China's bankable film director Feng Xiaogang, currently on an
anti-piracy crusade, has candidly admitted that in his younger and
poorer days he used to buy pirated DVDs himself, saying he now
"felt ashamed" about that.
At the Shanghai Film Festival, Feng proclaimed a "war" against
piracy, saying it was costing him personally a ton of money.
"Forbes Fortune estimated my income last year at over 12 million
yuan (US$1.6 million). Actually, because of my influence in the
Chinese film market, I can earn even more than that.
But, because of piracy, my income is just two million yuan per
film which usually take two years to shoot," Feng told the film
festival public in an attempt to highlight the baneful effects of
piracy.
Feng recently shot an anti-piracy film trailer for free with
famous mainland actor Huang Xiaoming and and actress Li Bingbing,
hoping the trailer would spur the public's awareness of piracy
issues.
"In China we are hooked on pirated DVDs because of their low
price and the range of titles available, without realizing how much
we lose -- our reputation has been ruined, because foreigners think
China is flooded with pirated goods and have taken steps to
sanction us," Feng said.
Acknowledging that some medium or small-budget domestic films
have no chances to screen in cinemas and their directors therefore
depend on pirated DVDs for access to an audience, Feng advised
"That's the wrong approach. If intellectual property owners do
not respect their own brainchild, how can anyone else respect their
works?"
Feng Xiaogang, one of the most famous directors in China, has
reaped big box office success with films such as Big Shot's
Funeral, Cell Phone, A World Without Thieves
and The Banquet.
China confiscated around 110 million illegal CDs and DVDs in
2006, according to the Ministry of Culture.
(Xinhua News Agency June 21, 2007)