Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
In reality, it is has become a tool of the state. “It's the propaganda of freedom,” says
Eddy. “Art represents a post-industrial period, it's the icing on the cake for a developed
country.”
If you're a film buff then life in Beijing can be both a love and hate situation. Love, because
there is an endless supply of cheap pirated DVDs, with movies running only a few weeks
behind release dates in cinemas abroad. Hate because 90 percent of the films screened over-
seas never make it to the big screen here.
Fortunately for you, unfortunately for the film industry, pirated DVD shops can be found
all around town, selling all the movies you'll never be able to watch in the cinema for much
less than it costs to go to the movies—compare RMB10 for a DVD to RMB60-120 for a
movie ticket. What's more, the shop vendors run such slick operations that you can occa-
sionally order something in, and if you luck out with a bad copy you can usually return it.
The DVDs are actually graded for quality. If the movie is hot off the press and possibly
still on at the cinema, it may have no number, and is probably a
qi
ā
ngb
ǎ
n
version (
枪版
,
the grainy handheld camera kind where someone walks in or out halfway through the film).
Avoid these. Next there are the DVD5 and DVD9 versions. DVD5 can be a gamble. Quality
is dubious, subtitles unintelligible, and the actors are likely to suddenly start speaking flu-
ent Russian mid-movie. DVD9 is the best quality for new releases, and the safest gamble.
Older films, those a year or more out of the cinema, won't have any coding, but the quality
will be almost as good as a genuine copy.
Though they may look it by their solidness and visibility, these DVD shops are not legal,
and from time to time the police will do a sweep and shut them down. Wait a week, and
back they are, restocked with all the latest blockbusters and classic keepers. Most expats
build up a sizable collection of fake DVDs while here, but remember that despite the un-
checked availability of fake DVDs in the city, they are illegal. You cannot ship them home,
and if you do try to take them home with you and get caught, you may find yourself in a
serious legal tangle.
In the cinema, foreign films are very rarely dubbed into Chinese, but rather subtitled.
Chinese films, however, are not typically subtitled with English unless they're big-budget
films and have an international target. If a foreign film does make it to the Chinese cinema,
it may not have completely escaped the censor's razor—sex scenes, nudity or language, or
imagery that suggests a negative comment on China will have been sliced.
