Dowbrigade

One
of the movies we are most pleased to have captured on our iBook for the
Great Experiment is the Quentin Tarrentino blood fest, Kill Bill part
1.  We are amazed and impressed with the filmmaking art which has
taken martial arts carnage and mayhem and raised them to a surrealistic
level where they are hypnotically artful rather than repugnant.

Today Part II hit the theaters, and we are sorry that we can’t head
right out to the Revere multiplex to finish the story, which the New
York Times in its
review calls "the most voluptuous comic-book movie
ever made". However, we are probably not going to have to wait until
we return to the States in July to watch it, even if it doesn’t make
it to the regular movie houses here in Ecuador.  We expect to be
able to watch it on DVD very shortly.

Months ago, when we were bursting with cyber-pride at the illicit ability
to use Bit Torrent to find and download feature films like this, we were
bragging to Number 1 Son, currently hanging in a tiny Andean village
in Peru, that we had captured it to our hard drive and would be bringing
it with us when we visited, he nonchalantly shot back, "Oh, I already
have that one".  Considering that it was at that point not
yet out officially on DVD we were incredulously curious as to how he
managed to get it so quickly. "They sell all of the new movies here
on the street," he explained.

In a curious reversal of traditional distribution patterns which no
doubt is stirring disquiet in major studios and the motion picture industry,
pirate versions of first run movies are reaching a world-wide underground
market in a matter of days.  Exactly how this is happening remains
something of a mystery to the Dowbrigade, but since we have arrived in
Ecuador we can now personally testify that it is fact; movies which are
still in theaters in the US are freely available from street vendors
here in the third world, complete with professional-looking packaging
and cases.  Just today, for example, we were offered "The Passion
of the Christ" and "The Punisher".

The quality is reportedly uneven.  Some of these movies are high
quality copies of the official versions, while others were shot with
hand-held video recorders from seats in theaters, and there is no way
to verify
what you are getting until you pop it into your DVD player or computer.  But
the price is right – $1 per movie, and at that price seems worth giving
a try.

We ask ourselves, "How can they be that cheap, if in the US even
a blank, recordable DVD costs more than a dollar?" But, incredible
as it seems, that is the going price, the pirates are doing a booming
business, and
obviously there is room for a profit margin in there somewhere. Equally
obviously, it would cost Miramax many thousands of times that to investigate,
confiscate,
litigate
or
castigate
every Juan
Rodriguez
selling
"Kill Bill"
on some sidewalk in Huaraz, Peru.  This improbably chain of pirate
capitalism is being repeated and spreading like a virus millions of times
a day around the globe, and will be decidedly difficult to accurately
measure, let alone control or eliminate.

At any rate, we plan to keep an eye out and will report back in this
space as soon as a copy of "Part II" hits the street.  We
are willing to bet it will be a matter of days rather than weeks or the
months it will take to make it to Blockbuster.  When we get our
copy (purely as part of our ongoing investigation into digital distribution
and underground economies) we will post a report on the quality as well.

review of Kill Bill pt II from
the New
York Times

Once again, South Korea has provided a valuable lesson in the changing
tides of time and the role of digital democracy in a wired society.  As
reported in this space, two years ago South Korea elected a virtual unknown,
Roh Moon Hyun, to the presidency, largely on the wings of an internet-based youth
movement outside the traditional parameters of party politics.

As is to be expected, the old guard of Korean politics, behind the long-ruling
Grand National Party and its corporate allies, fought back from their
traditional power base in the National Assembly and managed to impeach
Roh Moon Hyun, who was forced to cede power while the formal impeachment
process works its way through the courts.

Many observers felt this proved that although the cyber campaign had
managed to deliver Roh to power in an electoral fluke, the lack of connections
and support amoung the entrenched economic and media conglomerates made
it impossible for him to govern. Now, in a stunning reaffirmation that
the profound gernerational changes in the balance of power are more than
a passing phenomena, Roh’s party, the URI, has swept congressional elections
delivering an absolute majority in the new term which is expected to
return Roh to power as soon as next month.

American pundits who similarly see the Howard Dean phenomena as an abberation
rather than the first step in a transformative revolution should take
note – we ain’t seen nothing yet…

SEOUL — South Korean voters swept the Uri Party allied to impeached
President Roh Moon Hyun into power yesterday in key legislative elections.
The vote handed control of the National Assembly to a party whose top
leadership advocates rapprochement with North Korea and greater independence
from the United States, Seoul’s traditional ally.

from the Washington Post