Apple’s CNY ad is a tear-jerking reminder of the importance of family

I’ve always enjoyed watching Apple’s short films. Despite the fact that the videos are released primarily to show off the camera and video capabilities of the latest iPhones, they’re usually pretty well-directed and the stories are engaging.

The latest short film to be released under the “shot-on-iPhone” banner is Daughter: a story about three generations of women, family quarrels, and potato and leek dumplings. Oscar-nominated Theodore Melfi directs, while Chinese actress Zhou Xun plays the leading lady (and mother).

The entire video is shot with the iPhone 11 Pro—along with “additional hardware and software”, as always—-and it shows off a number of different aspects of the iPhone 11 Pro.

According to Melfi, the iPhone 11 Pro has a number of benefits that helped him to shoot the film. A compact size that enables it to be shoved into the glove box of the taxi that Zhou Xun drivers for the majority of the film, while he also discusses the benefit of having an ultra wide-angle lens on the phone. Low-light shots are also given its fair share of attention during the film, and it’s all rather impressive, to be honest.

As always, Apple has also released a behind-the-scenes clip, which is just as interesting, if not more so, to watch. If you look closely, you’ll see that the production crew uses a variety of equipment in tandem with the iPhone 11 Pro to create the film, including cages, tripods, and drones.

However, it’s also worth noting that quite a few scenes are seemingly shot free-hand—which is testament to the iPhone 11 Pro’s video stabilisation software.

Ultimately, I’m a big fan of Apple’s shot-on-iPhone series. They generally feel like genuinely good stories, and you’re not really aware of the fact that the entire thing is actually an ad—and that’s the whole point.