The Chalerm Sin Theater, chopped

Never mind that it wound down its cinematic life as a double-feature theater that was, by all accounts, a deviants' paradise, demolition of the Chalerm Sin Theater marks yet another loss to Bangkok's dwindling stock of stand-alone movie theaters. While it's no surprise that this one in particular is currently getting smashed out (it wasn't much of a looker to begin with), it is a shame to see nearly the entire inventory of this structural type and the culture it embodied getting collectively tossed into the trash dump of existence.

For the past few months, a wrecking crew has been painstakingly dismantling the 60 year old cinema building. A condo is slated to rise in its place.

The Chalerm Sin Theater from 2009. Its days as a movie theater were long over, but the building was in decent shape, having just been converted into a badminton hall. 

Gap toothed signage atop the Chalerm Sin Theater, with its missing letter ส

The three images below were taken this morning, October 19th, 2016.

They taketh away.

Looking from where the screen would be, with the balcony in the distance.

Demolition man surveys his work. Decades ago, this same guy was a regular at The Chalerm Sin for movies.

Again, it's neither surprising nor much of a loss to Bangkok that The Chalerm Sin is being wrecked. While it certainly holds dear memories for the many who experienced it over the years, it was not a particularly important structure - cinema or otherwise - in the grand scheme of things. Its loss should, however, serve as a reminder that there are only a few of this type of building left in the city, most of which have great architectural and/or cultural worth. 

It's time for Bangkokians to start thinking very deeply about what kind of city they want Bangkok to be.   

Mutilated Cinema Row and other movie theater missives from Myanmar

Round 3 of the Myanmar Movie Theater Survey has come to a close. What was supposed to be a full 28 day-long expedition screeched to a premature halt, unfortunately, about a third of the way into it. A freak accident involving a scorching hot motorcycle tailpipe put a second degree burn on my heel, totally incapacitating me.

Likewise, the survey got off to an equally slow start, albeit not by my own doing. Demolitions and a cyclone simply left a dearth of material to document during the first leg of the trip.

But as bad as it all sounds, the in between was very productive, yielding almost as many new insights into Myanmar's movie theater archaeology as it did new photographs of old theaters. Above all else, it made me realize that 3 rounds of photography for Myanmar is not enough. Rounds 4 and 5 are thus in the pipeline.

The highlight of the survey was a panel talk on the subject of movie theater preservation held at Myanmar Deitta Gallery. The round table discussion took place in conjunction with an exhibition of Myanmar's Vanishing Movie Theaters, consisting of 15 images from my previous Myanmar surveys. About 60 people showed up for the talk, the main agenda of which was to draw attention to the plight of the Waziya Cinema - perhaps Myanmar's oldest existing cinema hall  

The low point of the trip - burned heel aside - was the fact that I waited 5 years to do it. About half of the theaters that I visited on this trip had closed down within that time frame. Others were demolished. Many vacant lots stood in place of what only a few years before was a mid-century movie theater. 

The most obvious loss to Myanmar's movie theater heritage since my last survey is "Cinema Row." Once the highest concentration of stand-alone movie theaters anywhere in Southeast Asia, the downtown Yangon strip went from having six theaters side by side to mere two. A before and after shot depicting the stretch of city is below.

Cinema Row c. 2010

Cinema Row c. 2016

But it's not all bad! As I start organizing my photos and notes I'll be sharing with you some surprisingly positive news from the Myanmar movie theater scene. Believe it or not, there are some interesting trends afoot. And unlike neighboring Thailand, where the crown jewel of movie theaters still faces the threat of demolition, the finest active theaters in Myanmar seem to be in very good hands.

More to come very soon.

Dust to dust on Thanksgiving

From the city of Philadelphia, USA, on this Thanksgiving Day, I give thanks that I had the chance to watch a movie at the Thai Rama Theater in Uthumpon Phisai, Sisaket Province in Thailand's great Northeast. My visit to the theater four years ago was inspirational on a number of levels, but most notably because of the unbridled community spirit with which the theater operated. The ticket price of 20 baht, the lowest in the country at the time, was testament of the owner's devotion to the residents of her native town.

