So, on my Shanghai trip, I learned a few things about pirated DVDs that I’ll be sharing with KFR readers in a later post, but for now, let’s look at this:

While there, I purchased from a store in a mall, what was supposedly a legitimate copy of Spider-Man 3. The price I paid, 22.50 RMB, was the same price I’d seen the Warner Bros. Store charging for their DVDs, so I assumed it was indeed a legit copy. When I got home and popped it into the player, however, I noticed that while the transfer is pretty clean, it’s definitely not a first generation copy. It’s a bootleg.

That being said, I’m pretty sure SM3 has been released in China already, and judging by the quality of the menus, it looks like this might be a rip of a legit copy, perhaps from the Blu-Ray version. There are no glaring typos or ridiculously out of place highlight graphics - in short, this looks like the real, very slick, deal.

You can take a look at the rest of the menu screengrabs and judge for yourself here.

Spread the word!