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Theater︱From bagasse to UA, luxury graduation, the glory and difficulties of a generation in Hong Kong

2021-05-08T08:03:47.242Z


The big screen of the theater is playing "Prison Storm". In the prison, a group of prisoners and guards beat you to death, and the scene is chaotic. The blood-stained protagonist Zhou Run flushed with anger, climbed onto the upper layer of the bunk bed, jumped down,


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Written by: University Line

2021-05-07 09:00

Last update date: 2021-05-07 09:00

The big screen of the theater is playing "Prison Storm". In the prison, a group of prisoners and guards beat you to death, and the scene is chaotic.

The blood-stained protagonist Zhou Run rushed into the crown, climbed onto the upper level of the bunk bed, jumped down, and kicked the cruel prison guard "Killer Xiong" with his feet.

Chow Yun-fat laughed a few times, then opened his mouth wide and bit off the ear of the "killer male".

At this time, the audience clapped their hands and screamed, and the movie fan Andy recalled this profound experience of watching movies in the theater in the 1980s, and was full of aftertaste.

In the past, the audience reacted enthusiastically to watching movies, clap their hands when they saw the highlights, booed when they saw the "bad movie", and even "stool" (using a 𠝹knife 𠝹 flower seat) to vent their anger.

The closure of UA Cinemas is a reminder of the past.

Hong Kong cinemas have been in development for more than a century, and time has passed. Old-style cinemas with simple equipment have been closed one after another, and comfortable and clean new-style cinemas have been replaced.

On November 29, 2019, the last stand-alone old-style theater with more than a thousand seats, the luxurious theater in Mong Kok, also officially ended.

In the old theater, chewing sugar cane into the theater, the market culture of bagasse has disappeared after the show, and it has become a memory of a generation.

Passing through the tunnel of memories, today the cinema industry faces the blow of the epidemic and competition from online streaming platforms. Can it go against the current so that the projectors will never stop broadcasting?

Reporter|Editor by Lin Nuoxuan and Ding Jielin|Photography by Lin Yuxia| Lin Nuoxuan and Lin Yuxia

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Click to review the situation on the day UA Cinemas closes

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49-year-old Andy has enjoyed watching movies since he was a child. In addition to the lack of entertainment in the 1980s, he was very free on weekends. Movies have become a hobby.

When he was in elementary and middle school, he would watch two to three sets of movies a week, or even two sets a day.

The 1980s was the peak of Hong Kong-produced films, and Andy was also particularly fond of police action films, such as Jackie Chan's "Dragon Brother and Tiger" and Chow Yun-fat's "Prison Storm".

Andy grew up in Fanling and used to visit the Old Fanling Theatre in Luen Wo Hui the most.

The theater opened in 1959 and was the only theater in Fanling at that time. Before it closed in 2010, it was the only remaining rural theater in Hong Kong.

The Fanling Theater is the same as most old-style theaters. It is a single building with two floors and a unique triangular tile spire design.

In 2016, the Old Fanling Theatre was even rated as a third-class historic building by the Antiquities and Monuments Office, but unfortunately it was eventually demolished.

Before 1985, most old-style theaters had only one large auditorium, with more than 800 seats at every turn.

The seats are divided into "hall seats" (downstairs) and "loud seats" (upstairs). The hall seats are further subdivided into front, middle and back seats. "Premium" seats, each charge a different fare.

Andy recalled that the fares for the front and back seats of the old Fanling Theatre were about $8 and $12 respectively, which was similar to the price of a lunch.

In the New Territories theaters in the 1980s, the ticket price was about $15 for the main seat and $17 for the floor.

Since the old Fanling Theatre specializes in "second rounds", that is, showing films that have already been drawn in the first round of the theatre, the fare is cheaper.

There was a lack of entertainment in the old days, so theaters were often full on weekends.

In 1982, the American science fiction movie "ET Alien" was released. Andy recalled that European and American movies had just become popular at that time, attracting many neighborhoods to watch it, making the theater "popular", and he went in and watched it three times.

At that time, it was an era when people were hand-checking tickets. After citizens chose seats on the theater seating chart at the ticket office, the staff crossed the selected seats on the map with a red pen, and then placed the tickets on the "Fanling Theater" printed on the tickets. Write down the seat number.

When it comes to the disappearance of the theater's characteristics, the most memorable thing is to eat hawker cooked food in the theater.

Andy pointed out that in the past there were no dietary restrictions in theaters. They allowed take-out food and even smoked.

Outside the theater, there are hawker stalls selling a wide range of snacks, such as sugar cane, braised chicken feet, raw intestine cuttlefish and egg waffles.

Andy likes to buy snail meat to eat in the theater. At that time, a snack cost only 50 cents or 1 yuan, which was very cheap.

He pointed out that when there are fewer audiences in the theater, the audience will be more presumptuous:

Everyone bites the sugarcane, spit bagasse after biting, and some smokers will flick their cigarette butts out.