The Thai Rama piqued my affection so much that I pitched an article about it to The Nation which was subsequently published on January 15th, 2012

Sadly, the dismal economics of the business got the better of it. Earlier this year it closed down and was soon after demolished. As of right now there are exactly 4 operating stand-alone movie theaters in Thailand outside of Bangkok.

Images the Thai Rama's condition after the fact were kindly sent by a follower of this blog who resides near the theater.

In life

Dismantled

Gone

Nearly identical shots from the Thai Rama's projection room, before and after dismantling

New York reduced to rubble

On a recent trip to Bangkok, I noticed that the city's stand-alone theater inventory had shrunk by one. That one was the once-famous New York Theater on Phaholyothin Road near Saphan Kwai.

The New York was once part of the Asia Rama Circuit, a chain of 2nd-run theaters spread throughout Bangkok and its suburbs. Due to its large size and good amenities, however, the New York was often rented by some of the first-run chains to screen premiers.

In its later years, the New York switched to screening porn, a common fate for many of Bangkok's stand-alones after their mainstream clientele stopped coming. The theater limped on in this fashion for a number of years until a brutal murder cemented its name in the history books. A young woman was killed by her male date while watching a movie there.

The theater and surrounding shop houses had been derelict for years.

Here's my original review of the place from nearly five years ago.

The Khosit Theater - Ban Pong, Ratchaburi, Thailand

As a professional art form, architecture is taken quite seriously in Thailand. Although the most highly touted architectural works in the country tend to relate to the national narrative - generally either royalty or religion - there is a wide range of world-class work outside of that limited scope. 

Modern architecture, in particular, is especially well represented throughout Thailand. Most Thai towns are, in fact, comprised largely of various offshoots of that broadly defined school known as the"International Style." Though much of it is pure stock in both gauge and dimension, there are truly outstanding pieces all around, some of them tucked away in the most obscure of places.

Ban Pong's Khosit Theater falls into that category: Outstanding obscura. Forgotten, but unique modern Thai architecture.

What is it about the Khosit that makes it so architecturally special? For one, you seldom see buildings with this kind of top-heavy massing . The brutally heavy upper bulk seems to float weightlessly over the empty lower lobby. From this perspective, the Khosit appears as if the foundation was raised up and left suspended in the air. 

But the contrast between the bulky top and empty bottom is tied together by the wrap-around marquee and strip of windows set between the two. The marquee, it should be noted, protrudes out around the edges, while the windows are set back. One is reminded of a cold-cut slice sticking out from the enclosing bread.

Add some asymmetry to the package, along with a softly curved corner (to lessen the severity of and the bulk) and the Khosit stands out as a highly sophisticated structure. The roof-top signage, moreover, with the lettering done on large squares of metal, matches the bulkiness below. 

The Khosit Theater has a language all of its own.

 

The Khosit Theater from a slight distance.

Thai modernism often does not get its due credit. Case in point, the Khosit.

The Khosit was the last of three theaters to be erected in Ban Pong, one of Ratchaburi's most industrial districts. It's age and any additional background data were unavailable, though conjecture dates it to about 1980, give or take a few years.

Rails for skate kids at the Khosit.

Though utterly abandoned, the Khosit holds the unique distinction among Thai movie theaters of being the only former cinema in the country that has been co-opted by the local skateboarding community. Every evening, the lower lobby serves as a refuge for local skate kids. Ollies and tailslides abound in a space once reserved for passive waiting and socializing. 

A pair of rails and a ramp, used for stake tricks, attest to this new found use.

Skate culture often goes hand in hand with graffiti culture, which too has taken root in the abandoned Khosit.

  

Graf

Main staircase leading to upper lobby.

