This Chinese guy Hu Ge made a parody of Chen Kaige's THE PROMISE, calling it A MURDER SPARKED BY A CHINESE BUN. For those who have not watched the movie, the young Qingcheng (the character played by Cecilia Cheung) tricks the young Nicholas Tse character into giving her the bun out of the desperation of hunger. Decades later, Qingcheng grows up to be a beautiful princess who cannot find true love because of a condition she promised some goddess in return for the greatest beauty. The Nicholas Tse character becomes some duke who becomes her enemy due to the bun-stealing, a petty little issue which he cares to remember after so many years (they should call this JU-ON 3 – "Ju-On" means "The Grudge")
Anyway Hu Ge decides to make a parody out of the film, inciting some backlash from Mr Chen. Come on, there are so many parodies out there. Look at Forbidden Broadway and Forbidden Hollywood. Look at Chestnuts in Singapore. They take the mickey out of everything worth spoofing. Anybody complains? Most people don't take offence and instead find it an enjoyment. You can't take everything too seriously! At the same time as MURDER, there's even a spoof of MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA with a guy acting as some bimbotic drag-queen-of-a-geisha!
In the biography of Stephen Sondheim written by Meryl Seacrest, Sondheim had attended one of the Forbidden Broadway shows where his musical was featured. He laughed and had a good time, and didn't kick up a fuss insisting that the entire FB series shut down and compensate him for damages. In fact, if your stuff gets spoofed, it shows that you've finally arrived!
Look at DRAGOSTEA DIN TEI by the Romanian group O-Zone. They wouldn't have made it big and known internationally if not for Disney using it in their animated movie CHICKEN LITTLE, or Gary Brolsma doing his lip-synching which brought many people's attention to the song. Now look at how many versions it has spawned, including Singapore's own "Cockroach Song" by Jocie Kok! (With hers and some other guy singer, there are two Chinese versions of the song!)
So why is Mr Chen calling it immoral? It's not even saying anything bad about HIM, but playing around with one of his creations for the fun of it. It's a pity the video has to be taken down!