Therefore, the environmental sanitation of the old-style theaters is relatively poor. Wrapping paper and plastic bags will be discarded on the seats, and even peanut shells will be spread all over the floor.

In the 1990s, in order to compete with the new type of theaters, the old Fanling theater specialized in showing three-level movies, but in the end it could not escape the fate of graduation.

Extended reading:

Steven Spielberg firmly believes that the theater will never disappear. The author points out two super moving reasons ▼▼▼

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The desperate boy gets acquainted with the theater and works in entertainment

About 60 years old, Kang talked about going to the theater to watch movies. He described his love of watching movies as "crazy". In the 1970s, he would save pocket money and food money and watch three plays a week.

In a certain year of junior high school, he counted the ticket stubs collected during that year, and it turned out to be 200.

When he was 14 or 15 years old, he even walked to the theater to watch the martial arts movie "Desperate Boy" due to a "drama addiction" during the typhoon on the 8th. He joked that his father was terrified.

Kang was living in Tsuen Wan at the time, so he went to see the theatre in Tsuen Wan's Haojing and Orchid Palace most often.

In the summer of 1978, Kang Ge, who was in junior high school, served as a facilitator at the Kwai Chung Jindu Theater, and then at the Tsuen Wan Longhua Theater the following summer.

When the audience enters the venue, Kang has to use a flashlight to photograph the theater ticket, check the performance, date and other information, and then lead the audience to his seat.

He added that most of the audience at that time was at the grassroots level, and they did not know the number of seats marked in English, so they needed the assistance of an attendant.

After the movie starts, Kang can go out to eat, watch a movie or go to bed, and go back to the theater to pull the screen before the end of the show. As a movie fan, Kang will ask someone to help him buy char siew rice and watch while eating in order to finish watching a set of movies. .

When Kang Ge was hoisting Typhoon Signal No. 8, holding an umbrella under the wind and rain, he walked to the Orchid Palace Theatre to watch "The Boy Who Lived".

(Photographed by Lin Yuxia / Authorized by University Line)

In the era of film screenings, due to technical problems, there would be "fragments" in the theater, that is, during the movie playing, there is no picture suddenly, usually for a few seconds.

Kang also encountered fragments. He described the situation at the time as very interesting. When the screen went dark, some "flying boys" (unscrupulous young people) lost their patience and shouted "Return (refund), return!" Some viewers Will boo.

Kang also mentioned the hand-painted posters of old-style theaters. Different theaters have different versions, which will be posted inside and outside the theaters. There are also large hand-painted movie advertisements on the outer walls. You can see "The Raptors Crossing the River" released today." These commercials were originally handwritten only with the name of the play, the name of the director and actors, and the number of screenings, and later evolved into giant paintings.

With the miniaturization of theaters and the increasingly advanced computer inkjet technology, the advertising painting industry is declining.

According to the government news website, all theaters in Hong Kong abandoned hand-painted advertising paintings by 2000, and the era of hand-painted advertising paintings has officially ended.

The picture shows the hand-painted poster of the 1976 Hong Kong box office champion movie "Half a Catty Eight Two". It shows the essence of the movie characters and is the proud work of the hand-painted poster veteran Qian Dayong.

(Photographed by Lin Yuxia / Authorized by University Line)

Theater miniaturization audience becomes restrained

In 1985, UA Cinemas introduced the American-style multi-hall mini integrated theater in Hong Kong for the first time, gradually replacing the old-style theater with only one hall.

The film critic Feng Jiaming, who has been in theaters since the 1970s, has witnessed the transformation of large theaters into mini theaters.

Jiaming lived in Dongtou Village in San Po Kong in the 1970s and often walked 15 minutes to watch movies at the Ligong Theater.

He still remembers the first time he watched the movie "Jaws" when he was 4 years old, and he left a shadow after watching the movie: "I really don't dare to swim. I will yell when I fall into the water."

The Palace Theatre opened in 1966 and is the largest theatre in the history of Hong Kong, with 3,000 seats.

He recalled that this theater was relatively "market and grassroots" and the environment was filthy.

The hospital raised a cat due to the presence of mice. He even witnessed a mother holding her son to the toilet at the end of the corridor, causing urine to flow into the aisle.

The largest palace theater in Hong Kong opened in August 1966, with more than 3,000 seats.

(Authorized by the Business Evening News/University Line on August 17, 1966)

Since 1985, theaters have been miniaturized, and watching movies has gradually become a high-end enjoyment.

Theaters have become more sophisticated, and audiences value the experience of watching movies.

The theater, full of peanut shells and bagasse on the ground, became clean; the wooden seats were replaced with velvet seats; the hawker stalls outside the theater became the snack kiosks in the theater; the enthusiastic audience became restrained and no one would clap their hands. , Talking, even the scene before the opening of the movie reminds the audience to keep quiet.

