Stephen Chow's first short drama is online: the first episode has over 10 million views, and Xu Zhisheng is on the hot search

This article is a report on the release of Stephen Chow's first short play, "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf", which tells the background of the short play's creation, content features, cast, broadcast volume and commercial layout, which has attracted widespread attention from the industry and audiences. Reading this article, you will learn about the on-stage and behind-the-scenes of Stephen Chow's short play, as well as its innovative attempts and commercial potential in the short play field. I hope this article can provide you with fresh information and in-depth analysis of the short play industry.

Stephen Chow’s first short film is finally here.

At 17:00 on the afternoon of June 2, the Douyin account "9527 Theater" launched the first episode of the short play "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf". It is reported that 9527 Theater is a short play theater brand initiated by Stephen Chow, and "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" is the first short play launched by 9527 Theater, produced by Stephen Chow, supervised by Yi Xiaoxing, and directed by Ma Shi.

"Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" tells the story of trainee lawyer Ye Xiaolai teaming up with anchor Zhu Hao to uncover the truth of the "pig killing" scam, saving her sister Ye Xiaohui and finding her own career path. The drama is starred by Shi Yuanting and Xia Ruoyan, with Xu Zhisheng and Jiang Shimeng participating. In addition, top internet celebrities such as Zhang Baiqiao and Pai Xiaoxuan also participated.

As of press time, after the first episode of "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" was released, it had been played over one million times in one hour, and the cumulative number of views has now reached 13.67 million. The related topic #Xu Zhisheng plays Stephen Chow's skit to trick his boss# has topped the Douyin hot search list.

"Golden Pig and Jade Leaves", which is supported by Stephen Chow, is highly anticipated. Many industry insiders believe that "Golden Pig and Jade Leaves" is expected to become another super short drama.

So, how was the filming of "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf"? What is the business layout behind it? Will it be another super short drama?

1. Stephen Chow's first short play, paying tribute to Stephen Chow over 100 times

"Stephen Chow's first short drama" is both the biggest selling point and the biggest controversial point of "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf".

Many netizens believe that Stephen Chow is just a figurehead and has nothing to do with "Golden Pig, Jade Leaf". Before the release of "Golden Pig, Jade Leaf", the male lead Shi Yuanting once again responded to the controversy: "Master Stephen Chow has read every script and every word of our drama. Master Stephen Chow has checked it all. Master Stephen Chow has also seen every edited material every day."

Shi Yuanting also mentioned earlier that there are more than 100 tributes to Stephen Chow in "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf". According to public reports, from the poster of "The King of Comedy" on the wall of the male protagonist's room to the music and camera language of "The Soul Returns at Night", "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" incorporates many of Stephen Chow's iconic classic film and television elements.

For example, in the first episode of "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf", Shi Yuanting's role as the pork prince Zhu Hao clearly paid tribute to Stephen Chow's classic movie "From Beijing with Love". From identity to dress, Shi Yuanting is very similar to the Ling Ling Qi played by Stephen Chow, except that the scene has been changed from Hong Kong to Northeast China.

On the left is Shi Yuanting, on the right is Zhou Xingchi

The performance of talk show actor Xu Zhisheng was called "MVP of the whole show" by many netizens, because one can see a lot of Zhou's comedy shadows in him, which combines the characteristics of nonsense, metaphor and irony.

In the play, the character A-Lu played by Xu Zhisheng not only implies the discharge of nuclear wastewater in Japan and the shooting in the United States, but also satirizes the chaos in the workplace such as the transfer of benefits. Some netizens commented: "Xu Zhisheng made me fully experience the humor of the Chinese language."

Although it is considered as "Stephen Chow's first short play", "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" is not a very typical short play. Yi Xiaoxing once said in an interview with the media that neither he nor Stephen Chow wanted to follow the trend of making short plays about domineering CEOs, and hoped to "make something different, a short play script with Stephen Chow's temperament and cinematic style".

Yi Xiaoxing said that "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" is a short drama with "too many elements", including suspense, romance, comedy, thriller, action and even some science fiction elements.

Unlike the current mainstream 100-episode 1-minute vertical screen short drama, "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" is a 120-minute movie edited into 24 episodes of horizontal screen short drama, each episode is about 5-6 minutes long. From the publicity of the final shooting, advertising investment to the release of trailers and offline screenings, "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" is very close to the traditional way of playing in the film and television industry.

Moreover, unlike short plays which mostly cast unknown actors, "Golden Pig and Jade Leaves" can be said to be star-studded, having invited actors with a certain degree of fame such as Shi Yuanting, Xu Zhisheng, and Jiang Shimeng.

"Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" is also a short drama that comes with its own traffic. Many internet celebrities were invited to participate in the performance. Among them, the cumulative number of Douyin fans of Zhang Baiqiao, Pai Xiaoxuan and Nida alone exceeds 41 million.

Overall, "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" can be considered top-notch in all aspects in the field of short dramas.

2. Advertising fee of 8 million yuan? The business layout behind "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf"

In addition to Stephen Chow, the producer of "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf", Douyin platform also played a key role in promoting the film. It is understood that Qian Lili, the person in charge of Douyin's boutique short dramas, served as the chief producer of "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf", while Douyin's vice president Chen Duye served as the producer together with Stephen Chow.

In fact, "Golden Pig and Jade Leaves" is another attempt by Douyin short drama to create an industry benchmark.

Earlier this year, Douyin launched the Chenxing Plan, a support policy for the short drama industry, which includes two major models: joint production and joint operation. Selected candidates can receive up to 5 million yuan in cash and 100 million traffic support.

