A Conversation with Kunpeng: Interactive Movie Games With Real Actors Suddenly Took Off — The Dream He'd Chased for Ten Years Finally Got Noticed

What Is Interactive Film-Gaming?

In 2016, Kunpeng was still a student at Johns Hopkins University. He met ZhenFund co-founder Wang Qiang at the Harvard College China Forum's entrepreneurship competition. Because of one question — "Do you want to start a company?" — after graduation, he packed all his belongings and shipped them back to China.

On day one of his startup, the industry didn't exist yet. The real challenge wasn't technology, hardware, or content. It was getting others to believe that something that didn't yet exist could become the future.

It wasn't until December 28, 2018, when Netflix released the interactive episode Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, that "could interactivity be the future?" became an industry buzzword almost overnight.

In 2019, Mystic Nine: The Origin of the Buddha Head was shot in just four days. The studio was scheduled for demolition after those four days, and lead actor Pan Yueming only had one day in his schedule. By the final scene, the bulldozer next door had already started tearing down the set, and dust was drifting into the frame. Later, many would define it as China's first interactive film and television work.

In 2022, UP hosts like Xiaoyao Sanren, Shenqi Lufuren, and C-chan started playing an interactive livestream game called Super Li Pu Voting. Nearly 3 million users sent bullet comments on Bilibili to collectively decide the direction of a battle royale. At that time, there was no... Go to Xiaoyuzhou to view the full episode description.

View the episode transcript on Xiaoyuzhou.