Lobby tagging

Signs of cinema still abound among some newer graffiti. 

Stairs leading to the auditorium, all tagged up.

The upper lobby at the Khosit Theater is gated off. The large entrance leads to the auditorium.

Softer light

Upper bulk of the Khosit Theater. Brutally beautiful.

Signage

Modern Thai architecture wears a unique visage in the Khosit Theater. 

Tragedy strikes Suphanburi

The Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project has the unenviable task of announcing a great loss to Thai cinema architecture. A few days prior, news reached our desk of the demolition of the theater featured on this blog's title banner - Suphanburi's Fa Siam Theater.

The Fa Siam Theater, now no more

While precise details of the theater's history were not compiled during the cursory research trip made in late 2009, the Fa Siam was an unabashed visual spectacle. Soon after documenting it, the Fa Siam's image was beamed across the internet as the gateway to an on-line world of Southeast Asian movie theater fantasy. From then on, the Fa Siam received nothing but praise. Who know's how many casual visitors to this site were drawn in, not by the literary drivel herein presented, but by the striking architecture of the Fa Siam Theater that greets the eye.  For all intents and purposes, it has been this project's logo.

As movie theater architecture in Thailand goes, the Fa Siam was about as authentic as it gets: A highly stylized piece of modernism, derivative perhaps only of Bangkok's legendary Scala Theater (right). This, in fact, has long been a point of curiosity. Noting the architectural similarities to the Scala Theater, - modern palladian windows, tapered buttresses and zig-zag cornices - I've often wondered if the Fa Siam was also a product of the master of mid-century Thai modernism, Chira Silpakanok. Further research should yield that answer.

Lobby view

Regardless of who designed it, the Fa Siam was a work of architecture that ought to have been given a second life. Sadly, there is still a dearth of preservation-mindedness in Thailand when it comes to architecture. Old movie theaters, moreover, are basically considered trash in need of removal. Even a bona fide landmark like the Scala in Bangkok is on the demolition list.

Hawking at Lert Fa market in front of the Fa Siam.

In order for Thailand to raise its international profile, a reevaluation of how to treat old architecture is much needed, lest this dynamic country arbitrarily sap itself of its inventory of cultural capital.

Dimensional signage

To the people of Suphanburi: my heart goes out to you. While your unique Banharnist political system may be making you richer with each passing day, your quaint little town is much poorer in culture now that the Fa Siam is no more.

Updates and hold-me-overs

Please pardon the lack of content, but I have been out of the field for nearly 18 months and my inventory has run dry. It's been a long, slow 18 month hiatus from this project, the harebrained idea I dreamed up back in late 2008 with the ambitious goal of documenting all the remaining stand-alone movie theater across Southeast Asia. Indeed, in my absence from the region I've missed out on attending 4 SEAMTP exhibitions. One in Thailand, two in Indonesia and one in Laos. I can only imagine the number of theaters that have been demolished during this period without a proper record of their existence. 

But, ladies and gentlemen, trusty loyalists and casual followers alike, the hiatus will soon be over. In a little less than two months I'll be flying into Bangkok. The Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project will be back in action. More details on this at a later date.

In the meantime, here's a little something to hold you over. 

This shot of Bangkok's King's Theater was sent to me a few years ago by a former US serviceman stationed in Thailand in the 1960's. King's was one of three theaters built on land formerly occupied by the Wang Burapha Palace, a grand old teak mansion built by King Chulalongkorn for one of his brothers. 

In the early 1950's Wang Burapha was purchased an razed to make way for the King's, Queen's and Grand theatres. Ask any Bangkokian who was around back then and they'll tell you that this area was the place to be for teenagers, with its trio of first class movie theaters and surrounding businesses all in one bustling section of town.

Today, the King's Theatre itself is gone. In its place stands the Merry King's Department Store.  

Judging by the "My Name is Pecos" billboard on the side of the theater, this photo probably dates from 1967 or 68.

