Forbidden discs
In China, everyone knows you can buy DVDs of the latest film releases for RMB 5 (just about 50 US cents). Prices go up a bit depending on the store or location. Chaps who sell DVDs from barrows in the street are as likely as not to sell you dud films, which is why no-one buys off them, and so their goods are really cheap. Others are real professional operators- and fill their stores with goods to suit their and their customers tastes. Also to open an illegal shop, selling illegal goods, it goes without saying that the shop operator has to pay a back hander to the local law enforcement. Some try to get around this by disguising their store as a hand bag shop, or as a tasty pancake seller, for instance. Others go the whole hog and let it all hang out in the wind, selling smuggled Wiis, pirated downloaded DS games, playstations with pirate chips embedded, alongside DVDs and other types of entertainment.
Of course Shanghai Eye would never partake of their wares, and only purchases official DVDs, such as dubbed, with no English soundtrack versions of Gone With The Wind, as can be found on sale in state sponsored ‘healthy’ DVD audio visual stores.
So imagine my surprise, stumbling through Shanghai’s dark alley’s and streets, when by chance, a gust of wind blew me through the door of a particular establishment selling fake DVDs.
Tut tutting I perused the hundreds of DVDs on offer, in nice boxed sets, all the latest hollywood releases, all the latest TV series, such a prisoner and Lost. Avoiding temptation, for research purposes only, I purchased two discs that particularly caught my eye.
Selling at RMB 30 (a whopping US$4.50) these two films had production values that would shame the original DVD creators. delux embossed covers, nice cardboard wrappers, internal envelopes full of cute film related pictures, hard palstic casings, holograms, these versions were real labours of love by the pirate DVD makers.
The first film that received this treatment is Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Chung Kuo.” You can read all about this controversial masterpiece here.
The second one that caught my eye was “Forbidden Planet,” the sci-fi classic.
The pictures below should give an idea of the packaging and presentation.
