Hu Ge (director)

Hu Ge is an amateur movie director in the People's Republic of China who rose to fame through social satire and the Internet. His works, which are videos which can be downloaded from video-sharing sites such as Youtube, and freely distributed by his permission, are viewed by millions. His outrageous humour and his use of innumerable parodies had gained a degree of international attention and drew notices from the Communist Party's .

Biography

Hu Ge grew up in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.

Hu Ge immediately became well-known by virtually every Chinese netizen since his first short movie "''A Murder Case Caused by a Bun''" in late 2005. His subsequent works are also all well-received.

Techniques

Hu Ge focuses on enhancements through satire in social and cultural realms, reflecting numerous to a backdrop of loosely pieced together current events or well-known footage from big-name films, including ''Harry Potter'', ''The Matrix'', ''Shaolin Soccer'', '''', etc. He has immense focus on elements of parody on multiple levels. The music he uses are usually satirical, be it Chinese instrumentals, Hollywood movie soundtracks, American pop songs or spinoffs of Michael Jackson songs.

Public and Official response

Hu Ge's films, which are distributed freely on the Internet, received widespread attention, and arguably became the most watched video on Chinese video-sharing networks, beating Huang Jianxiang's crazy commentary at the . In January 2006, after the popularizing of Hu's first creation, ''A Murder Case caused by a Bun'', Chen Kaige, director of '''' and subject of Hu's satire, announced plans to take legal action against Hu for apparent copyright violations and defamation. The amateur films became the discussion topics on various Chinese forums, and received overwhelming support from the general public, which led to bad social repercussion against Chen, who later dropped the lawsuit. In late 2006, because of its subtle social commentary that could be interpreted at a political level, Hu's films have gained the attention to the Communist Party's Propaganda Department, in charge of China's media controls. There were talks of a ban in late 2006, with the pretext that Hu's films are too long in length and too intricate in design, that they can no longer be categorized as amateur internet videos. In early 2007, however, after Hu's newest release, ''007 vs. Man in Black'', there are no signs of a ban.

Filmography

*A Murder Case Caused by a Bun , 2005
*The Empire of Spring Transportation , 2006
*The Legend of Suppressing Mt. Birdcage Bandits , 2006
*Mt. Birdcage TV Shopping , 2006
*007 vs. Man in Black , 2007
*007 vs. The Prince of Pork , 2008

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*A City Full of Overtime Employees , 2006