Good movie rental stores?

Anyone know where there’s a good store to rent DVDs/VCDs, including not just recent mainstream crap, but foreign films and classics?

In particular, I want to show my gf one of my favorite movies, “The Man Who Would be King.” My local place never heard of it and thinks it’s probably VHS only, but their selection sucks and their answer seemed to be a standard Taiwanese wild guess answer.

I’d be especially happy to learn of such a place near Minsheng/Tunhua, but anywhere will do.

If you know the Chinese name, ask at Blockbuster if they can order it for you …

I’m sure I’ve seen that on offer here on DVD, but the question is, where? Possibly KPS, possibly Blockbuster. How’s that for specifics? :unamused: Sorry.

You could also try SPOT – the Eslite branch up there specializes in classic DVDs, but you’d have to buy it – no rentals. Is TMWWBK considered a classic? If it isn’t, it damn well should be.

“So Pinky fell …”

I’ve found some Blockbusters that carry a number of foreign films. Try the one on Chung Hsiao b[/b]/Tun Hua, in the basement below Tower records.

The SOGO at Chung Hsiao b[/b]/FuXing is currently selling a wide variety of classic DVDs for NT$99 if you buy 5. A good deal if you like the old films. John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, Kirk Douglas, Audrey Hepburn, etc.

I too prefer interesting indie or foreign films and older movies. I have only checked out the odd Blockbuster or two and have not found much at all worth renting. When I first got into VCDs a couple of years ago I took a membership in a little shop near Shitta Rd and have yet to finish the NT$1,000 minimum I bought.

I was in the FNAC store near the train station last weekend and saw a better selection of DVDs, but of course those are for sale and usually start at NT$800 or so. Kinda pricey for something you might only watch once.

Mother Theresa, is that the Sean Connery/Micheal Caine version of “The Man Who Would be King”? If you find it would you post where, that is a great movie. Also Sandman, could you tell me where SPOT is? I’d like to check out that Eslite. Also, is KPS the place on Fushing? Are they any good?

Yes, Sean Connery/Michael Caine from about 30 years ago. Haven’t found it yet, but at the above suggestions I’ve moved on to Blockbuster. I too paid $1,000 at a local store and don’t know if I’ll use it up. Blockbuster is better than the local store, though I haven’t been to the above locations yet. That’s on my to do list. So is SPOT. I too would be curious to hear what/where that is.

There is a shop off Shida Road (only one on Longquan Street? across from a cafe) that rents out a few classics and a whole lot of region one (US) dvds. They have a great collection of those region ones, if your player can play them. They don’t have chinese subtitles, however, but they have the film “The Man who wasn’t there” (coen bros), for example, so the selection is sweet.

Costco has these classic box sets for sale with ten movies in them for about $300. I’ve bought three, most recently a set of Hitchcocks. I think I recall seeing “Man who would be King” in one of the sets!! They have about 20 diff sets, so you need to rummage through them.

But if not, probably best to order on line, but only if your dvd player will play all regions. Luckily, mine does, so I never have to worry if I can watch something or not, whether they’re US dvds, copies from SE Asia or China, UK or Europe, etc.
When buying dvd player, ALWAYS be sure it’s modified to ‘play all’, or you’ll be sooooo disappointed.

Since we’re talking about a film featuring British empire builders fighting the fuzzy-wuzzies whilst keeping a stiff upper lip, do not, I repeat DO NOT rent or buy The Four Feathers – what a load of absolute crap!

Does anyone know of a decent store near RenAi and Hsinsheng Sth Rds? I’ve been looking for ages but have only come across one or two small family-run stores…

Cheers,

The Big Babou

I second Frederika’s recommendation of the VCD store on Longquan St, Shida market. The region 1 DVDs are good int hat you can be sure they’ll have the special features, and not be ‘Taiwan Cheapies’ whose special features are limited to Chinese or English subtitles. Or you canget the unfucked-up version of Memento foir example. They also have a better than average selection of ‘normal’ region 3 movies.

Someone mentioned the cheapie old mives you can buy for 100NT each. You can buy those a lot of places. The cheapest I’ve seen is 7 for 500NT in the basement under the bridge at the computer market. From those oldies that I bought I recommend ‘Casablanca’ ‘Modern Times’ (Chaplin), ‘The Magnificent Seven’ ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ ‘The Big Sleep’ and ‘Rope’ which are all good to brilliant movies. Any other good suggestions?

Brian

The cheapest I’ve seen is NT$9 – that’s NINE new Taiwan dollars for VCDs of “Nuremberg” and “Pulp Fiction” at the Blockbuster in Hsintien.

