For anyone who is not a Chinese teenager, yet had to suffer through the first installment of the stylish, yet headache-inducing young adult book series-turned-film drama Tiny Times, it probably seemed like the sequel couldn’t get any more insufferable. From the looks of the newly released trailer, however, you would be wrong.
The trailer for part two of the controversial Gossip Girl-esque series, posted on Weibo on July 31 by series author and film director Guo Jingming, is already blowing up as the number one trending topic with 165,000-and-counting shares. It appears from the comments that users waited up late to see the video's release. One enthusiastic fan stated, ”It’s very late at night and I have returned several times, I look forward to August 8; I will be sure to wait!” The hype around the new movie is only likely to grow, considering the fact that Guo has 21.1 million followers.
Although the first film in the series featured an incoherent plot line and a great deal of high-pitched squealing, it ended on a relatively cheerful note with the characters holding a "fabulous" fashion show. In contrast, this new trailer is dripping with melodrama, complete with foreboding, ominous music, a fair share of crying and arguing, and a troubling amount of domestic violence.
Since the first film in the series broke box office records, the August 8 opening of number two is likely going to be yet another sign of the rapidly growing consumer power of China's adolescents.