A Chinese online microfilm, "Old Boys," which was watched by tens of millions and helped to establish the genre here, is being made into a feature-length movie.
The filmmakers presented a trailer at a news conference today in Beijing and said the film would be shown in China's cinemas in May.
The project's genesis as a 43-minute microfilm that netted nearly 70 million views on a video website demonstrates how online films are influencing the traditional movie industry.
The original film is a story with comedic elements of a wedding host and a barber who reminiscence about their school-day dreams of making it big in music.
They decide to team up for a talent show, performing Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," but their hopes are dashed when the producer rejects them.
The school-day nostalgia and the pair's sadness at losing out on their childhood dreams struck a chord with the viewing public when it was released online in 2010.
Its main song became a karaoke favorite. It also kickstarted the Chinese microfilm phenomenon films around 40 minutes or under that are distributed online and generally viewed on mobile phones or laptops. They have become intensely popular with young people born in the 1980s or later.
The movie starts where the microfilm left off, with the duo played by the same actors Xiao Yang, who also directs, and Wang Taili, who wrote three of the movie's songs heading to New York to seek fame.
The trailer shows the pair doing kung fu moves at John F. Kennedy airport while being chased by two North Korean assassins, who the two also play.
The overwhelming popularity of online viewing is redefining how China's mainstream industry markets itself and chooses themes. Some microfilms are stretching the boundaries of what can be shown, including pieces with heterosexual and homosexual themes.
They are constrained by the self-censorship the government requires of the country's video-streaming sites, and they have not become overtly political.
