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| An online parody of "The Promise"
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The famed Chinese director Chen Kaige has denounced an online
parody of his latest epic "The Promise" as immoral
and instructed his lawyer to look into the matter.
The Web movie, produced by Internet prankster Hu Ge and
titled "A Murder Sparked by a Chinese
Bun," expands on the movie's premise that one of its main
characters turned evil because he was cheated out of a Chinese bun as a
child.
"I think this is an approach that has lost the most basic moral bottom
line," Chen said in an interview on the sidelines of the Berlin Film
Festival, which appeared on the Chinese Web site Sina.com on Monday.
"The Promise," a US$35 million production, is a mythology about an
ordinary girl transformed into a princess by a goddess on the condition that she will never find
true love. As a young girl, the princess cheats a future duke out of a
bun. As an adult, the duke becomes one of her adversaries.
"I think this (parody) has exceeded the normal bounds of issuing
commentary and opinion. It's an arbitrary alteration of someone else's
intellectual property ... if
(Hu Ge) made a movie, and people did this, how would he feel?" Chen said.
The director said he has asked his lawyer to look into the parody, but
did not explain what sort of legal action he is considering.
Meanwhile, Chen said he expects "The Promise" to make at least 210
million Chinese yuan (US$26 million; a??22 million) at the Chinese box
office - a considerable amount in China's developing movie market. He said
the U.S. distribution rights have been picked up by Warner Bros. and that
it will show in U.S. theaters from May.
Chen is best known for his art-house movies including "Yellow Earth"
and "Farewell My Concubine," and "The Promise" is one of his first forays
into commercial blockbusters. In an apparent attempt to cultivate a
pan-Asian market, he cast Japanese and South Korean actors in the movie.
"When we first started working as movie directors, there was no concept
of market and you were not required to have a concept of market," he told
Sina.com. "But when the market of concept suddenly appears before you, you
have to face it ... I think it's very irresponsible to not consider market
returns for a movie involving such a big
investment."
(Agencies) | 
Updated: 2006-02-20 11:09
