DVD Sources

Sometimes I get asked, “… Where do you find these movies??”

Since I live in a small town and don’t often get to go to the ‘big city’ I do the majority of my DVD buying online. Add in the fact that I mainly watch non-Hollywood films? It’s difficult to impossible to find a lot of these movies in a store somewhere.

Bollywood

When I started out I bought some Bollywood films from Amazon.com, which was killer. They have higher prices, a smaller collection, and shipping that makes me sad on top of that.

I later discovered an eBay store based in India: The Absolute Indian Store. I still buy movie posters and yearly Shahrukh Khan calendars (for 2010 I’m actually going with a You’re Beautiful calendar from YesAsia.com), but I don’t buy much for DVDs from there anymore. I must say that it’s a great store, and the posters/DVDs/etc are always package amazingly well!

My main source of Bollywood DVDs? Nehaflix.com. Low prices, huge selection, decent shipping, great customer service, and they often have $5 sales and 10% coupons.

I do know of two Indian markets in the city that do sell Bollywood movies and music, but the one place has prices a lot higher than Nehaflix.com, and the other (that also sells African movies and Pakistani dramas) only sells illegal copies that they make themselves.

I’ll just… stick with Nehaflix…

I must point out a general rule though – do NOT read the back of the DVD before you watch it. Nine out of ten times you’ll spoil the entire plot for yourself. It’s better to watch the movie, then read the back and see how accurate it is (sometimes it’s completely wrong).

Tollywood

While Nehaflix.com does have some Tollywood films available, I like buying them from BhavaniDVD.com instead. They have cheaper prices for the Tollywood DVDs than Nehaflix, and a much wider selection. They also have Bollywood, Kollywood and some Sandalwod DVDs, but I’ve only purchased Tollywood DVDs so far from there.

China/Japan/South Korea

One website: YesAsia.com. It’s amazing. I also purchased my region-free DVD player from there and I’m extremely happy with it.

They have many editions of a movie, but since I’m not really much for fancy extras, I usually just go with the cheapest one. In a recent order I realized that I had a North American distributed Chinese edition of the South Korean film Piano Man.

Every now and then though I will find some Chinese/Japanese/South Korean films in HMV or even the Bargain Shop. I recently found the Chinese film P.T.U and a pack of Jackie Chan movies from the Bargain Shop in a nearby town for $3 and $10 (respectively).

But generally if I’m looking for film from China/Japan/South Korea on DVD? YesAsia.com. Plus, they have a whole ton of other stuff. Like a 2010 You’re Beautiful calendar and fancy Korean dress bookmarks… I have purchased these things, yes, I will admit…

Iran

I even found a website solely for films from Iran. IranianMovies.com

I’ve only ordered from there twice, and I have enjoyed the films I purchased. A thing I love about it is that if you spend $30 or more (which isn’t hard), you can choose a free CD or DVD from a list. On my first order I got this free Persian techno CD (by some artist I cannot remember off the top of my head) which hovers a fine line between awesome and hilariously cheesy. On my second order I had a choice basically between some documentaries, some Disney movies dubbed in Persian, or this film Maxx. I went with Maxx. It was a musical comedy that was very, very odd and surprisingly hilarious (save for a few anti-America references that rubbed me the wrong way).

I suspect that my name may be on some list, though. When I got the first order in the mail it had a big sticker on it saying that it was inspected by customs. And ever since (in general) my orders have been inspected more and more… I never had a package inspected by customs before that…