A Shopper's Guide to Chongqing - DVDs
The movie Brokeback Mountain has been banned in China because of its homosexual content. That said, I managed to see it last week. The Chinese Government can control many things, but dvd piracy is not one of them.
Pirated dvds are readily available in shops throughout Chongqing. Often there is some pretence to being a legitimate dvd business with legal dvds lining the shelves during business hours. But after 6pm - and on weekends - out come the pirated movies. I've seen shops pull down the shutters or cover up their stash with a sheet of plywood when a raid has been called. This, however, is a rare occurrence.
Legitimate dvds are generally Chinese films (although there are some Western films) and they come in plastic wrapping and are more expensive. By expensive I mean about 30 rmb. Pirated dvds cost between 6-13 rmb depending on where you buy them and the type of disc. You can check the conversion rates here.
There are dozens of dvd shops around but I have two particular favourites. Both have a good range of recent films but my preference for these stores goes beyond that. It’s more about 'The Experience'.
The first shop I favour is one I discovered on a previous visit to Chongqing a few years ago. It is very obviously not a legitimate business, as it is hidden in the back of an indoor electronics market. It’s the sort of place you’d never find on your own as it’s so well hidden. I take visitors to this shop because it’s such fun to get to.
To get to this shop one must enter the market and walk past the stalls selling all manner of funky electronic equipment like laptops, cameras and mp3 players. Walk past the used computer dealers and turn left down what looks like an abandoned indoor alley. Old furniture is stacked up on itself however if you look closely you will find that it’s arranged much like a maze and you can follow a track through it. At the end of the little maze is a door which leads into another small room… with shelves lined with hundreds of dvds. This store sells only recent films and because of its ‘secret’ location is always well stocked. There were a series of raids in Chongqing about a month ago which shut down all other dvd stores but this one remained open – with additional security ie. a woman guarding the entrance to the maze, which was locked. When anyone approached she would unlock the padlock and move a piece of furniture, allowing access to the maze. It was all very cloak and dagger.
My other favourite dvd shop is a legitimate store just down the street from my apartment. In the daytime is has a very limited supply of local films but in the evenings and on weekends the shelves bulge with all the most recent releases. The girls working in the shop have befriended me (apparently I am quite memorable?) and make a big fuss whenever I come in. It didn't help when I brought a Chinese friend along and she told them that I am in Chongqing working to improve the economic development of the city. One of the girls speaks a tiny little bit of English and between us we try to have little mini bilingual conversations. Whenever I come in she gives me a little hug and leads me past the magazines and cds to the dvd section, as if I didn’t know where it is. She always gives me a discount and won’t let me buy any bad copies.
A few years ago about 30% of all dvds I bought were bad copies, meaning the discs would skip around or wouldn’t work at all. Thanks to the improvements in technology these days about 98% of the discs seem to work. Most movies are actual digital copies, although a small percent are still some bozo sitting in a cinema with a hidden camera. The AV quality of these films is below par but I always have a giggle when I see silhouettes of the audience walking past the screen or people laughing or coughing.
Other movies are preview copies sent to media etc for review. Some of my recent purchases such as Memoirs of a Geisha, Brokeback Mountain and Jarhead have had an intermittent disclaimer running along the bottom of the screen proclaiming that ‘This disc is for Award consideration only and must not be redistributed’. Evidently this doesn’t translate well into Chinese!
In addition to movies, boxed sets of television series are available. Many of the series just beginning in Australia are out on dvd here already, such as Prision Break, Rome and Commander In Chief. I have purchased and begun to watch CIC in the hope that it would provide a suitable replacement for the recently-axed West Wing. I was a little concerned when I popped the first disc in to find that the menu provided images and the theme from West Wing! The episodes work fine though I’ve found (as reported in the Green Guide) that Commander In Chief really is just West-Wing Lite.
Pirated dvds are readily available in shops throughout Chongqing. Often there is some pretence to being a legitimate dvd business with legal dvds lining the shelves during business hours. But after 6pm - and on weekends - out come the pirated movies. I've seen shops pull down the shutters or cover up their stash with a sheet of plywood when a raid has been called. This, however, is a rare occurrence.
Legitimate dvds are generally Chinese films (although there are some Western films) and they come in plastic wrapping and are more expensive. By expensive I mean about 30 rmb. Pirated dvds cost between 6-13 rmb depending on where you buy them and the type of disc. You can check the conversion rates here.
There are dozens of dvd shops around but I have two particular favourites. Both have a good range of recent films but my preference for these stores goes beyond that. It’s more about 'The Experience'.
The first shop I favour is one I discovered on a previous visit to Chongqing a few years ago. It is very obviously not a legitimate business, as it is hidden in the back of an indoor electronics market. It’s the sort of place you’d never find on your own as it’s so well hidden. I take visitors to this shop because it’s such fun to get to.
To get to this shop one must enter the market and walk past the stalls selling all manner of funky electronic equipment like laptops, cameras and mp3 players. Walk past the used computer dealers and turn left down what looks like an abandoned indoor alley. Old furniture is stacked up on itself however if you look closely you will find that it’s arranged much like a maze and you can follow a track through it. At the end of the little maze is a door which leads into another small room… with shelves lined with hundreds of dvds. This store sells only recent films and because of its ‘secret’ location is always well stocked. There were a series of raids in Chongqing about a month ago which shut down all other dvd stores but this one remained open – with additional security ie. a woman guarding the entrance to the maze, which was locked. When anyone approached she would unlock the padlock and move a piece of furniture, allowing access to the maze. It was all very cloak and dagger.
My other favourite dvd shop is a legitimate store just down the street from my apartment. In the daytime is has a very limited supply of local films but in the evenings and on weekends the shelves bulge with all the most recent releases. The girls working in the shop have befriended me (apparently I am quite memorable?) and make a big fuss whenever I come in. It didn't help when I brought a Chinese friend along and she told them that I am in Chongqing working to improve the economic development of the city. One of the girls speaks a tiny little bit of English and between us we try to have little mini bilingual conversations. Whenever I come in she gives me a little hug and leads me past the magazines and cds to the dvd section, as if I didn’t know where it is. She always gives me a discount and won’t let me buy any bad copies.
A few years ago about 30% of all dvds I bought were bad copies, meaning the discs would skip around or wouldn’t work at all. Thanks to the improvements in technology these days about 98% of the discs seem to work. Most movies are actual digital copies, although a small percent are still some bozo sitting in a cinema with a hidden camera. The AV quality of these films is below par but I always have a giggle when I see silhouettes of the audience walking past the screen or people laughing or coughing.
Other movies are preview copies sent to media etc for review. Some of my recent purchases such as Memoirs of a Geisha, Brokeback Mountain and Jarhead have had an intermittent disclaimer running along the bottom of the screen proclaiming that ‘This disc is for Award consideration only and must not be redistributed’. Evidently this doesn’t translate well into Chinese!
In addition to movies, boxed sets of television series are available. Many of the series just beginning in Australia are out on dvd here already, such as Prision Break, Rome and Commander In Chief. I have purchased and begun to watch CIC in the hope that it would provide a suitable replacement for the recently-axed West Wing. I was a little concerned when I popped the first disc in to find that the menu provided images and the theme from West Wing! The episodes work fine though I’ve found (as reported in the Green Guide) that Commander In Chief really is just West-Wing Lite.
posted by bvc @ 12:45 PM
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