Beauty Audio Video Depot

Several years ago, while in China for a project, I watched a sword fighting television series (30 to 40 episodes) named «Siu Ngoh Gong Wu» (Cantonese) or «Xiao Ao Jiang Hu» (Mandarin). Luckily, I remembered the last two Chinese characters and asked my local friends after summarizing the story. As I was only there for two weeks, obviously, I was unable to complete the story. Think of watching a cliffhanger halfway through and never knowing the ending.
My friend was kind enough to locate the series on VHS tapes and purchased the set for me… (in debted to her forever, I truly mean it). After loaning them to several friends and relatives who also enjoyed the story, I was on a hunt to track this DVD down. I tried all the local stores in San Francisco, but no one had this. Six years later, while in SoCal, we visited this store and… (Hallelujah!) I found it, «Blood Cold and Proud Hot». What?! This has nothing to do with the Chinese name of the story. I recognized all of the characters on the box and my quest was over. It only cost me $ 40.00. My Mandarin is quite poor, but good enough to catch the «cash discount». If you’re looking for a particular Chinese or Korean television series, there’s a good chance that you will find it here. Caution: You’ll probably need to speak better Mandarin than me or know exactly what you’re looking for.

If you’re a fan of Chinese movies, soaps, dramas etc whether it be from Taiwan, Hong Kong or China, maybe you’d really like this store. There is a catch though. Most of the stuff is not subtitled in English. Some are subtitled in Chinese but ask first before purchasing.
Hubby was looking for a copy of the original HK version of Infernal Affairs and I went in and asked the lady for it. I had forgotten the Chinese name of the movie so I just said Infernal Affairs. The woman was so unhelpful. She asked me where the movie is from and I told her HK, then she asked me if it was new and I said no. I said probably a few years ago. She tells me «we don’t have it» without even looking for it. I was a bit pissed with her but then she went over to a section where I’m guessing were all HK movies. I told her I only know the movie has 3 characters in Chinese and I only remembered the first character and she just dissed me, shaking her hand in my face.
She took a few DVDs off the shelves but they weren’t it and finally, I caught a glimpse of the first character and pulled it off the shelf and it was Infernal Affairs after all. Then she asks me if I have «orange» — or at least that’s what I thought she said. I was like WTH is that??? She said it’s a Chinese DVD player. I’m like «NO». She goes «well you won’t be able to watch it, plus there is no subtitles but oh you can watch it on your computer. So I ask hubby what he wanted to do. Hubby said «well let’s get it and you can translate it».
O-​K-​A-​Y! I’m gonna sit through the entire movie and translate it. Oh well, we got it since it was only $ 5.99 and we also picked up Infernal Affairs 2 and 3.
They have a great selection, but seriously, customer service was worse than worse and I feel bad for those guys who really wanna grab some of these movies but don’t understand Chinese and these movies won’t have subtitles … oh well. There’s always such stores in LA Chinatown which probably have English subtitled Chinese movies.
UPDATE: I had to knock a couple stars off because the woman didn’t tell me the DVDs were only in Mandarin. I can’t stand watching a movie not in its original language. SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS.