my latest piece on movies in China is up at hollywood-elsewhere.com and I braved a communist inquisition to get this scoop. Check it out

Having already sated myself buying pirated DVDs, I recently set out to see what local Chinese movie theaters have to offer. Local being the city of Foshan, in Guangdong privince. Foshan, called “Chan” for short, is located in the Pearl River delta, and is within 100 kilometers of Hong Kong and Macao.<

One thing I've noticed is how far the cinemas have come since I was here last. In 2002, there were but two theaters; now there are at least three times that. They look like you'd expect from the outside. They have posters, tickets, concessions, and moving pictures are projected onto big screens. That's where the similarities end.

One nice difference is the posters often tell you exactly how long a movie is going to run. I could see it being useful knowing how long you'll be avoiding the place while King Arthur is tanking inside.

I’m used to going to a megaplex and buying a ticket for an arm and popcorn for a leg. American tickets have special ink and mag stripes to catch cheats. My ticket here looked like a Mexican bus transfer. I’m not sure it even had the name of the movie on it. But paying only 15 yuan (just under $2) easily made it worth my time.

click here to read the whole thing.