A reason to pirate Pirates

And Hollywood wonders why China is big on piracy? Insanely overpriced tickets at theaters (compared to the average joe's monthly income) and the rampant, illogical censorship, and over-rpriced, limited selection of legitimate DVD releases (versus the free exchange of ideas on the underground DVD markets) kind of lends itself to the pirate DVD avenue.

Here's a great example why the market will flourish:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070615/ap_en_mo/china_pirates_movie;_ylt=AqT32cwuJwuRfy4uJ8qfd7JxFb8C

Chow's "Pirates" scenes cut in China

Fri Jun 15, 3:30 AM ET

BEIJING - Censors have cut scenes of Chow Yun-Fat as a bald, scarred pirate in the new "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie, saying they insult China's people, the main state news agency said Friday.
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Xinhua said Chow's time on the screen in "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" had "been slashed in half by censors in China for vilifying and defacing the Chinese."

The version of the Hollywood blockbuster released in China earlier this week shows only about 10 minutes of Chow's scenes compared with 20 minutes in the version seen in the rest of the world, it said.

Xinhua quoted Zhang Pimin, deputy head of the film bureau under the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, as saying the decision to cut the scenes was made according to China's "relevant regulations on film censorship" and "China's actual conditions."

He refused to give specific reasons for the cuts, but Xinhua quoted a Chinese magazine, Popular Cinema, as saying the scenes were cut because of the negative images they showed.

"The captain starring Chow is bald, his face heavily scarred, he also wears a long beard and has long nails, images still in line with Hollywood's old tradition of demonizing the Chinese," the magazine said.

Chow makes his first appearance in the third of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, playing Captain Sao Feng, the pirate lord of the South China Sea.

The film took in a record $1.3 million on its opening day in China on Tuesday, the film's distributor, The Walt Disney Co., said.

Disney has said that some of the film's scenes were cut for cultural sensitivities.

"They weren't quite ecstatic with how the Chinese pirate was portrayed," Anthony Marcoly, distribution chief at Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Distribution International, said earlier this week.

It's pathetic.

I saw Batman Begins in the cinema here (my only trip 'to the pictures' since I have been in China - can't wait to catch a few good films at the Odeon in London this summer).  They cut a fight from the beginning of the film because it shows Batman kicking about 10 Chinese guys' arses. And later in the film, even weirder, Michael Caine is talking about where to get the ears for the Batsuit from, and he talks about 'getting them from China' and they cut that line in the cinema version too! 

Right on

another (unrelated ) stunt the studuios pull is to release a dvd with limited or no extras. As sales dwindle off they put out the deluxe with extra scenes etc making big fans buy it twice..

studios are scum---power to pirates...

It's pathetic.

I saw Batman Begins in the cinema here (my only trip 'to the pictures' since I have been in China - can't wait to catch a few good films at the Odeon in London this summer).  They cut a fight from the beginning of the film because it shows Batman kicking about 10 Chinese guys' arses. And later in the film, even weirder, Michael Caine is talking about where to get the ears for the Batsuit from, and he talks about 'getting them from China' and they cut that line in the cinema version too! 

The great irony to this is that most Chinese people who saw this film probably did so via an uncut, pirate DVD. I suppose it's about "face": censor the official release but really don't botehr with the illegal ones that are unfettered by keeping up the appearance of "saving face."

Well, the biggest problem is the price for an original. In Germany, a new movie is between 19

Or does anyone have a good DVD dealer in Shanghai selling german movies? 

This is vague and dated (2005), but a freind of mine took me to the area around Jiaotong University (which campus - I couldn't tell you because the information - sadly - washed over me at the time) had a shop that had one of the best, diverse selections of DVDs I've seen (In Hong Kong, China, Japan, the U. S., U. K., Canada, and Taiwan). I picked up the DVDs of:

Der Schweigende Stern (great East German space opera from the sixties)
Das Experiment (powerful rumination on human behavior from a few years ago)
Anatomie 1 & 2 (disposable, yet entertaining modern day slasher films set in medical schools)
Winnetou I (fun Euro-western from the sixties)
and
Harte Jungs (a so-so teen sex comedy. It was dubbed into English and called "Ants in the Pants.")

My advice is to ask university students, or a friend who knows the university areas well. That's where I was able to get better deals (prices - I bought so many I was able to talk the guy in the shop down to 5 RMB a disc and ended up purchasing 250 discs - 20 of them being the entire series of FRIENDS as a gift to the friend who introduced me to the place, and the other 220 were films that never received official DVD release in the United States, and 5 were defective, but it wasn't worth the time and expense to go back to the shop and replace them) and selection of films.

Happy hunting!

I'm curious to know whether this character actually hurts chinese feelings, or whether his toughness flatters them.

If nothing else, maybe he'll embarrass folks into cutting their nails once in a while.  I once got the palm of my hand cut up something fierce when a cashier gave me my change.

In the Tongji University campus (Siping Lu) there is a DVD shop that sells German movies - ask the students as it is a little bit hidden).

If nothing else, maybe he'll embarrass folks into cutting their nails once in a while.  I once got the palm of my hand cut up something fierce when a cashier gave me my change.

That's an ancient custom that tells you you're a valued customer, Con.

No, Parma, the bastard was getting a DNA sample.

We will know the results if "Clone Ate Dog" or "Jurassic Con" signs up for the saloon.

this thread was active a while ago, but I'm just now catching up. What's the deal with the fingernail? I haven't googled that one yet...

this thread was active a while ago, but I'm just now catching up. What's the deal with the fingernail? I haven't googled that one yet...

Chinese like to let the nail of the little finger grow as long as possible. In ancient times, it showed that he/she has done it and does not have to do hard work anymore. The same thing, why chinese like light skin - they do not have to work on the fields anymore.

Today, the long fingernail is for more practical reasons - cleaning nose, ears or teeth 

The fingernail also extends the length of the finger - and if your finger doesn't reach OVER the top joint on the ring finer it is supposed to be unlucky.  So...

and if your finger doesn't reach OVER the top joint on the ring finer it is supposed to be unlucky. 

I always thought, it is natural