The Aung Mingala Cinema Revisted - Dawei, Thanintharyi Region, Myanmar

Another Survey Completed

Round 4 of Myanmar movie theater surveying went off without a hitch and two bouts of food poisoning. The gut problems cut me down ten pounds lighter than when I started, but there's no burnt ankles or any other malady this year to speak of.

My range of research on this trip was relatively narrow, but also dense with findings. Movie theaters old and ancient came into focus, and I acquired a sack full of movie theater memorabilia along the way. Most of it is trash, for sure, but you all know what they about one man's trash.

The little red strip on the above map is Mon State, where I conducted most of my research.

Mon State was my primary research site, supplemented by a few short, precision guided excursions into adjacent States and Regions, including Ayerawaddy, Kayin and Thanintharyi. All were fruitful, even if the pickings get slimmer each year. But for now, lets get things started on the good foot, because that how the journey began.

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The Aung Mingala Cinema

If you've been following this blog long enough to remember my first visit to Dawei back in 2011 then you might recall pictures of a duo of pink movie theaters in a dust strewn backwater. Well the Dawei of 2017 is a bit different from the Dawei of 2011. Dust strewn it still is, though the backwater designation is starting to give way. The most notable change during my six year hiatus is the handful of mid-rise hotels that have been built. At least one other mid-rise tower is currently under construction. 

While the new giants are shockingly out of proportion for the low rise city of around 150,000 inhabitants, they are spaced out enough that the impact is not so dramatic.  

More dramatic is the noticeable increase in foreign tourists. In 2011, Dawei was still well off the beaten track for most of the trickle of foreign tourists that ventured into Myanmar. Six years ago, I remember running into a group of medical doctors on assignment for Doctors Without Borders who were flabbergasted at the sight of another foreigner. Today, the sight of the likes of me wouldn't amount to the bat of an eyelash. 

Most foreign visitors, however, seem to be more interested in intrepid travel to "unspoiled" hinterlands than the town itself. That's fine by me. All the more elbow room for when I'm seeking out the local cinema treasure.

The Aung Mingala in 2011 (left) and 2017 (right). While the new look white paint-job and tacky use of projected lights onto the facade has cheapened the aesthetic, it's the loss of the two palm trees behind the theater which most upsets me. 

Over the past few years a number of willing informants have brought me up to date on the Dawei cinema scene. "The Aung Mingala is now sporting digital projectors and showing 3D films, man" they'd announce. Meanwhile, just a few blocks away, "that weird looking one - what is it called, The Mingala Thiri? - that one's gone under." (Kites Tales Myanmar put together a nice photo essay on The Mingala Thiri Cinema in November of last year.) 

Both bits of intelligence are legitimate. The Aung Mingala has indeed gone through an entire overhaul, including the installation of air-conditioning, digital projection and a brand new screen and sound system. Maybe even cushy new seats to replace the classic but uncomfortable wooden ones. I wouldn't know for sure, as they were much more protective of the place now that it's been upgraded. Interior photography was strictly prohibited.  

In the exterior looks department it has lost a a bit of its mid-century Tropical Art Deco provenance, but mostly in the details. By and large it's as I remember it. What changes were made are not irreversible and a few low road improvements are completely acceptable if it means the building will be around for the foreseeable future. 

Moreover, now that digital projectors are in place, the viewing fare can diversify beyond the super-low-production-value Myanmar movies that had been the exclusive viewing fare for decades. A poster for the most recent installment in the Resident Evil dynasty was tacked up in the lobby. Such Hollywood schlockbusters would not have been possible had the circa 1960's carbon arc projectors not been replaced.  

The same manager from 2011 running the show.

Ticket booth 

 All said, it was good to start out this survey with an active theater. Ever more so considering that much of the new investment in Dawei is being spurred on by the pending development of a nearby deep sea port. Once complete, the Dawei Deep Sea Port and accompanying Special Economic Zone is anticipated to be a game changer in regional trade. Roads cutting through western Thailand to Bangkok and all points east and north will theoretically make shipping from the Indian Ocean quicker, bypassing the long established Straights of Malacca route, where Singapore is the main hub. 

   

Aside from a new and improved road from Bangkok to the Thai-Myanmar border, little work on the mega project has occurred thus far. It seems like all parties involved are waiting to see what happens via the broader geopolitical reordering that is seeming more and more inevitable these days. 

For the time being, that's a good thing for old movie theaters like The Aung Mingala. As property values rise, old movie theaters and the large footprints they sit on become prime targets for redevelopment, particularly when speculation is coming from outside investors who have little interest in anything other than reaping maximum profits. 

The fact that The Aung Mingala was recently upgraded further signals that the ownership has confidence in its longevity. 

Long live The Aung Mingala Cinema!

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Donations warmly welcomed....

The Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project is a one person show. Although I've had some generous grants over the years, by and large I'm self-funded. That does not mean that I'm independently wealthy, or living off of a cozy trust fund. When I'm not documenting, writing about or giving lectures about movie theaters in Southeast Asia, I'm a laborer in Philadelphia, PA. Part of the savings I generate from my labor goes towards this project, the aim of which is to promote historic movie theaters as preservation worthy sites. After 8 years of doing this work, old movie theaters have started to enter the collective consciousness in some circles within Southeast Asia. That's not completely my doing, of course, but I'm not too proud to accept a bit of credit. 

If you enjoy the photos and essays you find here and want to see it continue, please consider kicking in a couple dollars to help sponsor future surveys. Better yet, buy a photo off of me. Send me an email at sea.theater@hotmail.com and I'll send you a selection of images for sale. 

Thanks for reading,

Phil Jablon

  

The Sein Myit Tar Cinema - Hsipaw, Shan State, Myanmar

The next major town to the west of Lashio in upper Shan State is Hsipaw (pronounced See-Paw). This little hamlet has gained some renown over the past decade or so among travelers for its vintage atmosphere and sedate pace. A freeze frame of the old upland Southeast Asia once romanticized in Western literature and film. Comparisons to Luang Prabang, Laos, minus the tourist hordes have been tossed around with some accuracy, though that same reputation has led to a steadily increasing stream of them. Visitors hoping to experience a pristine Shan princedom devoid of other map-toting, rubber-necking travelers will be let down.

That said, Hsipaw's old school authenticity is still present. Like most small towns in Myanmar, regardless of what part of the country, a human scale, pedestrian oriented intimacy prevails. Those who come from lands where the car has gained primacy as a way of life will find their relative absence in Hsipaw refreshing.

Another relative absence, though maybe only noticeable to that slim subset of architecture enthusiast with an affection for them, is the movie theater. The last one in town - The Sein Myit Tar Cinema - had been turned into the local branch of Myanmar Apex Bank in the past year or so, replacing the leisurely pursuit of movie-going with the serious business of finance.

For history's sake, at least, the Art Deco exterior of The Sein Myit Tar has been kept intact, a visual reminder of the cinematic pleasures once shared within. But only for those old enough to know it.

Now you know it, too.

A quintessential Myanmar Art Deco movie theater, whose name I forgot to record.

The San Thit Cinema - Ma-ubin, Irrawaddy Region, Myanmar

The San Thit Cinema stands just in front of the docks at Ma-ubin on the gently rolling Myitmaka River. The building itself is barely visible from the street due to its placement below street level and obscured behind a strip of one story shop houses that face the thoroughfare. Behind the theater, surrounding it on three of its four sides, are low slung warehousing facilities holding goods brought up off  and destined for the boats below. Bundles of raw tobacco, jars of various spices and sacks of rice are piled floor to ceiling in these wooden godowns, which are connected to each other, the waterfront and the cinema by a warren of narrow lanes. It's an ecosystem of transit, trade and leisure so tightly intertwined that it's as if it were a living organism. 

The waterfront scene at Ma-ubin is typical for a modestly sized port town in the Irrawaddy Delta. At just 40 miles by river west of Yangon, the bustling burg is ideally situated for riparian trade. In former times, one can imagine dock workers breaking from their duties to catch a film at the San Thit Cinema - or the Shwe Aung Cinema, which was just next door. Cinematic reprieve from a life on the waterfront was quite literally just a few steps away.  

Movie posters stapled to boards just above the main entrance of the San Thit Cinema

Ticket window

Beyond the folding wooden doors of the San Thit Cinema, a sea of hand crafted wooded seats, neatly arranged in narrow rows, unfolds before the eyes. Such a sight is increasingly rare in Myanmar. As the old theaters go out of business, owners sell the seats to antique dealers, usually in neighboring countries like Thailand and China, where a market for such cultural curiosities is quite strong. Alternatively, a handful of theaters in Myanmar have recently been modernized, in which case the old wooden seats have likewise been removed to make room for new cushioned ones.

Auditorium views

In the days before electrical lighting was a staple, natural light served as a means of illumination. The wooden awning windows at the top can be opened and closed to lighten and darken the auditorium as needed. 

Interesting curve in the balcony rail.

Balcony views

Almost all movie theaters in Myanmar feature partitions between every two seats in the back rows, as pictured in the above photo. This addition allows couples attending a film to have a modicum of privacy. In a conservative society like Myanmar, trips to the cinema for young lovers is generally the only privacy they're likely to get. These seats are at a premium because of it.

The man above was the caretaker of the San Thit Cinema. He has been at the San Thit since it opened in 1963, when he was just a young boy. 

Seven months ago the cinema stopped showing movies, though it still opens occasionally to screen football matches via an LCD projector. 