But Jia Ming lamented that he always watched the theater in the big theater, the audience is large, the appeal will be strong, it is the mysterious charm of the theater:

If you watch Netflix at home, you will laugh when you feel funny, but if you are in the theater, you will burst into laughter.

He took watching "Best Damaged Friend" as an example. When Chen Baixiang thought he was infected with AIDS, and he looked around for police to spit, the theater was exactly the reaction of "roar of laughter".

He sighed that it is difficult to feel the same in mini theaters nowadays, because there are only tens to hundreds of locations. Under the epidemic, the occupancy rate is only half, and the reactions of the audience are more difficult to contagious.

The cinema is challenged by the rise of streaming film platforms, and Jia Ming believes that the experience of watching a movie in the cinema is unique and still attractive.

He pointed out that the big screen of the theater has a strong audiovisual effect. For example, the big screen of the IMAX theater allows the audience to experience the experience of being in the movie, and the surround sound makes the audience fall into the situation of "Thunder Rescue" neutron bomb flying across.

In addition, the theater environment is dark, and the audience's curiosity for taboos such as sex and violence can be satisfied through the "voyeuristic perspective" presented on the large screen in the dark.

Feng Jiaming believes that Hong Kong theaters are irreplaceable. As long as someone finds IMAX attractive, theaters will not disappear completely. Every technological advancement will attract people to go to theaters.

(Photographed by Lin Yuxia / Authorized by University Line)

The shrinking monopoly of Hong Kong's theater industry is a stopgap measure

Under the epidemic, the government ordered theaters to close three times for a total of 163 days.

At the beginning of March this year, UA Cinemas, one of the leading theaters in Hong Kong, closed its doors, shocking the industry.

In fact, the Hong Kong cinema industry has been shrinking since the 1990s. The number of local cinemas has dropped from 119 in 1993 to 55 in 2021 (as of March), a full reduction of half.

Tan Yinuo, a lecturer at the Film School of Hong Kong Baptist University, pointed out that the main difficulty facing Hong Kong cinemas is that the rents are too high. In addition, the rise of pirated DVDs and streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video makes it possible to watch movies at home and reduce the flow of theaters. .

Tan Yinuo believes that the closure of entertainment art theaters is directly affected by the epidemic, and because of its lack of distinctive features, its positioning is vague:

I don’t know if there is any special movie that drives me to go to UA to watch it.

On the contrary, other theaters have clear characteristics. For example, MCL theater often screens Japanese anime movies, while Gaoxian Theater sells local movies.

Tan Yinuo pointed out that the current theaters have a tendency to develop a "vertical integration" model, that is, a company produces and screens movies at the same time.

Just as there are Anle films behind the Broadway theaters, and the Universe Group is behind MCL. The Gao Xian movie behind the newly opened Gao Xian Theater this year is also the distributor.

Tan Yinuo pointed out that vertical integration can increase revenue, because by investing in movies, theaters can obtain three-fold revenue from screening, distribution and production; secondly, theaters are both investors and exhibitors, and do not need to rely on other theater lines. Screening, so the flexibility of arranging the painting on the film is higher.

Tan Yinuo pointed out that the current theaters have a tendency to develop a "vertical integration" model. By investing in films, theaters can simultaneously obtain three aspects of income from screening, distribution and production.

(Photo by Lin Nuoxuan/Authorized by University Line)

However, this approach is actually a monopoly, which has a negative impact on the industry and reduces the audience's choices.

Tan Yinuo pointed out that when "Chill 2" was released, because Anle was an investor in "Chill 2", the Broadway theaters operated by it all arranged multiple screenings of "Chill 2" and only a few other movies were shown.

Because Hong Kong arranges film paintings in the form of profit sharing, other theaters who want to release "Chill 2" can only earn one-third of the box office revenue.

Overcome the difficulties and hope that the industry will stick to the screening

Tian Qiwen, former president of the Hong Kong Film Workers Association, believes that movies and theaters are like football players and goalkeepers. Film research formations capture audiences, and theaters serve as the best platform. The "tailgate" reflects the results of production.

He believes that Hong Kong theaters are affected by the epidemic and economic pressure, and expenses such as renting staff have also caused operating burdens.

The closure of one theater will make other theaters fear to follow in their footsteps. In order to maintain profits, they will reduce the local movies and non-commercial productions with lower profits, and reduce the production space of local movies.

He sent a message to practitioners to continue to insist:

Hong Kong people like movies very much. As long as they can survive this predicament, movies are still a suitable industry for investment!

Tian Qiwen believes that following the closure of all entertainment and art theaters, there will still be individual independent theaters in the future, which will be closed in accordance with the business model.

(Provided by the respondent/authorized by the university line)

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[This article was reprinted with authorization from the internship publication "University Line" of the School of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, original text: Talking about the glory and difficulties of the theater industry from a place of bagasse]

Cinema Movie Collective Memories University Line

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2021-05-08

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