How does the entertainment-hungry, anti-piracy advocate survive in China? Well, this one is taking a short vacation from morality.
In the US, I am a solid opponent of all that is pirated, bootleg, and "shared." I believe that people who want to enjoy high-quality movies, music, and video games should be willing to pay for them. Coming to China, I knew I was entering the pirates' cove of the world; on the streets of China, all movie are loot. But I did not anticipate any need to join the plundering. I never thought I would have the need to watch movies in China. After all, I am rather busy here, and there is so much else to do.
But then last week I was watching the CCTV-9 news, and fate brought to my attention a segment on the blockbuster movies of 2008 in China. The segment struck gold... there were two recently-released movies featuring the 三国 (Three Kingdoms) period of Chinese history... the SanGuo period is one of my obsessions. My heart was racing with excitement. I knew these movies would be at the local bootleg store... and I couldn't wait even the night to find and watch them, muchless a YEAR to obtain and watch them legally! Goodbye to morality; hello to two and a half hours of Zhuge Liang cleaning house!!!!
I anticipate my return to the home-sweet-home of morality sometime in February after the second part of this epic film is released... ;-)
Now don't go pointing fingers... in the pirate's cove, there simply isn't a market for anything legal! I have to survive, don't I?
The pirate's cove is a fascinating place. I've learned a lot about it from my one trip to the DVD store... and from the massive collection of illegal DVDs left by other foreign teachers who lived in my apartment before me. On the one hand, this pirate's haven is a world of excesses. You buy one DVD, and it may contain as many as 16 movies on one disc... for a mere 10 kuai... I spend about as much to buy a bag of peanuts! And the collection of movies is so random... all on one disc there is the SanGuo movie for the history buff,; the ever-charming Kung Fu Panda for the kids; and all the bloods, guts, and gore of Saw IV for the homicidal psycho in the family.
Look at all the movies on one disc!!! I just wanted ChiBi, but the pirates have thrown in a little bit of Kung Fu Panda, Iron Man, some unknown Indian Bollywood movie, Saw III which is actually Saw IV... in case the one movie I actually want to see doesn't play, then at least there are 15 other movies from a wide variety of genres that I can watch and enjoy?!
It is also, however, a world where the theft does not end with the illegal filming and distribution of the movie. In a kind of ironic twist of karma, you the consumer are often left feeling robbed and cheated. When you pick up a Chinese-language DVD that promises English subtitles; it may in fact be only Chinese. When you pick up a DVD and it promises to have the movie Golden Compass, it may in fact have Golden Compass with the camera pointed at only half the screen the entire movie (the other half is the ceiling of the theatre). When you pick up a DVD that promises to have the movie Rambo, it may in fact have the movie Rambo with the bootleging company's logo and advertisement plastered all over the screen for the entire movie. When you pick up the DVD that promises to have the movie There Will Be Blood, it may in fact have a copy of There Will Be Blood that freezes, skips, whizzes noisily, or doesn't play at all in the DVD player. When you buy a DVD that promises to have the movie Saw III, it may in fact have Saw IV... or it may in fact have some random Russian movie with neither English nor Chinese nor anything to motivate you to watch it all.
It's a case of "You get what you pay for" with a fun twist... in the pirate's cove you have no idea what you get; all you know is that you pay practically nothing for the surprise (and sometimes the surprise is good... in my case, I in fact had not yet seen Saw IV and so was pleasantly surprised that the DVD had lied to me).
Now, to return to the beginning, I have watched my two SanGuo movies, and they are amazing... that's all I can say about that. ChiBi (English name Red Cliff) is a must-watch film for any fan of the period... and has enough merits to avail itself even to the interests of the general viewing audience. In fact, it is coming to the U.S. in a condensed version in January... so I rather forcefully insist that you check it out... the legal version, of course... after all, someone has to support the artists!
I am loving my SanGuo collection... this disc will make for 15 good weekends... except that in my lack of patience I have already crammed four movies into one Friday night!
1 comment:
Still glad I download! Downloading is still free here and it's nice to know what you're getting. But as you say, you can't beat a bargain. Even if it isn't perfect, you spent almost no money for it and the chance of getting a "mislabeled" or unwatchable movie is probably slim.
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