[quote=“Sir Donald Bradman”]
Someone mentioned the cheapie old mives you can buy for 100NT each. You can buy those a lot of places. The cheapest I’ve seen is 7 for 500NT in the basement under the bridge at the computer market. [/quote]

No, the cheapest are the boxed sets of ten dvds from Costco for $319. Making them about $32 per dvd.

They’re called “Oscar best movie collection”
I’ve already bought three, and they’re semi-themed (Marilyn Monroe classics, Bond classics, Hitchcock classics, etc, but with other films thrown in for fun.

Set #2:
Dr. No
From Russia w Love
Goldfinger
The Searchers
Desk Set
Stagecoach
Pink Panther
Diane
Maltese Falcon
Ghost and Mrs. Muir

Set #3
Big Country
Magnif Obsession
How to marry a Millionaire
7 Year Itch
March of wooden soldiers
Some like it hot
To kill a mockingbird
Love is a many splendid thing
Boy w green hair
Grapes of Wrath

Set #7
North by Northwest
Marnie
Rope
Dial M for Murder
Birds
Vertigo
Charade
Psycho
Manchurian Candidate
Rear Window

There’s one more set of Hitchcocks I want to get. Maybe today. I’m going to Costco this afternoon, so I’ll check if they have “The Man who would be King” in one of the collections. I think I remember seeing it.

I just wish the weather would get rainy so I could sit around watching them on Sunday afternoons.

But it would be a profitable venture if someone opened a DVD rental shop that stocked classics, cult films, hard to find films in Taiwan, BBC films, boxed set television series from UK, Standup comedy routines, classic rock musical films (The Wall, Tommy, etc), foreign language films with both chinese and english subtitles (although this might be difficult in that the local distribution companies are tight asses and have limited range or knowledge when selecting what to translate here, although they are getting better).
In fact, a shop of this type would probably have to stock most dvds WITHOUT chinese subtitles because they’d have to be ordered from overseas. I wonder about this.
I remember many many years ago, there was a MTV, can’t remember the name, across from where Gold’s gym now stands, that had a bang up assortment of Laser discs organised by directors and countries, but they got closed down when there were raids on MTVs in early 90s. Does anyone else remember that place?

These $100NT DVDs are cheap, but not good value from what I can see. They are too cheap to use double layered disks so they either cram the whole film only a single layered disc (As shown by DVD-5 on the back) which can only make the quality suffer, or they put the film on 2 sides of a single layered (DVD-10) so you have to turn it over in the middle :unamused: instead if putting it all on one side of a double layered disk like full price ones. Some of them are pan and scan so you only see two thirds of the picture and they only put stereo sound on and of course not a single extra, missing the whole point of dvd, might as well be on a vcd etc etc… blah blah blah…

/end of dvd snob rant, I’ve never even watched one of these cheap disks so I don’t know what I’m talking about anyway

The ones I have are fine. Really! Whole screen image too. They have the black on the bottom and top of some films to account for the format.

Fair enough then, I’m too much of a snob to buy anything that cheap, but that means I haven’t bought anything lately :frowning:
But I do buy the second hand ones from Blockbuster

Amazon delivers to Taiwan albeit you have to pay for delivery and a small tax on DVDs. They are selling it for US$16.99.

Anyone seen ‘The Kingdom’ part two for rent anywhere in Taipei?

Brian

Hi there. You might want to try the Taipei Film Archive for a very extensive selection of Western classics, art films, and Chinese-language films. You’ll need to get a membership and you have to watch the films there. It’s on Chungdau E. Road, behind the Lai Lai Sheraton by the Train Station, on the 6th floor. Sorry I don’t have the exact address on hand. Call ahead and request a special screening room.

The film archive. That;s gold. I now remember someone telling me about that place years ago, but I’d totally forgotten.
Cheers
Brian

I was in Taichung this weekend and went to the 8 1/2 Classic Theatre, which is a cafe run by a movie fan named Mr. Hwang. I’ve read about this place a few times in the local papers.

Anyway, you can rent movies from the archives. I paid $3000 for a membership which allows me to rent 50 movies. I took a dozen home with me. The great thing is you don’t have to go back to Taichung to drop them off, but just mail them. All future rentals can then be handled by mail. In other words, you email him the movies you want and he sends them to you. VHS and DVD’s are available. You can keep the videos for a couple of weeks before returning. I think he would want the DVD’s back a little earlier.

The address is 592 Huei Wen Rd.
Tel: 04 2252 0661