On 10 January, American tech goliath Apple released its annual Chinese New Year (CNY) “Shot on iPhone” short film in celebration of the Chinese festival. This year, the brand collaborated with Michael Gracey, director of The Greatest Showman and Better Man, to create the first-ever musical in the “Shot on iPhone” CNY series.
Titled “Made a Mixtape for You”, the film is set in Shanghai. It opens with the young protagonist Wei, who after being pressured out of the Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner party by his extended family, for not having a girlfriend, listens to the mixtape his dad made for his mum back in the 90s.
This transports him back in time to 1994 where he meets the heroine Man in a nightclub. She has been lying to her parents about having a boyfriend but needs to go home for CNY. She takes the first man to enter the club, which is Wei, home to face her parents, but the two develop chemistry before Wei wakes up in bed with the mixtape jammed. Wei later finds Man’s telephone number still scrawled on his palm, reminding him it was not a dream (and the iPhone is a mobile telephone).
The entire film was shot on the latest iPhone 16 Pro, which allowed for nimble camera movements and dramatic shots. Three 90s pop songs were chosen for the dance sequences. Stage-style set design was used to achieve what the designer calls “magic realism” arrangements with practical effects where sets move out of the way for dance sequences.
The film captures the recent wave of nostalgia for the 1990s, exemplified by the TV series Blossoms Shanghai (with which “Mixtape” shares a similar aesthetic), and retired children’s TV host Dong Hao’s viral popularity. The iPhone 16 series faces difficulties in China as Greater China is the only market for Apple to have seen a decrease in revenue in FY24, partly due to underwhelming updates from the previous models. Apple also introduced discounts for its smartphones during the new year. The short film provides a practical showcase of the phone’s filming capabilities, as well as aiming to provide “emotional value” to resonate with younger audiences in China.
