Go to any bar on Sanlitun Lu (the British bar street) and there will be a semi-resident local there with a stack of DVD's for sale. Without being asked, they will sit at your table and thrust into your hands a pile of DVD's in an attempt to get you to buy them.

Since Hannah and I are beginning to run low on English language entertainment (taken gratefuly from assorted friends), we decided that we may as well have a look through one of these people's selections and buy any that took our fancy. After all, they work out at approximately 40p - 55p each depending on how much you are willing to haggle. We pulled out a few, made a our purchase and decided to leave and test some of our new films out.

We had heard rumours that, while most of the films will be DVD quality, there will always be a handful that are, er, not DVD quality (for instance, people filming the latest Hollywood blockbuster while watching it at their local cinema, you know the sort). So far we've been lucky to avoid anything that bad. The worst we've had is the picture reminding me of watching a film on video in the 80's. Bearable.

The packaging is just as amusing, though. Unless you decide to buy something high quality (and high priced) from a proper store, all DVD's come in cardboard cases in various different languages. They all look high quality enough, the proper film cover in high resolution, but it's the writing and small plot synopsis on the back that reminds you that this is cheaper than cheap. I'll give you an example; we bought a film called "The Contract" starring Morgan Freeman and John Cusack. The picture quality of this film is of DVD standard, so there are no problems there, but it's what's written on the back that I love (and this is verbatim):

"Ray Keene (Cusack), a father who wants to redeem himself in the eyes of his son, is trying to bring Cordell (Freeman), a world-class assassin to justice. All the while, he must protect his son and evade the assassin's team who are methodically hunting them down in the wilderness. I'll admit, I had fairly high hopes for this film. I like Morgan Freeman. I think everyone does. The idea of Morgan Freeman playing a villain sounded great. The premise seemed a little simple - but many great ideas are simple. Then I saw the movie. Within the first twenty minutes, realized what it was - another poorly written, poorly directed, poorly acted and illogical action/adventure movie. I like the genre, don't get me wrong, but the whole 'good-hearted average joe is outnumbered by trained assassins and manages."

And there it ends. Brilliant and a top selling point of the DVD as well. I certainly bought it for no other reason. Why would I want to watch a DVD which is critically damning itself?