For the observant, browsing through the bootleg DVD shops here can be quite rewarding. Firstly, the covers were definitely designed by non-native speakers of English, because their hype quotes on the front of the box are sometimes ambivalent or downright negative about the film. My favorite was for "Step Up 2: The Streets," which proudly displayed the faint praise, "
It's no Stomp the Yard, but it's alright!"
There are also curiosities of selection. While you're guaranteed to have the current blockbusters and popular tv show box sets, there are always certain unusual offerings, like 8-in-1 selections of Oscar winners from the 20s and 30s or 9/11 conspiracy documentaries. But more to the point, there are a ton of quality documentaries available, I reckon as the joint result of backpacker/NGO-worker demand and ease of supply (I'm guessing the maker of
a movie about philosophers talking is maybe not as zealous about copyright infringement as the big studios. After all, for small players in the creative arts,
obscurity is a far greater threat than piracy.) As a result of this, I got to watch the wonderfully entertaining documentary,
No Impact Man.
I really liked it, and it spurred a couple of thoughts:
