Hu Ge’s new spoof: Action movie dodgy drug infomercial

Hu Ge (胡戈), the video artist whose Internet video spoof of director Chen Kaige’s movie The Promise brought him nationwide fame and threats of legal action from Chen, has been busy again.

The People’s Daily has republished a Xinhua story about the new video:

The three-and-half minute Internet video made by Hu Ge appears to be a typical, mundane television shopping program. The advertiser is a medicine called “Two Foot Kick”, produced by “Apollo Biopharm” that boasts “99 percent effectiveness in boosting courage”.

The video uses movie clips including Hollywood hits “American Dream”, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”, “Terminator 2”, “Scary Movie 4” and Chinese movies “Crazy Stone” and “KungFu Hustle”. Stars such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Angelina Jolie appear to be promoting the new “super medicine”.

This is the new video:

The People’s Daily / Xinhua article commented further:

In July, China banned misleading advertising that promoted products for breast enlargement, weight loss and height enhancing drugs…

…”Egao”, a slang term coined to describe the use of real film clips to create mocking video with a completely different story has been growing rapidly on the Internet. China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television announced new rules in August that were meant to rein in the fad by requiring only authorized Web sites to show short films online.

It seems that spoofing is considered, at least by the People’s Daily, to be harmonious if it’s used to mock dodgy advertising.

The People’s Daily story quoted above is here. Below you can find Hu Ge’s steamed bun spoof video, and a huge collection of links to articles about spoofing culture and Hu Ge.

Hu Ge’s first spoof: The Bloody Case That Started From A Steamed Bun

Hu Ge and spoofing culture in China

Media regulation: attempts to stop spoof videos

Other Chinese spoof videos