Cover Story: Beyond the blockbusters
Warming to global cinema: Your guide to foreign film rental in Austin
By John DeForeFebruary 12, 2004
Two years ago, this newspaper ran a story on out-of-the-way sources for off-the-radar world cinema. It wasn't that long ago, but already things have changed.
And, with each passing year, the Internet's importance grows. (For fans looking to collect non-Hollywood movies, there are simply too many Web resources -- and too many caveats about varying legal and quality issues -- to get into here.)
But for those looking to rent, cyberspace may be more trouble than it's worth. After all, within a magical few square miles in North Austin, there are more kinds of movies than are dreamt of in Gene Shalit's philosophy.
Gastronom, now known as Sasha's (5523 Balcones Drive), is in a shopping center at RM 2222, nestled between Twin Liquors and a bakery catering to canines. Small displays hold a few dozen DVDs and slightly more VHS tapes of Russian films, some for rent and some not. A few of the discs offer English subtitles, but others don't, and some of them won't even play on American televisions -- they're coded in the PAL format, while North American TVs use NTSC.
(Format issues are the bane of the adventurous cinephile's existence. Not only are there multiple TV standards, there's the region-coding of DVDs, making certain discs unplayable on certain machines. For the best explanation of these issues -- and many more -- see www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html.)
Dynasty Video (8120 Research Blvd., No. 106), which offers an extensive collection of Chinese films and includes some carried by no other American store, has migrated since we last wrote about it. The move is so fresh that there isn't a single sign indicating their presence; find them in the same strip center as Cap City Comedy Club.
Dynasty's old home at 1601 W. Ohlen Road, however, now hosts Video City, a good resource for Spanish-language cinema. Video City has a broad VHS selection, including Hollywood films subtitled in Spanish, and a respectable DVD stock. As with Mi Pueblito Discoteca, which is across the street and is VHS-only, copious genre movies are joined by a few of the artsier films (by your Almodóvars, Amenábars and Ińárritus) routinely stocked by Vulcan.
The Austin International Market (502 Pampa Drive, off Airport) still has more Nigerian movies (in English, the country's official language) than most of us would guess existed; ditto for Seoul Asian Video (5610 N. Lamar Blvd.) and Korean cinema.
Mi Video (8557 Research Blvd.) doesn't have nearly as many DVD titles as Vu Video (7610 N. Lamar Blvd., by Kim Phung). The former stocks mainly Hong Kong action films which have been dubbed into Vietnamese; Vu has those -- plus original Vietnamese productions, enough karaoke titles to destroy your voice, and a small shelf of VCDs with names like, ahem, "Perverted Older Asians."
South Asian Bazaar (3004 Guadalupe St.) still has a nice VHS selection, but the small cafe is dwarfed by MGM Indian Foods (7427 Burnet Road), where hundreds of Hindi and South Indian DVDs boast subtitles, Dolby Digital sound and anamorphic widescreen appropriate to the Bollywood epics they contain.
One thing most of these stores lack is guidance for the newbie. Vast selections are delightful, but which flicks are sleepers and which will put you to sleep? For curatorial assistance, a trip south is necessary. Pedazo Chunk (2101 S. First St.) hasn't yet delved into Bollywood, but they maintain exciting inventories of Asian and Spanish-language cinema -- and co-owner Dannie Ramirez is only too happy to steer you in the right direction, especially if your tastes run to martial arts or horror films. Pedazo Chunk was hardly on the radar the last time we surveyed Austin's world-cine scene. But at the rate the little store is going, our next survey may find that North Austin isn't the only world-within-five-minutes'-drive for local movie lovers.
