Mini-series for Upwardly Mobile Chinese

It's a mini-series for the smallest of screens. But in technological terms, the romantic drama Appointment is a great leap forward.

A media group in China has filmed a soap opera to be broadcast only on mobile phones. Each of the five episodes, about two bikers vying for the love of a beauti ful woman, will last five minutes. There is very little dialogue and a lot of close-ups of characters striking exaggerated poses in the cinematic equivalent of a haiku.

"The gestures I make are very limited," Luo Ji, who plays one of the motorbike racers, told the Associated Press. "Your emotions should only come from facial expressions. It's quite difficult acting."

Technologically and commercially, it is also a leap into the unknown for Beijing's Le-TV Media Group, which has produced the show.

Only a few people with the most sophisticated mobile phones will be able to see the drama, which was filmed on Shanghai's Tianma race track on a budget of 3m yuan (£200,000).

South Korea's LG Electronics, which makes the top-range cellphones capable of downloading data at sufficient speeds for a netcast, is one of the financial backers. It hopes the drama will catch the imagination of China's burgeoning mobile market, which is thought to have 350-400 million users.

If the new drama proves popular, the makers hope to launch a subscription service.