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Lifestyle
Print Edition> Lifestyle
UPDATED: May 28, 2012 NO. 22 MAY 31, 2012
Fast and Furious
Filmmakers and individuals experiment with mini-movies
By Bai Shi
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Recently, Michael Stephen Kai Sui (widely known as Mike Sui) caused a sensation among Chinese netizens through his original one-man show.

In the nine-minute video, Sui depicted 12 characters from different countries and regions around the world in a Beijing pub. Sui amused audiences with his vivid imitation of accents ranging from that of a Beijinger to other expatriates, including English, French and Japanese. Sui first posted his video on his personal micro-blog on Sina.com, a Twitter-like social network site, on April 27 and it soon attracted over 5 million hits.

"About 40 TV shows are looking for me. It's good to promote myself. But I have to calm down and choose my next step very carefully," he said.

The short film brought Sui enormous fame and a large number of fans. Shang Jing, a well-known television director, said, "More and more people like to watch or make microfilms, because they can tell real stories easily at any time and anywhere."

The microfilm is defined as a new kind of short film that is specifically geared toward various new media tools, such as the Internet, cellphones and mobile TV, which people can watch while on the go. The videos usually tell a complete but minimized story in less than five minutes. Over 2,000 microfilms were produced last year, gaining popularity primarily among young Internet users in China.

"I'm glad that people like it. I just want to show my sense of humor and talent—I can do different accents," said Sui.

Sui's talent for language can be attributed to his family history. Sui has a Chinese father and an American mother. Besides speaking excellent Chinese and English, Sui learned several other languages, such as French, Spanish and Japanese.

A cradle for directors

Many experts regard microfilm as an opportunity to foster young film directors. He Yang, the planner of Shang8 Film Industry Park in Beijing, said in an interview on May 10, "Microfilms serve as an ideal platform for young directors to show their talents."

Sui has made a couple of film appearances in China, which taught him how to make a short film. Sui said, "It's easy for me to do the videos. All the inspiration comes from life." The one-man show took Sui and his photographer Dong Jianxiong two weeks to finish.

Because of his humorous and talkative performance in the video, Sui rose to fame overnight among a huge audience of Chinese Internet users. "Sui is good at making cross-cultural jokes and his facial expressions are very funny," said a fan commenting on Sui's microfilm.

"Young directors hardly gain enough investment to make commercial films because they are unknown to investors," Yang explained. "But microfilm doesn't cost much. Young directors can make microfilms by themselves, from photography to casting, and the production period can be very short."

Because of these advantages, a growing number of young people are engaging in microfilm production, especially in universities.

On May 12, the First Microfilm Festival for Chinese Universities debuted in Nanjing University in east China's Jiangsu Province. In total, 471 microfilms and 317 microfilm screenplays produced and written by college students across the country contended for nine awards.

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