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Movies, Movies and Movies...
Just a quick little difference in seeing movies over here.
1. Seating - When you buy your seat here, you are actually purchasing a seat, like you were at a play or a concert. There is no rush to get in the theatre to find the best seat since you already have an assigned seat. Sure, you can move if the theatre is less than full, but most just stay where they are. You have to ask for a certain area if you want it, or show them on a chart on the computer which shows you what is already taken, but the best thing is to use the automated ticket machines (if you are English) where you look, book and buy all in one. On that machine you find the seat(s) in the theatre you want, mark them and they are yours. It's so much better than the mad rush to get the best seats.
2. Entering - They only let you go into the theatre about five minutes or less before the movie starts. This way they can minimize the time between shows, and since all seats are assigned, it should be a fast thing to get everyone in and seated.
3. Subtitles - Every movie here has Mandarin subtitles... even the movies that are in Mandarin. Weird? Well, even all their TV shows have subtitles on them since Chinese is a hard language to hear and has so many different sounds to it, the subs help them. A few people I know are shocked that we don't have English subtitles on our TV shows back home.
4. Food - No candy here. You can get popcorn, pop or tea, hot dogs and churros. That's it. No candy or chocolate at all. This isn't as much of a candy culture, so a 200 pound bag of M&M's is not really something they require to watch a movie.
5. Renting - Sure, there is Blockbuster over here, but the local chains and small shops all have deals where you pay ahead and get credit on your card to rent. It is so much easier, plus they give you deals like the more you put on your card, the more bonus credit you get. I put $500nt on my card and I get a bonus 40% on top, so I get $700nt in rentals. For $1000nt, I get $1500nt in rentals and it just goes up from there. Blockbuster is about $100nt for a new release ($3.25 Can), but the smaller shops are much less. I pay $60nt ($2) for a new release at my shop, and I get the bonus credit at 40%, so really I pay $36nt ($1.20 Can) a movie, and way less for older releases.
6. Night Markets - Ummm... yeah. So if I go to Tonghua or Rouhe Street Night Markets on any night of the week there is always a bootleg stand there with the latest theatre releases there for $100nt. Most have good quality, some are from studio screeners, some are from DVDs and a lot are filmed int he theatre. It's cheap and an easy way to keep up with the latest stuff. A lot of the time the market will have things before the theatre if the movie was already released overseas. The selection is usually good with about 15-20 titles to choose from on any given night.
7. Chinese Bootlegs - These are usually pretty high quality rips of movies. The big thing here is American TV shows. One season of something like CSI in stores will cost you about $1700nt ($60+ Can), but online you can order the Chinese bootlegs that are much cheaper. With these you can get entire runs of shows with two, three or more seasons in the box usually for less than $600nt a box. I of course would never buy these, but as an example I would have bought these... Arrested Development Complete Series ($400nt), Rome Seasons 1-2 ($600nt), Las Vegas Seasons 1-4 ($500nt), CSI Miami Season 1-5 ($600nt), Lois and Clark Complete Series ($700nt) and so on. This of course is just an example and there is nothing showing you that I actually own these shows.
| | | Posted 5/6/2008 1:19 AM - 5 comments
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