Copyright law is a tricky subject. Most of you would probably agree that musicians and filmmakers should be compensated for their art, but you have also probably used file sharing. File sharing has enriched many people's lives, including my own, by granting exposure to new styles that they couldn't otherwise afford.
In China, the copyright is one of many issues that the government has neither the means nor the will to do anything about. The result is that when you walk down the street - or alley or subway station or just about anywhere else - you will find that the most common street vendor is selling poorly packaged versions of all your favorite Hollywood movies at laughingly low prices.
Unfortunately, either Chinese people have bad taste in American cinema, or the good ones get sold too quickly for me to keep up. It is almost depressing, though, to find dozens of copies of "Norbit" and "Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer" in the inventory of every vendor. Even the standard 5-RMB (75-cent) price tag is far too much to spend here. I once asked a street vendor in my substandard Chinese how much he would pay me to take "Norbit" off his hands. Sure, he laughed at my joke, but I could tell he was considering it.
There are some good titles to be discovered, but it takes a little searching. When the title "Black Sheep" (1996) caught my eye, I was eager to relive the old Chris Farley movie, but the picture on the cover told a different story. A menacing-looking sheep stands on the roof of a car with a batch of teenagers trembling inside.
This was intriguing, but what sold me was the tagline: "There are 40 million sheep in New Zealand ... and they are pissed off!" I must say, this DVD was well worth those 75 cents. It has all the qualities of a great movie: corny lines, bad acting, evil hippies and, of course, mutant killer sheep. It can't touch this year's "Eagle vs. Shark," but "Black Sheep" was without a doubt the second-best movie to come out of New Zealand that I've seen in the last two months.
Even when I was lucky enough to find my favorite movie of the year, "Grindhouse," I was pleased to find a healthy dose of Chinese randomness on the packaging. Though it mostly looked like it should, I was a little confused when I read the quote from the "New York Times" across the top.
It reads, "Justin Timberlake gives a fine, sensitive performance." Did I miss something? Was he one of the zombies? Though the movie blew my mind, "fine" and "sensitive" are not words that I would use to describe it. Some teenage Chinese boy band fanatic is in for a big surprise.
Though I have taken full advantage of the DVD situation in China, I do feel guilty at times. I kind of wish I had paid more than $3 for the complete series of "Seinfeld." Sure, it's a little out of hand, but it's pretty cool to think that this attitude towards copyright is the same one that created the entire Hollywood industry.
With film technology still under patent in the eastern United States, filmmakers fled west to California, which was once a haven of lawlessness. The process, of course, came full circle, as it will surely play out in China.
As consumerism and wealth increase at unprecedented levels, capitalist greed will without a doubt put an end to piracy. At least, that's my excuse for buying "Navy Seals" (1990).
Yes, Charlie Sheen, you rebel with a heart of gold: I'd love another rain grenade.
