I haven’t watched Black Mirror (2011) but I’ve watched its ripple effect. BM is a British dystopian drama series that was the inspiration that brought forth China’s first adventure interactive drama, Mystery of Antiques - Origin of Buddha Head (2019)《古董局中局之佛头起源》 by Tencent. It’s also known as The Origin of the Buddha’s Head in the Antique Bureau. I thoroughly enjoyed it but felt it was more like an “interactive game.” You simply can’t do anything else but pay attention to it. LOL.
The plot development and ending of the story is determined by the viewer. The viewer takes on the role of protagonist Xu Yicheng, and participates in the story selection through multiple interactive forms (each option will take you to a different development, and at some juncture, if you can’t make the right selection, you will be brought back to replay and choose again.
https://i.postimg.cc/1zqg0L1G/budhha00a-clicktostr-RT.png
https://i.postimg.cc/sxcGQ7db/buddha0.png
https://i.postimg.cc/htJhgHjk/budhha16.png
https://i.postimg.cc/FFZYxy8B/budhha10.png
https://i.postimg.cc/nhM9rXdw/buddha9.png
Not forgetting, of course, personally experiencing the process of appraising antiques and treasures. As for subtitling such a genre, it will be a very difficult task in view of the existing sub/seg tool and screen display limitation. However, it would be a welcome challenge if Viki would make it available here. Prior to this adventure interactive drama, Tencent aired web drama Mystery of Antiques (2018) and it was very well received. Probably the reason for the interactive drama, and definitely (as reported) for the production of spinoffs.
Spinoffs of Mystery of Antiques drama series:
And a movie as well:
Btw, I remember having seen a fan channel on Viki back when the filming news of the 2018 drama was released. Unfortunately, that never materialized and it was taken down.
Keen to experience this interactive adventure yourself? Although you do need above-average Mandarin Chinese language literacy (due to the theme and genre), you do have the choice to “replay” countless times. First, start by watching the Tencent teaser (informative, non-interactive). After that, go to the interactive video teaser and… Enjoy!
Links: Tencent Teaser and onward to embark on the adventure! Be safe haha… (not for the faint-hearted lol)
On an aside, the line between “interactive drama” vs. “interactive game” seems to be blurred. In particular, in role-play video/adventure games, commonly known as Role-Play Game (RPG). There’s The Invisible Guardian (2019) 《隐形守护者》 and this is termed as a long-form live-action interactive video game yet it felt just like an interactive drama. Teasers are really interesting. Unfortunately, one needs to subscribe to watch and play.
Wonder if we will ever get such interactive adventure dramas on Viki. Hmm…