One of the reasons I stayed up until 5:30 AM Sunday night/Monday morning is that I was watching one of these Vertical Shorts.
They are cheaply produced in Mandarin with English subtitles and they hire new Chinese graduates of US film schools on the cheap to direct and produce. The story I happened to be watching was about a Chinese Emperor who forsook his robes and security detail to return to his hometown as a common man to collect his fiance, only to find that the skaank fiance had hooked up with the town bully and they were extorting a tax from the peasants to fund the marriage festivities. The business model here is that they let you watch the first 4 or 5 episodes for free, then change you $30 or $40 for the remaining episodes once you’re hooked on the story. There’s enough stuff for free on youtube that I would never pay the $30, but the content I watched was interesting enough that they could get quite a few takers.
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