Event: KwonSeoul

These filmmakers know exactly how to get you hooked on bizarre one-minute dramasJake KwonSeoul correspondent, SeoulWatch: BBC goes on the set of a micro-drama"More anger, more anger, please!" Director Kang Mi-so shouts across the set at an actor playing the role of the "wicked" aunt.The camera rolls to the woman. Face scrunched up, she lets out a torrent of abuse: the kind that you would never hear in a Korean soap.But this is not the usual K-drama - this is a "micro-drama", the viral ultra-short format that has been shredding attention online. A single episode can last as little as a minute, but there can be more than 50 of them in a series. They are made vertically, for your phone and your TikTok, Instagram or YouTube feeds."We need spectacular moments to snatch their attention in one stroke," Kang, the director, explains. Unlike streaming or TV, where viewers are "ready and willing to give up their time," micro-dramas are competing with the allure of scrolling.So, they serve up an array of the outlandish - mid-scroll, viewers stumble upon a lover's fight or a menacing standoff. The characters could be at school, or in a medieval castle, complete in period costumes."They are hooked by the scenes," Kang says. That might explain why the show she is directing has more than 10 scenes where someone is slapped across the face. The business depends on packing a punch right away because the first five to 10 episodes are free, after which viewers are nudged to move to the app where they pay to watch further.ViglooDramatic scenes are key to the genre's appealThe theatrics have certainly paid off for Chinese micro-dramas, which reportedly outperformed the box office in 2024. They still dominate an industry that is now estimated to be worth billions across the…