Since its premiere June 6, Hu Ge's new Web comic video Annihilate the Gangsters on Niaolong Mountain has been spreading fast, with a storm of trouble along the way from hackers and the authorities.

 

　　

Hu Ge

 

First it quickly brought a serious hacker assault to the Web site Six Houses, where it was first released. Now it faces a possible ban and a fine from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT). 　　

 

The video, just like Hu Ge's earlier work A Murder Sparked by a Steamed Bun, is a parody using story lines and dialogue from works of three top Chinese directors — Chen Kaige's The Promise, Zhang Yimou's House of Flying Daggers, and Feng Xiaogang's Cell Phone. 　　

 

On June 6, Six Houses was under attack by unknown hackers soon after its authorized release of Hu's new work. The site was paralyzed for eight hours. 　　

 

"We were viciously assaulted," said Yang Xiaolong, the site's operator. "We predicted there might be assaults but never thought they would be so quick and severe. We tried our best to restore the pages but are not sure that we can block them off from future attack." 　　

 

The site crash made it impossible to download the video or watch it online. Some blamed the paralysis on Six Houses' poor maintenance. 　　

 

According to Hu, he chose the Web site to release his new work because Six Houses backed him with some 200,000 yuan (US$25,000) to make the video. 　

 

Hu rebuffed reports that he made the video to mock the three directors. "Those reports are breeding discord between us. I was never against anyone in this video but used some popular lines from the films. People love to use them for humor. The audience can tell I was just playing." The dispute caused by Hu's earlier work Steamed Bun is satirized in the new video. 　　

 

In Annihilate the Gangsters, Hu avoided legal disputes for infringing on the copyrights of the three directors by not using actual footage from their films. 　　

 

However, a SARFT staff member warned in an interview that since Annihilate the Gangsters is a 48-minute DVD with a complete story for "public communication," it must have a pre-release permit from SARFT or would be banned and the videographer fined. 　　

 

But Guo Yuhang, Hu's lawyer, argued that currently there are no laws against such online videos. "Annihilate the Gangsters doesn't need a permit because it in no way is a commodity," the lawyer said. 　　

 

Some viewers applauded Hu for his new video, saying that he is better than the three leading directors. 　　

 

Some critics said his new work repeats the ideas of Steamed Bun and Hu should move on from his old tricks. Hu responded saying he made the video to express his own interests, not to please others. 　　

 

A native of Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, Hu now lives in suburban Shanghai and makes his living selling audio equipment and producing sound effects for films.

 

(Shenzhen Daily June 12, 2006)