Things to come

Regular readers of the Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project may have given up hope that any new material will ever be produced. Strike that thought from your brains! While the grant/sponsorship route to action is dismally dry, the DIY method is taking shape nicely.

There are currently two photography books being edited together for those who enjoy this project. The closer of the two to completion will be entitled "The Last of Thailand's Stand-Alone Movie Theater: A glimpse into a vanishing form," or something to that effect. It should be completed by the end of July.

A second book - dedicated to Burma's stand-alones and the culture surrounding them - is also in the works, yet in need of much more content to make it worth producing. That means more expeditions will be needed. What say we let sales of the first book subsidize more production for the second?

In the meantime, I'll try to keep a stream of relevant and/or interesting material related to this niche subject matter on the boards. Feel free to send a note if you feel so inclined. I usually reply. 

The Wirot Rama - Nakorn Sri Thammarat, Thailand

The south of Thailand, including those provinces now battered by insurgency, has a fairly cosmopolitan history if viewed in terms of its economy. While the northerly reaches of the country, to a large extent, remained inaccessible to long distance traders, the coastal south developed pockets of great wealth by way of long distance maritime commerce. 

In centuries passed, Chinese junks could be found plying the waters of Southern Thailand in search of markets for their wares. On their return voyages they would be stocked with forest products from the Southern Thai hinterlands. Arab, Indian, Malay and European traders likewise found commercial interests in the coastal south. The most successful among them often set up depots when the market demanded it, encouraged to do so by monarchs in Bangkok and local lords.

The 19th century witnessed a tin mining boom centered on the island of Phuket create further fortunes. And as the worldwide demand for rubber spread, rubber tree plantations proliferated across the South.

In short, that elongated arm of a peninsula that is Southern Thailand has been generating prosperity from multiple sources for centuries. When cinema took hold as a popular medium of entertainment, the South would have had a robust and well established monied class who could invest in such technology. 

Today, as is the case with the rest of the country, movie exhibition in the South is dominated by the mega-chains, SF and Major. But bits and pieces of a more localized movie theater industry can still be found. The remains of Nakorn Sithammarat's Wirot Rama attests to that. 

The concrete molded signage at the Wirot Rama hints at an early 1960's birth. Possibly earlier. 

A phantom marquee and a frame used for suspending hoardings still hang over the entrance to the structure.

The Wirot Rama is definitely not an architectural treasure, but it tells a story of passed times all the same.

The former theater is now a dry goods market called the "Indian Market," perhaps an indication that it had Indian ownership. Meanwhile, the still extant metal frame bolted to the facade would have masked the blandness of the architecture in a profusion of hand-pained color.

Looking from theater towards the street.

The details Wirot Rama's past, to say nothing of Southern Thailand's movie theater history, lies beyond my field of expertise. These images were generously produced and passed along by a favorite comrade of mine, who happened to come across it while working.

Suffice to say, Southern Thailand's movie theater history is indeed in need of chronicling and documenting. May that opportunity soon find its way hither.

The Odeon Theater - Georgetown, Malaysia

A small mountain of guest material has been accruing in my inbox for several months. Posting them has been delayed due to mountains of work on the home front. Regrettably, none of that work involves documenting stand-alones myself. But that shouldn't stop you from enjoying the work of others. Here's one of them while I have a minute. 

These images of Georgetown, Malaysia's Odeon Theater were gifted by one the SEAMTP 's most devoted fans - Regis Madec - who writes that the Odeon is the only operating stand-alone theater left in the entire province of Penang. According to Mr. Madec, the boxy International Style picture house was erected in 1947, went out of business for a while years later, but was recently purchased and reopened by a group of Indian entrepreneurs who have since turned it into a Bollywood theater.

The Odeon's moniker is a classic name for a movie theater . Inspired by the ancient Greek word for amphitheater and meaning "singing place," the term has been applied over the years to some of the most luxurious movie theaters across Europe and the US. 

In Southeast Asia the name Odeon was no less common. The Odeon Cinema in Singapore was the flagship theater of the prolific Cathay theater chain. Other Odeons existed in Bangkok, Thailand and Vientiane, Laos. But those ones have all since closed down.

This Odeon, fortunately, is still in operation. 

Press among expatriates

A three page spread in Expat Ladies in Bangkok about the Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project.

Click on the link below and go to page 45 to read more.

Thonburi Rama Theater shows its final film

Barely one week after a Thai news special reported on the imminent closure of Bangkok's few remaining second-class movie theaters, one of them has already gone out of business. The Thonburi Rama on Charansanithwong Road was the most central of Bangkok's last 5 remaining second-class theaters. The 4 that remain are all on the city's outskirts, or in adjacent provinces.

While the report cited the inability of the theater's owner to pay for a much needed upgrade to digital projection systems, it seems more likely that land redevelopment pressures in the form of sky-rocketing land values was the prime motivator. Rumors abound that a Sky Train line may be coming to the area, which would make the old Thonburi Rama a vastly under-performing use of space compared with, say, a 30 story condominium or office tower. Stand-alone movie theaters, bare in mind, occupy sizable footprints. Theater owners are by default landlords on a large scale. And the fact that digital projection is a costly upgrade doesn't help things.

Needless to say, this marks another loss for Bangkok's movie-going culture of yore, which by now is almost completely beholden to shopping malls and 2 ubiquitous entertainment conglomerates - SF Cinema and Major Cineplex.

As for the remaining second-class, double feature theaters in Bangkok, one source says that the Nakorn Non Rama and the BMC Dao Khanong are likely to make the switch to digital - a switch that will hopefully prolong their existance as temples to leisure for a few more years.

Digital killed the stand-alone

According to this report, the last of Bangkok's 2nd-run movie theaters are under imminent threat of closure. The only way to stay competitive in the movie exhibition market these days it to upgrade to digital projection systems, but under-capitalized 2nd-run movie theaters can't afford the high cost of the upgrade. 

The report is in Thai, but there are some good shots of Bangkok's last operating stand-alones for those who can't understand.

For the sake of efficiency

The built environment of any city is always a tenuous subject. What was once in vogue becomes obsolete or even hideous as time goes by and paradigms change. In terms of modernization, by its very definition the more modern a city becomes the more efficiently it is regulated.

In looking over these images of the last days of Washington Square, where the Washington Theater was once an anchor institution, I can't help but place it in the context of a slum clearance. Not the typical squatter settlement slum, comprised of resident-built shacks made from scrap material, and found throughout peri-urban Southeast Asia, but of formal housing which - over time - lost its value and took on slum characteristics.

Washington Square, a mid-century concrete cul de sac featuring 3-story shop houses surrounding a stand-alone movie theater, was once a state-of-the-art development. Its design and function was emblematic of the 1960's modern Bangkok that covered over vast tracts of swamp and paddy land. Today, the remaining Washington Squares of Bangkok have degenerated into working slums, filled with low rent shops and housing that planners and developers think nothing of demolishing.

But if there is anything to be learned by examining the life cycles of cities, it's that architectures which fall out of fashion can regain popularity. The shopping mall which will be built in its place will never be able to replicate Washington Square's human scale intimacy - to say nothing of its unique social history.

Film crew exploring the ruins of Washington Square

These photos were passed along by Bangkok film maker Wattanaphum Laisuwanchai, who explored the remains of Washington Square for a movie he is making about vanishing Bangkok. That's a film I don't want to miss.