A Paradise Within an Inferno






watching movies has been one of the reasons why i've been able to survive a couple of torturous semesters a common peyup-ian undergoes. it's a way for me to release my accumulated stress from staying up too late at night doing papers, reviewing for exams, and preparing for recitations. bad thing is, it ruins my financial budgeting. haha.





i have a penchant for watching films - foreign language and art ones, most especially! i've been advocating original dvd's and vcd's for quite a long time, until i discovered a paradise within the work-your-way-to-get-through streets of quiapo, manila. too late discovery, huh?! don't get me misunderstood. i'm not promoting piracy for chrissake! it's just that i got so tired of waiting and being told false hopes by sales ladies of astro vision, odyssey, and some video stores; that tomorrow or the next week, they'll have available copies of 'cinema paradiso', 'hable con ella', 'il postino', 'amores perros', and a whole lot of foreign language stuff!





i have fellow movie-freak friends who frequent 'dbd, dbd' stores in quiapo for a couple of years now. they've been telling me how extraordinary and rare the selections are, yet it was just very recently that i've been convinced to go there and see for myself! time to settle for bootleg copies.





being the good, or should i say, naive girl i am, i told my dad last night that i was going to quiapo with my friends. tell you what, just for him to hear where i was going to almost ended my much awaited adventure! "kat, magulo doon. i'm telling you, huwag ka ng pumunta doon!" of course, i had to work my charm out. lol. i had to convince him that i was going there with two of my guy kabarkadas so he has nothing to worry about. a lot of convincing prowess, a couple of questions answered... then i won! haha.





come quiapo. i was briefed by my friends with the usual stuff: don't bring your phone, walk fastly, don't open your bag a lot, blah blah blah. i sought for the vendor's help everytime i couldn't see the film i was looking for. my friend just laughed at me and said, "kat, huwag ka nang tanong ng tanong. hindi nila alam yan. ikaw na lang maghanap makikita mo rin yan." forgive me, i have always been an advocate of the "ang nagtatanong ay nagmumukhang tanga ngunit ang hindi nagtatanong ay nananatiling tanga." cliche. enough. i gave up asking without being replied sensibly. i had to work my way out scrutinizing through the racks of superb selections. after a couple of minutes of ceaselessly walking and going through different stores, i ended up buying six dvd's.





i wonder why even if we have institutions tasked to abolish piracy, its rampancy seems to be permanently incorporated in our system. i wonder why no vrb representative ever raided these 'dbd' stores. oh, i shouldn't have wondered! as long as there'll be powerful people protecting this illegal business, it will forever be widespread in our society. and people, you shouldn't put all the blame on consumers. (cge kat, try rationalizing your actions. hahaha). as rational beings, consumers will always prefer more to less, practical to expensive, and even quantity to quality sometimes. without cutting the decaying roots of a system, its branches will always disintegrate. logic lang yan pare, kung walang apoy, walang usok!