Django Unchained, Flight, and Skyfall—I've Seen Them All In Taiwan for Free!

By Gregory K. Taylor

As I prepare to hibernate for the upcoming nine day Chinese Spring Festival, I am making my list of movies I will be watching to wile the time away. Virtually everything will be shut down from grocery stores, gyms, and food stands. Taipei, the bustling capitol of Taiwan, will be from the 9^th to the 18^th of February, 2013, a ghost town. The proverbial shoot a cannonball through the center of town without danger of hitting anyone. This can be a lonely time for a foreigner. I've experienced it before and there is just nothing to do during this time—sheer boredom. All the Chinese will, ritualistically, be celebrating the holidays at family gatherings leaving us foreigners to ourselves.

Ghost Town in northern China

First, I will be flying to Hong Kong on the 9th for my passport run—formerly Visa run. Since November of 2012, Americans no longer need a Visa to visit Taiwan. The reciprocal Visa Exemption Program allows for a 90 day stay on any one entry. If one wishes to stay longer than the 90 days they must leave the country and then come back—usually accomplished by a quick flight to Hong Kong.

Once I return, I will have to be self-sufficient for the next week plus two days and fight inactivity by reading, writing, hopefully exercising, and watching movies. And, not just any movies, but the most recently released movies. I'm not talking about third generation rip-offs either where the quality is hardly worth watching. I'm talking about High Definition first generation quality.

When I came to Taiwan I brought with me several DVDs to watch, so I could get a taste of home every now and then for the times when Chinese language TV starts to drive me a little crazy. My Chinese friend looked at my stack of DVDs and asked why I brought them because, according to him, no one watches DVDs anymore. What did he mean no one watches DVDs anymore? Why of course they do and that's why I brought mine! A day or two later he uploaded a program called “Funshion” from an internet site easily found through a Google search to my computer. I was told this was a site out of mainland China that provides Chinese, European, and American movies. 

While America was debating the merits of Django Unchained , I typed in the title, waited for the green light (you will understand this once you use the site), and began to watch the movie. In fact, I've watched the movie a couple of times. I've also watched the Denzel Washington movie “Flight.” I have been able to watch many cable TV series, such as, Boardwalk, The Last Resort, The Walking Dead, and Hell on Wheels to name a few. And when I get a bit nostalgic, I spin up classics like, Ben Hur, Spartacus, and From Here to Eternity.  Funshion's library appears to be limitless.

Funshion main page

I don't pretend to understand the intricacies of how the Chinese do it, but they have, in the past, been the masters at intellectual property theft.  I've asked around about this website and it has been suggested that there might be some tacit agreement between Hollywood and China as it relates to copyright issues.  That is to say, this must be another revenue source for Hollywood under the principle of if you can't root it out or control it, then get some revenue from it—something of something is better than nothing of something. Whatever the reasons are for this site, I must admit it really brings a piece of home to my doorstep over here. If one watches American movies plus cable TV programming distance becomes just a state of mind.

Not every movie "Funshion" lists is available for viewing. I've concluded once a movie has been given Chinese subtitles it then gets the green light for public consumption.

If Youtube has you blocked in America, I uploaded another version at:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtANrMc1dzA&feature=share

www.funshion.com