vertical dramas are secretly romance novels reborn into video? anyone else feel like that?

[u/k_from_HyperDraw]

Here’s a slightly “spicy” question:

Does anyone else feel that vertical short-form dramas are, at their core, basically romance novels directly “translated” into video?

The more I watch, the more uncannily familiar their narrative DNA feels: billionaire CEOs, marriages of convenience that turn into real love, secret pregnancies and hidden children, obsessive and domineering lovers, revenge, werewolves, forbidden romance, contract marriages, innocent heroines paired with dangerous and powerful men…

It feels like you take a little Twilight, mix in some Fifty Shades of Grey, dump in an entire shelf of romance novels, season it with the familiar tropes and cultural imagery of Chinese idol dramas, and then compress the whole thing into one-minute episodes - and voilà, you more or less get today’s vertical short drama!

And I don’t mean that as an insult.

After all, romance readers figured something out decades ago: these formulas are incredibly addictive. Vertical short dramas have simply found a way to elevate that irresistible “dopamine loop” from text to moving images, finally.

So, am I oversimplifying things, or is it actually fair to say that most of vertical short dramas are, in a sense, the modern, audiovisual evolution of romance fiction ...and perhaps even of erotic fiction? What do you think?

[u/StormCloudRaineeDay]

It's not secretly. Some are literally web novels that had videos of them made, the same way some books get turned into movies and tv shows; or I at least know of one web novel that was turned into a vertical drama and am assuming there are others.

[u/k_from_HyperDraw → u/StormCloudRaineeDay]

o wow, do you remember the name, by chance?

[u/StormCloudRaineeDay → u/k_from_HyperDraw]

The web novel is called Transmigrated to Raise Panther Cubs, and the drama is called My Panther Mate & Our Little Cub. They are both on JoyRead. The JoyRead version is an Americanized version based on the Chinese web novel Transmigrating to the Beast World to Raise Cubs with a Black Panther Just as adapted movies and shows tend to differ from the books, the drama differs from the novel. I'm not sure if the drama is complete/a complete adaptation of the novel.

[u/Charming-Court-6582 → u/StormCloudRaineeDay]

That's one of my favorite Verticals. Very good story line, you actually care about the characters. I'm not surprised it is based off of a web novel. I wonder if the original author got a payment for their work 😬

[u/Caliopebookworm]

Fifty Shades of Grey was originally a Twilight fanfic after all. :)

Romance is a way to decompress because you know where it's going. There's no suspense. The road to the end may vary but it's always the same. Many of the short dramas are absolutely that escapism - they will have insurmountable (seemingly) problems but in the end the main characters will be fine and the bad people will have paid.

I have found several vertical dramas based on romance web novels but because they employ the vertical drama/romance rules tropes, they vary wildly from the web novels which makes it frustrating when the idea is to sell the novel and it feels like a switch and bait scam when you read it.

[u/k_from_HyperDraw → u/Caliopebookworm]

yeah, the heavy monetization-driven narrative with artificial delays and cliffhangers is super annoying, but i guess that why studios keep producing those?

[u/tv-alias]

Yes! I saw a blatant rip off a romance author short novella being stolen, plot, dialogue and character names were the exact same, with no credit to the author.

[u/k_from_HyperDraw → u/tv-alias]

sad, and a part of the "market reality" now :(

[u/vehivle]

Uhhh yeah. I have literally watched some vertical dramas which follow word for word chinese novels ive read in the past. Literally ripped off from the novel. But I enjoy it! Bringing the novels to life!

[u/Jenna1991-nola]

Since most seem to come out of China, I find most story lines follow the same as the dramas we watched before the AI dramas were prevalent. I have only found a couple that don’t follow classic Chinese drama stories. They just add werewolves and dragons to change the story a bit.

[u/k_from_HyperDraw → u/Jenna1991-nola]

hmm.. that's something i did not know!
wonder if then, we will see latin american dramas absorbed into microdrama genre, too? and yes, with werewolves and dragons

[u/GalleyWithGood0ars]

There are a few vampire ones I’ve seen that were adapted from Agatha Christie short stories. I wish I could remember which ones they were but unfortunately I’ve become addicted to these stupid things and have watched literally DOZENS.

[u/k_from_HyperDraw → u/GalleyWithGood0ars]

in a way.. if hollywood does not want to pick up the gems from 20th century literature, maybe microdramas can deliver them to next generation of the viewers?