"Big Movie" takes aim at blockbusters like "The Matrix," "Forrest Gump" and "House of the Flying Daggers" and produces a hilarious mashup collage of classics, writes Xu Wei.

Big-budget "Big Movie" parodies Chinese and Hollywood blockbusters - it is a Chinese counterpart to Hollywood's "Scary Movie" and the latest "Borat!"

Nearly 20 film classics have become laughingstocks in this 10-million-yuan (US$1.25 million) mashup film.

Editing the famous scenes from "The Matrix," "In the Mood for Love," "Forrest Gump" and "House of Flying Daggers," director Ah Gan dubs the film with funny lines and makes it into a really funny picture.

"Though the mashup movie is popular in the West, the genre is still fresh to Chinese moviegoers. But our purpose in making 'Big Movie' is not simply to fill that void," says the director, who is well known for the thrillers "Ghosts" and "The Game of Killing."

Ah Gan says he feels sorry to see so many Chinese mega-productions with magnificent scenes and stunts and weak storylines. Unlike many of his peers, he looks for boldness and innovation in storytelling.

"Big Movie" stars veteran Hong Kong actor Eric Tsang and mainland new talents Yao Chen (TV series "My Own Swordsman") and Huang Bo ("Crazy Stone").

The film offers more than wild antics and joking insight into the original movies. Eye-catching figures of the year in entertainment and sports, as well as hot social issues, such as soaring housing prices, are part of the "plot."

"It's time for us to be concerned about those central issues and real-life people around us," says Ah Gan, dismissing what he considers the excessive portrayal of ancient China in recent years.

Many Chinese filmmakers have dubbed 2006 "the year of fun." From Internet prankster Hu Ge's funny Web clip "A Murder Sparked by a Chinese Bun," a sendup of Chen Kaige's epic film "The Promise," to young director Ning Hao's "Crazy Stone," the top-grossing Chinese film (16 million yuan) in the first half of 2006, movie fans have shown their rising interests in moderate-budget in-joke films with interesting storylines.

However, the parody art form is not new to Chinese Internet surfers. They can remember a popular mashup movie trailer called "The Chronicle" released five years ago. It recast a few classics such as Wong Kar-wai's "Ashes of Time" and Feng Xiaogang's "Be There or Be Square" as a comic stalker short film.

Ning Caishen, a famous Internet writer and the scriptwriter of "Big Movie" and "My Own Swordsman" says such movies demonstrate that grassroots culture will flourish in coming years.

"Actually we can even find some traces of that in a few episodes of Shakespeare's comedies, providing a sarcastic insight into the life of the aristocracy," Ning says. "A basic condition for the art of parody is that its original movies and characters should be famous and recognizable."

Movie buff Jiang Bo says this unique film genre offers her even more fun and satisfaction than that of Zhang Yimou's martial arts blockbuster "Curse of the Golden Flower."

"The plot in many domestic big movies is poor and silly," she says. "Chinese filmmakers should learn to give up those blind big projects and promote diversity of Chinese cinema with really entertaining and impressive small-budget ones."

"Big Movie" is now showing at local cinemas.