DVDos and DVDon’ts
perhaps i was bored. more likely, i was procrastinating doing something that really mattered. but for whatever reason, in the days leading up to my return to shanghai, i organized and cataloged all the DVDs i purchased in china last year. there are almost 200 titles on the list. which means the entire collection cost less than $200. all of these discs were purchased on the black market (which is actually rather out in the open here), but their quality, for the most part, is very good — and they all worked on my DVD player in the USA.
i would like to thank shanghai’s booming black market for making all of this possible. i would also like to thank the customs staff at JFK airport for not showing the slightest interest in what might have been entering america in my luggage.
there are many great movies listed below — i was trying to start a collection. there are also a handful of really bad ones, too — maybe i was drunk when i bought them, i don’t know. anyway, it should give you a good representation of what you can find on the streets of communist china. i have a feeling you’ll be surprised.
keep in mind, this list does not include the 100 or so TV DVDs that i purchased last year.
(it also doesn’t include the 22 DVDs i bought on sunday … my first full day back in china. gems picked up on that shopping spree include confessions of a dangerous mind, breakin’, a clockwork orange, three days of the condor, deliverance, so i married an axe murderer, pee-wee’s big adventure, three amigos and, yes, four episodes of the super friends.)
here’ s the list:
2001: A Space Odyssey
25th Hour
About a Boy
About Schmidt
Adaptation
All About My Mother
All That Jazz
Amelie
American Beauty
American Psycho
Amores Perros
Antwone Fisher
Apocalypse Now
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
Badlands
Barton Fink
Beautiful People
Being John Malkovich
Big Lebowski, The
Blood Simple
Blow
Blue Velvet
Boogie Nights
Bottle Rocket
Bourne Identity, The
Bowling For Columbine
Breaking the Waves
Bridget Jones’s Diary
Bringing Down the House
Buffalo 66
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Cable Guy, The
Candidate, The
Carlito’s Way
Casino
Catch-22
Changing Lanes
Chicago
Chorus Line, A
Cinema Paradiso
Citizen Kane
City of God
City of Lost Children, The
Claim, The
Coming to America
Confidence
Contact
Crash
Crime of Padre Amaro, The
Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, The
Daredevil
Das Boot
Day For Night
Dead Again
Deer Hunter, The
Die Another Day
Donnie Brasco
Donnie Darko
Dr. Strangelove
Ed Wood
Eyes Wide Shut
Far From Heaven
Fargo
Femme Fatale
Fight Club
Fish Called Wanda, A
French Connection, The
From Hell
Fugitive, The
Full Frontal
Full Metal Jacket
Game, The
Gangs of New York
Gattaca
General Idi Amin Dada
Getaway, The
Glengarry Glen Ross
Godfather, The
Godfather: Part II, The
Godfather: Part III, The
Good Girl, The
Goodfellas
Graduate, The
Grease
Grey Zone, The
Hands on a Hard Body
Happy, Texas
Hard Eight
Heist
Hero
Hours, The
Human Nature
Igby Goes Down
Il Postino
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Insider, The
Insomnia
Irreversible
Jackie Brown
JFK
Journey to the Sun
Kalifornia
King of New York
Kissing Jessica Stein
Knockaround Guys
L.A. Confidential
Lady From Shanghai, The
Last Picture Show, The
Last Temptation of Christ, The
Little Voice
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The
Manchurian Candidate, The
Mars Attacks!
Matador
Max
Meet the Parents
Memento
Miller’s Crossing
Minority Report
Mission: Impossible
Moonlight Mile
Mulholland Drive
Narc
National Security
Natural Born Killers
North by Northwest
Notorious
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Ocean’s Eleven
Office Space
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
One Hour Photo
Others, The
Out of Sight
Panic Room
Personal Velocity
Phone Booth
Pianist, The
Platoon
Player, The
Princess Bride, The
Professional, The
Pulp Fiction
Punch-Drunk Love
Quiet American, The
Raging Bull
Recruit, The
Red Dragon
Red Violin, The
Requiem for a Dream
Reservoir Dogs
Ring, The
Road to Perdition
Roger Dodger
Royal Tenenbaums, The
Run Lola Run
Rushmore
Se7en
Secretary
Shanghai Triad
Shaolin Soccer
Sidewalks of New York
Silence of the Lambs, The
Sling Blade
Snatch
Solaris
Solaris
Spirited Away
Steel Magnolias
Storytelling
Straight Story, The
Straw Dogs
Sum of All Fears, The
Suspiria
Taxi Driver
Tears of the Sun
Thirteen Days
Three Kings
Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down
Traffic
Trainspotting
Twelve Monkeys
Twin Falls Idaho
Uncle Saddam
Undisputed
Usual Suspects, The
Vacas
Victory
Welcome to Collinwood
Westworld
Y Tu Mama Tambien
Zoolander
09.03.2003, 1:00 PM · Movies, Observations
1 Comments
Nice list Dan, but where’s the Clint Eastwood movies.