It has been more than a year and a half since Internet prankster Hu
Ge achieved overnight fame for the Web clip, "A Murder Sparked by a
Chinese Bun."
The popular 20-minute video produced by easy video software was
a parody of the farfetched storyline of filmmaker Chen Kaige's kung
fu epic, "The Promise."
Now the latest project of Hu, a 33-year-old freelancer from
Wuhan in Hubei Province, is an original comic short, "007 Versus
the Prince of Pork."
"The story is largely inspired by the rapid rise in pork prices
in recent months," Hu tells Shanghai Daily. "The project
is sponsored by Pepsi and I believe it will be more funny and
entertaining compared with my previous works."
In this 30-minute stalker film which is now shooting, agent
James Bond has a new mission: catching the Prince of Pork who left
heaven without permission of the immortals and is now engaged in
scrambling for pork.
More than 100 performers, most of whom are amateurs and extras,
participate in the shooting. Hu says the project with abundant
production funding has provided him more space and freedom of
thinking and imagination during the shooting.
"Many of the scenes will be more real and exciting," he
adds.
Hu anticipates that the production will be completed by the end
of this year, and it will be screened on the Internet.
Hu released last year his second 10-minute Web-video recast
titled "The Empire of Spring Festival Transportation" - based on
impressive scenes from "The Matrix" and Stephen Chow's comedies -
and the original shorts, "Annihilate the Gangsters on Niaolong
Mountain" and "007 Versus the Man in Black."
These clips posted on numerous Websites and Internet communities
have been watched by several million viewers and encouraged many
young enthusiasts to produce or remix short films on their personal
computers.
Nie Sulin, who admires Hu's creativity and editing talent, also
presents his 90-second video clip, a mashup of dancing animals, as
an entry for the "7-Up I Lemon You" MV contest.
Nie has high expectations for Hu's new short. "Hu never lets us
down," Nie says. "I hope he is ready for a breakthrough and can
provide more fun and fresh elements for his new production."
Hu himself is also invited as a judge for the "7-Up I Lemon You"
contest.
"I really enjoy this experience," Hu says. "It gives me a rare
opportunity to view many ingenious pictures and help these young
grassroots talents in DIY videos."
However, the question is how long the popularity of an Internet
star like Hu can last when so many young people are apt to express
themselves with video images instead of words.
Some experts even regard the spread of the digital video among
the youngsters and its merger with the Internet as a superficial
"fast-food culture."
They note that at first people will consider them fresh and
funny, but if there is no originality or changes to this genre,
their novelty and appeal will die away.
"Many young Netizens spend much time and energy adding japes and
jokes to their works just to win Internet fame," says Professor Wu
Gang, a media expert from East China Normal University. "That's not
a good sign. It really takes time and patience to create a classic
in this fast-paced world nowadays."
But in Hu's eyes, everything, especially the booming "new media"
industry, is on the way to being like "fast-food" because of the
rapid development of science and technology in modern society.
He is even not afraid of becoming a "meteor." He says no one can
avoid receiving significantly less attention no matter how big a
reputation they enjoyed before.
"That's quite normal but what matters to me is to be myself," he
says calmly.
(Shanghai Daily September 18, 2007)
