That’s how I saw Drive.īefore I left for China, I could not wait for that movie. They also had movies that were new back home but that weren’t, or maybe would never, be in theaters in China.

We’d go by and file through like we were record shopping, and you’d come away with the popular shows of the time - all the seasons of Weeds or Breaking Bad or whatever for something like three American dollars.

In front of them were card tables piled with crates of bootleg DVDs, all crammed in together in little plastic slip covers. It was a little old couple, always standing stoically on the corner with house music blaring behind them no matter the hour. This would go on until, every couple of months, the cops came around and cleared it out, and then it would slowly creep back until it was bursting at the seams again.īut there was one stand that persisted, as if they had a bit more sway with the police. A vibrant night market, with street vendors cooking up skewers, people throwing down rugs piled with fake designer bags, home-modified scooters still ripping through the smoke and chaos. It was lined with shops and restaurants, but when the sun went down it turned into a whole other thing. I lived on a local campus, near an entrance called the Back Gate. In the fall of 2011, I was studying abroad in Shanghai. The first time I saw Drive, it didn’t even have the right music in it.

Night call drive soundtrack