Pirated Copy

All over China, in the city and the countryside, you can find illegal DVDs and video cassettes of well-known Western feature films. People acquire their knowledge of films from these pirate versions and so far there hasn't been a single feature film to focus on this phenomenon. He Jianjun, well-known in Rotterdam and someone who was best known for his unusual narrative technique and calm, atmospherically lit feature films about contemporary Chinese life, here skilfully uses the DV camera. The stories are set during a cold winter in Beijing. The people selling illegal DVDs are everywhere: in shopping centres, on viaducts, around the bars and at the university. The film follows a variety of characters related to their favourite films. After leaving university, Shen Ming lives on a menu of DVDs. He meets the pretty yet indifferent Mei Xiaojing, who wants to throw all her inhibitions overboard à la Almodovar. We see a drummer who lives alone and became HIV positive after a medical error. Seeing A River Runs Through It makes him move to the infinity and peace of the coast. An unemployed couple uses violent films (such as Pulp Fiction) to express their frustrations. But when they set out with fake guns to commit a robbery, they are disenchanted. The illegal DVDs, it becomes apparent, open up a road to a new and unknown world for the characters, one that is even able to change their lives.