's time to "feel good". When the conflict reaches its peak, another positive character appears to save the protagonist from danger and severely punish the bad guys, and the feeling of good is achieved. In "The Mother's Honor by the Son", the missing and amnesiac brother turns into a billionaire and attends his brother's wedding as a VIP. He happens to see his mother being beaten, so he takes out a whip and beats his brother to punish evil and promote good. In the comment area, many viewers were "feeling good" about this scene, leaving messages saying "The brother is so handsome, I have to teach this ungrateful person a lesson".

"Mother's Honor Depends on Her Son"

One episode of a short play is about one minute long, and a short play has about 70 to 80 episodes. More than half of the plots are about creating contradictions and conflicts. When the audience's emotions reach a peak, the emotions are released with a climax, leaving no chance for the audience to escape. They can't help but click to the next episode to watch, and the value of the short play is achieved.

However, short plays about middle-aged and elderly people cannot escape the routine of homogenization. When a theme about middle-aged and elderly people becomes popular, countless themes with the same substance emerge. Looking at the list alone, many short plays even have similar titles: Mothers are honored by their sons, fathers are honored by their daughters, flash marriage at the age of 50, new flash marriage at the age of 50, overbearing president loves me madly... The plots are also familiar, either the elderly version of "The overbearing president falls in love with me" or the elderly version of "All is Well". But for many elderly audiences, perhaps logic is not so important, and what is in my heart is more important.

2. How to shoot short plays for the elderly: experience-based and efficient delivery

At present, short plays for the elderly are still the main type of content that leading companies are focusing on. According to WETRUE data, the short plays for the elderly that made the list in June and July 2024 are mostly related to leading companies such as Maiya, Jiuzhou, and Dianzhong. They entered the market early, have abundant talent/investment resources, and have accumulated rich creative experience. Short plays for the elderly are more about segmented innovation based on the original foundation.

Therefore, the creation cycle and production process of short plays for middle-aged and elderly people are not much different from those of regular short plays.

When casting, most companies tend to choose actors with experience and works, saving the process of retraining. Many short plays are played by extras from previous TV series and movies. For example, Ti Aimin, who has filmed short plays such as "Dad, I'll Clean Up the House", "Start a Family", "Mother's Status by Daughter", and "Parasite", has appeared frequently in many movies and TV series before, including Hu Yulian in the theater movie "I'm Waiting for You in Spring" and Cui Niang in the TV series "Singing with You". In the cultural variety show "Grandmaster Biographies: Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties", she partnered with Wang Jinsong to play Chunmeng Po.

Short dramas are a social circle. Most of the time, the selection of actors, directors and screenwriters comes from mutual recommendations within the circle. For example, a short drama about the Olympics, "I am a Knight in the Olympics", which was recently launched, invited Douyin celebrity "Sanxi Grandpa" as the protagonist. Its producer revealed to "Shen Xiang": Sanxi Grandpa was chosen because he knew him in the same circle. Sanxi Grandpa usually likes to post short videos in ancient costumes. His temperament is particularly suitable for the character of the knight in the play, so he was chosen.

Sanxi Grandpa Douyin short video

As a fast-paced content product, it is normal for short dramas to be shot in a week and released online in a month. Elderly actors are rarely treated leniently because of their age. One elderly actor revealed in an interview: "Being busy is the norm." They finish work at 6:30 in the morning and have to rush to another crew to put on makeup at 7 o'clock. They have to remove makeup while putting on makeup. It is also common for them to sleep two or three hours a day.

In April this year, #退公公移作短剧# became a hot search on Weibo. The protagonist of the hot search, Liu Lin, once mentioned that under the tight shooting period, he also summed up the trick of "being able to pass quickly" - short plays do not require a large number of scenes, rely on character dialogue to promote the plot, pursue explosive points and reversals, and perform with full emotions, anger must be extreme, and fierceness must be thorough. Therefore, for elderly actors, plot logic is not the most important thing, explosive points and emotions are important.

After the short drama is filmed, it comes to the traffic investment stage. During the traffic investment, the pitchers have a large amount of materials and match users with carefully designed test plans. They evaluate who likes to watch and what kind of materials will become popular in the huge traffic pool. The traffic investment of short dramas for middle-aged and elderly people also adheres to this logic.

According to the data of "Flash Marriage at 50" released by Xinwaner, from June 14 to July 29, the drama was released on the "Time Short Drama" account on Douyin, with an estimated conversion volume of 166,000, 18.8K likes, 513 comments, and 1,318 shares, which is a pretty good conversion effect. Looking through the streaming materials, it is a mix of various "conflicts", such as the conflict between the son and the daughter-in-law, the harassment and bullying of the heroine while dancing in the square, and the male and female protagonists being looked down upon by the clerk in the wedding dress shop. These conflicts serve as "hooks" to attract users to click to watch the full episode.

After two years of rapid development, short dramas have entered a mature stage, and the producers of short dramas are well aware of user habits - they know what target users like to watch, how to use emotions to get them excited, and how to use material to attract their continued clicks.

But at the same time, some chaos is also emerging. Searching for "middle-aged and elderly short dramas" on social platforms, you can see posts from young people complaining that their parents saved money but ended up spending tens of thousands on short dramas. CCTV has also reported that some unscrupulous businesses take advantage of the elderly's lack of Internet knowledge and weak ability to distinguish online consumption to induce unnecessary consumption; others will use low prices to get users to pay first, then default to renewal, and then return to normal prices for the next few episodes. When users come to their senses and want a refund, they can't find the refund entrance.

These may bring temporary profits, but looking at the entire industry, only when creators return to content and platforms strengthen supervision can short dramas develop in a longer-term and healthier way.

Author | Zu Yang This article is written by the operator author [Shen Xiang], WeChat public account: [Shen Xiang], original/authorized to be published on Operation Party, and any reproduction without permission is prohibited.

The title image is from Unsplash, based on the CC0 protocol.