The name San Thit translates to "modern."

The Myoma and Shwe Gon cinemas - Yangon, Myanmar

We've reached the end of the line here, ladies and gentlemen. Cinema Row pulls into its digitized terminus with a dirty double feature of the Myoma and Shwe Gon cinemas. As far as the naked eye can tell, these two are at the nexus of Cinema Row and skid row. Past follies into such nefarious worlds have left a permanent imprint. When in doubt, keep out! Doubt prevailed.

Right to left, Myoma and Shwe Gon - the dingiest two along Cinema Row.

Regrettably, outside of their drab appearances, much about the Myoma and Shwe Gon cinemas remains undisclosed. The same can be said for most of Cinema Row, for that matter. In hindsight, hiring a guide would have been a wise move, but I stubbornly went about my data collection without one. I figured I'd eventually be able to piece together enough info in my usual solo manner. Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. What I got was bits of hearsay and very little raw data.

I did hear one claim, however, that the Myoma and Shwe Gon - twins apparently - were built sometime in the late 1940's or early 50's. The post World War II period was a watershed for cinema construction in Myanmar (then known as Burma). More broadly it was a time of growing nationalism and political restructuring in the wake of war. With the promise of change all around, the wide communications platform available via cinema halls would have been viewed as critical to the new leadership, intent, as they were, on engineering a new kind of society. The result was a countrywide explosion of cinema building starting at the end of the war and lasting into the early 60's, when the military seized power and nationalized all cinema halls.

The Myoma's ticket window and front entrance, prior to opening.

Underneath the Myoma's portico: "Om - The Ultimate Power," dating to 2003, was playing there at the time. Experience has taught me to be mindful of theaters screening out of date stuff.

Half in, half out of the Shwe Gon Cinema

Passers by and the Shwe Gon

Three frilly-dressed women standing in front of the Shwe Gon Cinema. The welcoming committee or what?

Shwe Gon ticket window

Having done most of my movie theater research in Thailand, where the high-standard movie theater era didn't really come to fruition until the mid-1960's, it's easy to make historical comparisons with the movie theater geography in neighboring Myanmar. Many of the theaters I encountered in the latter were built in the 1920's, late 1940's and throughout the 1950's. The Great Depression hit in the 1930's, accounting for that theater building lull. Then Burma was embroiled in World War II, so not much happened movie theater-wise in the early 40's, either. In the post-war years, however, the economy rebounded and theaters began popping up again. Prospects were golden until 1962 when the military took the helm of government, causing what would be a long halt on theater building, as economic nationalization stunted private investment and economic aid efforts from superpower America were completely stymied.

Across the eastern border, on the other hand, Thailand began its first 5 year economic development plan in 1961, in conjunction with billions of dollars worth of economic and military assistance from the US to combat regional communism. The flow of dollars triggered a movie theater building frenzy which peaked in the late 1960's and 70's. So just as things died down in Burma (1962), movie theaters started sprouting up like wild flowers in Thailand (1961).

For your devoted Projectionist, this is my own little way of conceptualizing Burmese vs. Thai development history through the lovely, lovely framework of movie theaters.

The Su Htoo Pan Cinema - Yangon, Myanmar

When Burmese writer/political critic Ludu U Hla was locked away in the Rangoon Central Jail back in the 1950's, for the heinous crime of authoring seditious literature, he made the most of his prison sentence by conducting interviews among his fellow inmates. The result was "The Caged Ones" - a collection of narratives detailing the inmates' road to incarceration. It's a simple read, but no less gripping for its casual accounts of how the young and vulnerable can turn illicitous given bleak circumstances or events.

Law breaking, however, wasn't the only common denominator linking these young misfortunates. In just about every missive in the book, the respective inmate mentions a relationship he had to Yangon's cinemas before being locked up, giving the impression that city's movie halls were magnets for the criminally inclined. In the "The Orphan," for instance, the young protagonist admits to dropping out of school and then "stealing a train ride to Rangoon, where I eked out a living by filching things from shops and people." Having no permanent residence "I would sleep where ever I could find shelter, which was usually near the cinema halls."

Another story has the prisoner recalling "carefree afternoons and evenings idling around the cinema halls, looking at the various posters. When the lights were turned off after the last show we crept into the dark corners to sleep."

Maybe more vagrant than down right criminal, the connections between the cinema halls and the jailed are nonetheless ubiquitous throughout the book.

Signage
Busy Cinema Row on Bogyoke Aung San Road...

...home to the criminally vagrant?

Some parts of Cinema Row haven't changes much since Ludu U Hla's days, apparently. The Su Htoo Pan Cinema very well may have been one of the cinemas described in "The Caged Ones." In any case, loafers warmly welcomed.

Su Htoo Pan translates to "The Highest Wish."