From LA Times (link): A blogger’s video spoof of a big-budget film is swept up in the debate over censorship and the freedom to speak one’s mind on the Internet.
After forking over a hard-earned $10 for a blockbuster he loathed, freelance video and sound engineer Hu Ge did something few in his country would dare do, even if they knew how.
The blogger sat down at his computer and churned out a video spoof of the film, the kung fu fantasy “The Promise,” and e-mailed it to a few friends.
Within days, it had became the most downloaded and talked-about item in China’s exploding blogosphere, and made Hu an instant cyber-hero. And his notoriety shot far beyond the Web when the subject of his parody, Chen Kaige, the award-winning Chinese director best known in the West for “Farewell, My Concubine,” threatened last month to sue him for copyright violations.
