I am happy to report that Dubai keeps coming up with little perks that make the transition to residence here a bit easier. And this week, the perk is...THE DOOR-TO-DOOR BOOTLEG DVD SALESLADY.
No longer must I worry that, being saddled with 3 small children who have turned bedtime drama into an art form, I am missing out on the cultural cinematic events of our time. Nay, now I can stand in my kitchen, pajama-clad as usual, and page through HUNDREDS of DVDs featuring currently released movies. My German neighbor took pity on me (bless her! she must have heard through the grapevine that I had resorted to reading books!) and pointed in my direction the petite Asian woman schlepping around an oversized duffle bag of contraband. Among her secret supply (I just recently saw in the newspaper that Dubai police are cracking down on these DVD bootlegs and other counterfeit items such as knockoff designer handbags) were, to name a few: Slumdog Millionaire, The Wrestler, Milk (not surprisingly, this film about the gay politician did not show in theaters here), Mama Mia, and Benjamin Button. And if I wasn't already in heaven flipping through the enormous universe of viewing options, my neighbor then gently informed me of the price per movie:
Two dollars and seventy-two cents.
Yes, I meant what I wrote: US $2.72 per film.
In other words, Mommy picked up *17* new DVDs for US $46. Yahoooo!
Now, surely all that glitters is not gold; our neighbors warned us that often the quality is not great, and sometimes, if you happen upon a movie that was filmed with someone's camcorder as opposed to having been copied from an actual DVD, you may have to watch your movie from behind a large hairdo or with a popcorn-toting audience member occasionally drifting by.
Well, I watched my first movie last night, and I am happy to report that I experienced neither of those annoying things! In fact, I wasn't even slightly bothered by the movie's two *minor* technical imperfections:
(1) The video did not match the audio. Meaning that I could hear the characters' thoughts moments before they opened their mouths to speak. Details, details! It added an enjoyable psychic quality to the experience.
and
(2) There were subtitles. Large ones, down at the bottom of the screen. In English, even though I was watching the English version. Weird, huh?
Oops, wait, I forgot to mention: The subtitles were for an ENTIRELY. DIFFERENT. MOVIE.
So what! Actually, I was thrilled: I got to watch a mediocre romantic comedy while at the same time reading a compelling spy thriller! In fact, I've done the math (don't think I didn't just look around for a calculator, cuz I did) and computed (in my head!) that I watched TWO movies last night for about $1.36 each! You just can't get that kind of service at Blockbuster, people.
So stay tuned *either* for a preview of all the next big releases I purchase, *or*, a narrative of the night I was hauled off to jail for knowingly engaging in business with a counterfeiter. Way I see it, it's a win-win (for the blog).
Ok, gotta go: girlfriend's got MOVIES TO WATCH! Bye for now....
1 comment:
When I was in Thailand I bought the new Twilight movie that just made it to theaters for my lil sis, who's pretty obsessed. So as we were watching the filmed-in-the-back-of-the-theater version, people had the nerve to stand up from their seats in the back row and block our view every now and then, hah!
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