A popular way to watch movies, namely “bullet screen,” or danmu in Chinese, debuted in Dufan Cineplex in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, attracting many young movie lovers. “Bullet screens” allow viewers to type comments that zoom across the screen like bullets.
It is an emerging craze on online video sites in China and Japan, where it is popular mainly with the youth for its social interactivity.
Gao Shaoqi, a viewer who watched the bullet-screen version of Temporary Family, said the interactive movie watching model was human oriented. He used to endure the cold air-conditioning in the cinema, which has become more tolerable by typing on the screen. During the screening, Gao also saw a request for help finding a phone charger. However, streams of messages zooming across the screen have made some audiences feel dizzy.
According to Dufan Cineplex, it mainly chooses movies with more fodder for ridicule as bullet screen movies. The public is also allowed to vote for their favorite bullet screen movies through the Internet.