On January 29, Douyin announced that it had reached an exclusive cooperation with Stephen Chow. The two parties will jointly develop and operate the 9527 Theater and continue to launch "Zhou's Short Dramas."

Creating an industry benchmark is either for fame or for profit.

In terms of fame, for "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf", if it can replicate the success of Zhou's comedy in the field of short plays, it will inevitably set off a new round of short play craze.

According to Entertainment Capital, Stephen Chow hopes to use short plays to collaborate with a large number of interested creators and creative ideas in the industry. This year, the 9527 Theater will successively launch the second and third works. In addition, the 9527 Theater also plans to develop short plays based on Stephen Chow's classic movie IPs.

In terms of profits, the short drama industry mainly has business models such as platform profit sharing, brand customization, user recharge, and paid subscription. The free "Golden Pig and Jade Leaves" is closer to the brand customization model of using traffic to earn advertising fees.

So far, no advertising sponsorship or placement has been found in the first episode of "Golden Pig and Jade Leaves", but according to the "Short Drama Study Room", the investment for the second season of "Golden Pig and Jade Leaves" was already sold on February 28 for 8 million yuan.

As early as last year, the interactive short play "It's Over! I'm Surrounded by Beauties!" became popular, which led to a surge in the prices of a large number of short play concept stocks. Because of its marketing project cooperation with "Golden Pig and Jade Leaves", the listed company Gravity Media has also attracted much attention. Many people expect "Golden Pig and Jade Leaves" to become popular, which will in turn drive up the share price of Gravity Media. (Extended reading: " Nearly one million fans increased in 8 days, and the innocent man went crazy. "It's Over! I'm Surrounded by Beauties!" became popular ")

This morning (June 3), the second day after "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" was officially launched, Gravity Media's stock price rose as high as 9.68% compared with the closing price of the previous trading day.

To some extent, "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" is a short drama that has been pinned with too many expectations.

Douyin hopes to make "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" a benchmark case for short dramas, thereby attracting more short drama creators to join the market and attracting more brand advertisers to pay for placements.

However, Stephen Chow is not the only choice for Douyin. Douyin has already cooperated with first-tier film and television companies such as Lemon Studios, Changxin Media, and Huace Film and Television, as well as well-known filmmakers such as Chen Sicheng, Lu Yang, and Rao Xiaozhi.

The producers hope that "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" can get off to a good start, laying a solid foundation for the branding of short plays at the 9527 Theater, and then completing subsequent commercial realization.

Stakeholders such as Gravity Media hope that "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" will become popular on the entire Internet. Only in this way can they realize the development of peripheral interests such as stock prices.

The industry also needs more super short plays. The development of the short play industry relies on the emergence of super short plays to build industry confidence and explore more new paths.

3. Will "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" be another super short drama?

From "Escape from the British Museum" to "I was a Stepmother in the 1980s", there have been many phenomenal works in the field of short dramas. Will "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" be another super short drama?

At present, this remains an unknown.

In terms of traffic, as of press time, the cumulative number of views of the Douyin topic #金猪玉叶# has reached 73.03 million times, which has not yet triggered secondary dissemination and discussion among a large number of netizens, nor has it yet appeared on the Weibo hot search list.

In comparison, the Douyin topic of the same name "Escape from the British Museum" has been played 2.58 billion times. Whether the popularity of "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" can continue to grow remains to be seen.

In terms of production, although "Golden Pig and Jade Leaves" can be said to be "born with a silver spoon in its mouth", the shooting time of "Golden Pig and Jade Leaves", which took 12 days from the start of filming on April 12 to the completion on April 24, is not much longer than that of a traditional short drama.

Although it is considered to have "cinematic quality", Yi Xiaoxing once emphasized in a public interview that "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" was produced with a short drama budget and was not produced according to the standards of the film industry.

The time is tight and the budget is limited. At present, the quality of "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" exceeds that of most short dramas, but it is not far ahead, nor has it attracted a lot of praise.

As for the team, although Stephen Chow has the support, Yi Xiaoxing, Shi Yuanting and others are also creators with certain achievements in the traditional film and television industry. But so far, there are not many successful cases of traditional film and television practitioners "coming down to earth" to shoot short dramas.

The most recent case is "The Billionaire Silly Prince", in which the well-known director Wang Jing served as the chief director and the well-known actress Yuan Qiongdan joined.

The film "The Billionaire Silly Prince", which was released in the first half of this year, was also directed by a famous director and star-studded, but it did not make much splash in the industry. The relevant producers did not disclose the recharge flow of "The Billionaire Silly Prince", but the editorial department of Xinbang found that the cumulative number of views of the Douyin topic #亿万傻王子# was less than 20 million.

In fact, the reviews of "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" can be described as polarized.

Some people gave a lot of praise. One netizen commented that "it has the texture of a movie, and is 10,000 times better than other short dramas on Douyin", and some netizens thought that Xu Zhisheng's performance was very humorous.

But some people also gave a lot of negative reviews. Some netizens felt that "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" did not meet expectations, some netizens were disappointed that it did not have Zhou's comedy style, and some netizens left a message saying "There must be nothing wrong with the drama produced by Xingye, but it's a bit hard to understand."

From the current perspective, the newly launched "Golden Pig and Jade Leaves" has neither produced the expected explosive popularity nor brought about subversive innovation in short dramas. It is no fundamentally different from previous high-quality short dramas such as "Twenty-Nine".

Of course, only the first episode of "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" has been released. We will continue to wait and see whether there will be more surprises next.

Author: Yun Feiyang; Editor: Truffle