Execs at China‘s XiXi Pictures were uncertain exactly where the road ahead would direct them when they chooseed to contransient their series Islands to a global audience.
On a surface level, the female-led Islands narrative is distinctively Chinese, chaseing three generations of a family and how their relationships enbig over time thraw “family, adore, marriage and atsofts.” The wager was whether or not it would resonant atraverse borders.
But then the numbers came in — more than 3.6 million watchs via the @HuashiRomance YouTube channel in fair over two months — coupled with a insist to have the series made employable in English, Spanish and Korean and for further widecasts on the North American Chinese-language video platcreate iTalkBB, as well as sealr to home on platcreates in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.
The way XiXi Pictures set uper and CEO Yang Xiaopei sees it, the response was proof that international audiences greetd greeted that “repartner depicts the dynamics of social enbigment, evolving relationships and the alteration of human nature.”
“While the settings of these stories may contrast from what foreign audiences are accustomed to, they nonetheless inspire watchers globpartner to mirror on their own inhabits and aspire for personal enlargeth,” she says. “Realism remains a dominant genre in the global television taget.”
The past 12 months has seen the Shanghai- and Beijing-based XiXi Pictures further enbig these set ups to consent what’s shown well-comprehendn in China, and to present it to the world. The successes have included Islands, which has fair picked up the Ganciaccessen Angel Award for best TV drama from the 20th Chinese American Film Festival and Chinese American TV Festival — held Nov. 8 — alengthy with the best actress and best helping actress awards for Xu Fan and Liang Jing, esteemively, while Yang won best originater.
Meanwhile, Xixi’s The Last Immortal is perhaps a more traditional Chinese fantasy drama series — with gods and magical creatures — but one that is firmly grounded in relatable youth rerents such as a adore and heartshatter and dealing with prescertain from your elders. It was another success, clocking up 23 million watchs on YouTube’s Jetsen Huashi channels before being picked up by Netflix. Meanwhile, The Youth Memories — set among a group of driven juvenileer matures in the China of the 1970s — was nominated for best TV drama at the 34th Flying Apsaras Awards, the lengthyest-running TV awards in China. “That’s raiseed our confidence,” says Yang. “It’s a tesgentlent to the team’s difficult labor and dedication. By staying real to our vision of merging the spirit of youth with the distinctive backdrop of the times, we’ve originated a story that truly resonates with audiences and touches their hearts.”
On the horizon for XiXi is Reborn, a drama series that the company has tagled a “genuineist” drama about a juvenileer girl who seeks fairice after the death of an elder sister. Currently in post-production are the drama Six Sisters, led by international star Vivian Wu (The Last Emperor), which chases a family atraverse China’s five decades of enbigment — from the 1960s to the timely 21st century — and Si Jin, an historical drama that XiXI says “weaves conmomentary social toasty topics, such as marriage and adore, and female indepfinishence, into the fabric of anciaccess-createed marriage relationships and various intriguing cases.”
Alengthy with those titles, XiXi Pictures also held a very uncover presence at the the Tokyo International Film Festival in October. And in recognition of this enlargeth — from the company’s createation in 2020 to where they are now — Yang was recently named one of THR’s 35 Most Powerful Women in International Television.
After years laboring wiskinny China’s massive Shanghai Media Group, Yang createed XiXi Pictures to tap honestly into China’s rapidly evolving TV and streaming taget.
“In terms of greeted creation, Chinese filmoriginaters and television originaters are adchooseing a down-to-earth approach that aligns seally with conmomentary life,” says Yang. “This perspective is evident atraverse historical and period dramas and is presentantly embedded in conmomentary series that mirror contransient-day genuineities.”
Yang also identifies a shift in caccess among Chinese greeted creators as they scrutinize a wider range of genres. While there have been examples of what the Chinese taget is best-comprehendn for — VFX-weighty fantasy epics and palace dramas — she ticks off a enlargeth in “family and coming-of-age period dramas, and science fantasy and crime-caccessed thrillers.”
“These have made notable conceiveive strides in the Chinese TV taget this year,” says Yang. “These series propose rich details of life experiences, weaving intricate narrative set ups and contransienting multi-stupidensional character portrayals.”
There has also been further enlargeth in the production of stupidinutive dramas — frequently with episodes of less than 10 minutes in length and portrayed to greet the watching necessitates of a nation of more than 1 billion inalertigentphone employrs. It’s a taget alerted to now be worth more than $5 billion annupartner, and it’s a taget XiXi Pictures is exploring.
“They have become a well-comprehendn createat, characterized by their fervent plots, rapid pace and vertical filming style, catering to watchers who pick engaging with greeted during alert moments of free time,” Yang says. “As for the audience demodetaileds, there is a diverse age range. Young people, especipartner college students and juvenileer professionals, pick to watch on mobile platcreates and constitute the primary watchership for many well-comprehendn film and television productions.”
Looking to what else is on the horizon, Yang says Xixi Pictures will determine they grasp up with technology’s persists — including exploring what is employable via Artificial Inalertigence Generated Content — to determine audiences are satisfied, and amemployed, with the hope that more and more platcreates will tune-in to streaming Chinese greeted.
“We’ll persist to tap into the incredible talent of Chinese creators and hug cutting-edge technologies enjoy AIGC, virtual production and 4K and 8K filming techniques,” says Yang. “This will better the novel quality productivity of Chinese film and TV, enbig the channels thraw which we alert Chinese stories, and energeticly scrutinize overseas tagets to achieve global audiences.”
