I'm leaving scenic Wisconsin to visit New York City in mid-January, but I'm not up to date on where to shop for Asian, European, and offbeat US DVDs. I assume Kim's, but what are other good places? In Chinatown, any recommendations?
Thanks for any help!

Welcome, David! In Chinatown, go to Lai Ying (89 Bowery), Lai Lai (85 Bowery) and New York Music (corner of Bowery and Canal), all three on the same block just doors apart (east side of Bowery from Canal to Hester). All three carry titles from Hong Kong, mainland China, Korea and Japan. The favorite on this board is probably Lai Ying (right next to the old Music Palace Theater), because Paul and Michelle are there and they will hold in-demand titles for local buffs if you call ahead (212-925-1098). Whenever I go there I see stacks of DVDs in the cash register area with various Mobians' names on them. I have to give my last name when I call so my stack won't be handed to the "other" Brian. (That IS you, isn't it, Brooklyn Brian?) Paying cash gets you a better deal.

Kim's Video on St. Mark's Place is best for European titles and some hard-to-find Japanese titles. Tower Video on E. 4th Street and Lafayette is also surprisingly good sometimes on foreign films.

If you go to Korea Town, near Empire State Building, you can visit Koryo
Book Store which is located on 32nd street between Broadway and 5th Avenue.
You can get many Korean dvds, K-pop and Korean traditional music cds.

On the same street, you can go to small dvd and cd shop near 5th avenue.
I forgot the name of the store.

Anyway, you can get Korean dvds from both places but the price is high.
For example, Korean movie dvd is usually $ 30.

A real treat if you like Indian DVDs and have a couple hours to kill is to head out to the Jackson Heights subway stop. When you get out cross the street and wander around a bit and you'll find probably 50 or so places selling every Indian dvd you ever heard of and more for usually very cheap prices. My favorite shop out there closed, so I can't really recommend any particular shop as the best, but there are so many there's really no need. And while you're out there, the Jackson Diner is a great, modestly priced, break from dvd shopping (you'll also see across the street from the subway stop in a half-block to the left a movie theater that plays only Bollywood films, which is fun to go to, although for a quality viewing you're better off seeing whatever bollywood film is playing at the theater in the basement of the Virgin Mega Store in Times Square.

For Chinese dvds I second the Lai Ying recommendation, and the shop at the corner of Bowery and Canal is a nice stop too. Kim's is a great resource on 8th st, but as for the Tower Video in the village, I think you can do better than that most anywhere -- their prices and selection are terrible! (I should know, I live a block away).

charlie

Don't miss out on another Chinatown store nearby Lai Ying. It's on Hester Street off Bowery and it's called DVD Asia, I think. It opened pretty recently but has a great selection of HK and pan-Asian DVDs and VCDs.

I don't know the name of the Japanese store south of 42nd Street (it's either on 40th or 41st), just west of Fifth Avenue, but they have Japanese language books, videos and DVDs. I was only there once and planned on going back... but never got around to it.

And David, once you're done shopping on the Bowery, head south on Bowery and turn west (a right) onto Pell Street for one of my favorite New York strolls. Of all the streets I miss now that I live in Hollywood, Pell is top of the list. It has the cramped look of a movie set (and of course TRUE BELIEVER staged a shootout there).

That would be the Kinokuniya Bookstore at Rockefeller Center:

http://www.kinokuniya.com/ny/location.html

A very nice place with lots of Japanese language magazines and a mezzanine entirely devoted to manga and small selection of stationaries. The small selection of English language books isn't bad. These days the serious literature section shares an equal amount of floor space as the translated manga section. :D There's a small cafe in there as well.

Most of the DVD's they have are Region 1. I've seen a few imports there...some Miyazaki tapes and some movies...last time I was there I saw a few copies of the new Donald Richie short films anthology DVD going for $100. The only prominent displays in the video section is, of course, devoted to anime and Miyazaki's movies (they have a 12-inch TV on the information desk that's always showing one of his work).

Thanks to all the Gotham Mobians for their advice!

That's not the place I'm thinking of, Dave, which is most definitely behind Bryant Park and the main branch of the New York Public Library; I'd been in the Rockefeller Center store a couple of times many years ago and this place I'd only been in once. There's no cafe, but there are a couple of floors and, I think, a basement section, too.

Richard, I think you're referring to Book-Off at 14 E. 41st St.

Information about Book-Off

By Ju-On, I think he's got it!

Opps...I should have know that since I have Book-Off's ubiquitous yellow bilingual flyer (at the local anime convention, anyway) right next to the computer as a constant reminder for me to go there... :blink: Like you, Richard, I've only been there once myself last year but never been back since. In my case, I was probably intimidated by the huge amount of books and CD's they have and my lack of any knowledge of most of the things being sold there. I should pay a visit there one of these days...

Most of the used videos I saw that time were mostly Japanese-subtitled Hollywood fare but there's a good mix of tapes of Japanese films in there. The price was around $10 up each, higher than what I've expected.