I was curious to know if any of you have come across some of the rarer editions for DVDs such as Region 5 in Africa. I've found no e-tailer online from any of the African Region 5 countries. I am not surprised by this of course, but was wondering if anyone has come across any DVDs either mainstream Hollywood films or locally produced films from Africa.

From sites I've seen, the African films that ARE available online are coded Region 2, I would assume for the South African (RSA) market.

I also wonder if, since the advent of DVD, if this has given an edge to Indian Bollywood films (also a Region 5 country) or films originating from Russia or Eastern/Central Europe (other Region 5 areas) in that area.

Another question I have is that I've come across Hebrew dubs of Hollywood films on Israeli sites (another Region 2 country). Do Arabic dubs exist for the countries of the Arab World, or does this region import European Region 2 DVDs with Arabic subtitling.

Another subtitling/dubbing question I have, is that I've noticed that films for the China market (Region 6) often have dubs in Mandarin, while films for the Hong Kong/Macau market (Region 3) have subtitles only in Chinese (I assume traditional characters), and the audio dub is often in Thai. Why is Thai singled out in this region and not Tagalog, Korean, or some other regional language.

Anyway, what I've noticed so far, I'm sure there are must be many examples contrarian to what I've posted, but only writing what I've observed so far, and yes I know that there's more to international films than what Hollywood produces obviously, just wondering about all of this in general.

And, yeah, I know I write book-long posts. Sorry in advance for that.

Larry

Hi Larry G, and a belated welcome to the forum........whether the advent of DVD or the availability of Indian e-tailers, I'd say neither is as big a factor to any perceived "edge" to Indian cinema as it might be to a lot of other countries.

Now I'm no expert on this stuff but here's what I gather....while India is a Region 5 Pal nation, pretty much all their DVDs are coded Region 0 NTSC. So even in the UK (R2 PAL), an Indian film will be coded RO NTSC (I understand that, as opposed to the U.S., region-free capability is much more standard in the UK and other places).

The reason for the Region 0 NTSC coding is that, perhaps more than any other nation, the export market or to be precise people of Indian ethnicity and Indians living outside of India (particularly in the U.S./Canada) are just as much a target to Indian filmmakers as is there local population. This of course is tied to, among other things, economics and the power of foreign currency.

Indian cinema is (and has long been) readily available via Indian ethnic grocery stores or even dedicated video stores in virtually any major metro area in the U.S., Canada, U.K. Also, while outside of the mainstream, a large number of Indian films receive theatrical releases in the U.S. (these releases even coincide with the film's release in India). Also, pretty much all Indian cinema comes with English subtitles. If there is any surge in popularity of Indian cinema, it is more likely attributed to the swelling Indian population in the U.S. (IT industry, hotel/motel, convenience store, gas stations, newsstands, etc.), U.K., and other nations. Naturally as the population grows, the culture will spread and become more accessible, and outsiders will find more availability to explore the culture if they so desire. Personally, given its ease of availability, I am in a way surprised that Indian cinema is relatively ignored in forums like this and in other arenas as well. I accept that a lot of the Internet forums are primarily geared towards young males with a preference for action/horror/scifi/fantasy/animation which are not really strong areas for Indian cinema......and that Indian cinema is often popular only (and often deservingly) for bashing.......but still, I think there are yet more reasons for the oversight. I believe that there are some Indian films that, if they were the same film except made by Thailand, Japan, Korea, etc., then they'd get a lot more attention (I suppose liking Indian cinema isn't cool). As someone who likes the song & dance, I sometimes bristle at people slamming that aspect of India cinema........the most recent "Zatoichi" can have a song and it is charming or some other such sentiment and yet in Indian cinema it is seen as a shortcoming. Take the recent HK film "Perhaps Love", a musical (with the assist of Bollywood talent), I wonder how many people watched it yet would have ignored it if it were from India instead. Similarly, people can accept "Chicago", "Moulin Rouge", etc. but not the musical aspect of Indian cinema. It's okay for other national cinemas to have their own particular conventions (whatever they may be) but not okay for India. The sad part is that this sort of Western-world cultural imperialism has spread to people like once promising Indian Director now turned overrated sub-hack Ram Gopal Varma (by the way, from interviews I've read he comes across as a complete and total a**). He seems often - and now undeservingly, given the route he has taken - singled out for positive attention yet all he seems inspired to do nowadays are mostly uninspired rehashes of typical Hollywood fare or previous Indian films. His vision for the future is apparently nothing more than middlin' Hollywood fare except made by India. Is that what outsider viewers want from Indian cinema, a reaffirmation of only the things they as outsiders find acceptable aka the style of films they already watch with any uniqueness being only surface at best. I guess this is something I wonder about at large.....with the world growing smaller I suppose many things will start to take on more of a sort of world culture as people learn (and resultingly become more accepting and tolerant) about others and differences start to break down (undoubtedly good for the most part, but still I wonder).

Also, though you are most likely aware, but just to clarify.......while Bollywood is often used as a synonym for Indian cinema (I often slip and do the same), it is only a segment (albeit the largest and generally the most popular) of Indian cinema. Hindi is the national language of India and Bollywood films are in the Hindi language. But there are also other Hindi-language films which are outside of the more commercial Bollywood style. Also, many states within India have thriving film industries based on their own state language. Tamil and Telugu-language cinema both produce a large number of films...there is also acclaimed Bengali cinema.......and others such as Malayalam, Marathi, etc. Often, a popular film in any given language will also get remade in other languages as well.

Hmm...and you - Larry G - thought you had to apologize for a long post.....I'm the king of long-winded (and maybe useless too). Nonetheless, despite my not really answering any of your primary questions, I hope you found what I wrote on some level interesting (or at least a beneficial time killer). I suppose I should have just posted most of this in the Indian cinema thread instead.

It's too bad that most Bollywood movies suck considering they consistently have anamorphic video, DD 5.1 Hindi, and English subtitles. And then countries with great movies, such as France, rarely get English subtitles...

Indian cinema is good, but it's just unbelievable that the most popular genre of Indian cinema, Bollywood, can release non-stop crap after crap.