It's hard work being an international film buff in Bangkok. Hollywood blockbusters have a monopoly on most cinema screens, and the choice of legal video releases is dire. The last time I looked at the new DVDs inside a video outlet, a shop assistant picked a box off the shelf and held it up. 'King Kong?' she asked. No thanks.
Enter the pirates, ready to feed the small, but dedicated, pack of movie fans who don't think Einstein developed the theory of relativity. If you know where to look, Bangkok can yield a bumper crop of international DVDs, stretching from European art house to obscure Japanese animation.
Chatuchak weekend market is a good place to dig up VHS versions of cult classics, and there are some interesting DVDs on offer, too.
If nobody pays to watch movies, why bother making them? Clearly, the people of Bangkok are still paying to see the blockbuster movies that dominate the city's silver screens, but for Thai filmmakers, film students, commercial directors, or anyone else looking for unconventional fare, the options are few.
Of course, piracy is a crime, and as a writer, I'm generally in favour of protecting intellectual property rights, but Bangkok has only a few art house cinemas, and distributors are more likely to chase lucrative Hollywood flicks than Russian classics.
A lecturer in film at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University recently told the Bangkok Post he screened pirated films to his students because it was often the only way to get access to teaching material. 'I believe the legal DVDs available here do not always satisfy the students' hunger for knowledge,' he said.