Business | Soap power

ReelShort is the latest Chinese export to conquer America

A producer of soapy micro-series is a surprise hit

Never divorce a Secret Billionaire Heiress from Reelshort.
A transfusion of contentPhotograph: Reelshort
|Shanghai

A show called “Never Divorce a Secret Billionaire Heiress” dives head first into a seedy melee of passion and betrayal. Within the first 30 seconds of the micro-series, which consists of 55 two-minute episodes, a woman named Joyce is forced to give her husband’s lover a blood transfusion in order to save the mistress’s life. The first ten minutes depict coerced marriages, inheritance battles and sundry infidelities. The storyline is choppy and nearly impossible to follow. To say the acting is hammy would be generous.

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This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Soap power ”

From the November 25th 2023 edition

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