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 9th
to the 18th 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.
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| 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.
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| 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
If Youtube has you blocked in America, I uploaded another version at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtANrMc1dzA&feature=share
www.funshion.com