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.

The Nakorn Luang Rama - Bangkok, Thailand

Featured below is the Nakorn Luang Rama, formerly of Jaransanitwong soi 29/1 in Bangkok. The grand old 2nd-run theater had a seating capacity of 1,534.

It was built in 1979 and closed down in 2005, before meeting its ultimate fate in September of 2011. 

Judging by its architecture, it looks as if the Nakorn Luang was designed by the same person that did the Ngamwongwan Theater, otherwise it's an identical copy.  

Sympathy for this stalled if not dead project still runs high. Many thanks to long-time contributor to the SEA Movie Theater Project and prolific movie theater chronicler in his own, Mr. Peep, for sending these photos along.

A reminder of better days at the Washington

The below photos depict the Washington Theater in a slightly more decorative light than the previous post. At the time of their taking in the early 2000's, its movie screening days had already past and the Mambo cabaret had taken up the lease.  

The Washington Theater once stood behind the street side marquee and signage pictured above. 

In its heyday during the last quarter of the 20th century, the Washington was a premiere Sukhumvit Road movie destination, particularly for Hollywood and Bollywood films. The theater's parent company, the Asia Rama Network, circulated movies between its numerous first and second run theaters throughout metropolitan Bangkok, nearly all of which have been demolished.

These two shots come courtesy of the thoughtful Mr. Peep, a long time contributor to this blog.

Washington Theater movie ticket

Washington is destroyed!

Word has it that the former epicenter of Bangkok's Washington Square - the Washington Theater - is in the process of being demolished. 

Though shuttered as a theater for more than a decade, the Washington represents Cold War Thailand at its pinnacle. The surrounding "square" was lined with bars and brothels that catered to American soldiers and ex-pats left over from the Vietnam War and others who gravitated to it in the war's aftermath. Needless to say, the name of the square and its anchor theater hearken back to the "special relationship" between Thailand and America during the Cold War.   

Architecturally speaking, the Washington was never the most glamorous of Thai theaters. But for better or worse, an important vestige of 20th century social history is will be lost with its demise. 

 

The Thai Rama - Uthumphon Pisai, Sisaket, Thailand

Like countless little towns dotting the Thai countryside, Uthumphon Pisai comes across as a functioning time capsule. Core sections of such towns are much as they were when they developed in the mid-20th century, spurred towards growth by market-sized agricultural yields from Green Revolution technologies. 

Town fresh markets, still a staple of community life, are now concrete instead of wood framed, as are most commercial structures. Those wooden structures that do survive often have an endearing sag to them, like the dear old aunties and uncles who so often call them home. They belong to a visibly different era.

It's the town outskirts where the 21st century makes its presence known. Inter-province highways on town outskirts are lined with the same kinds of big-box retailers that led small town America to a needlessly early grave.The central business community is challenged by the hyper-markets on town's edge. 

Generally speaking, local movie theaters are in a similar, if not more dire position. Closed or altogether demolished, virtual unknowns to the new generation of would-be movie-goers. 

But in Uthumphon Pisai, the Thai Rama has managed to cling to life through simple economy: at 20 baht, it's the lowest priced movie ticket in all of Thailand.

The Thai Rama Theater

Like most stand-alone theatres in small Thai towns, the Thai Rama was built near the heart of the community, perfect for a largely pedestrian population.

When it opened in 1977, much of the countryside had yet to be linked to the electricity grid. The local cinema, then powered by diesel generator, topped the list of places to go for entertainment. That has all changed over the last two decades.

In Uthumphon Pisai, however, for less than the price of a bowl of noodles, you can still experience the joys of the silver screen the old-fashioned way. A family of five, living off a single minimum wage, can comfortably enjoy this luxury at such a price.

But it gets even better than that: In a display of her affection for the business, the Thai Rama's owner-operator - a middle-aged woman who inherited the theatre from her late parents - outdid her own rock-bottom price.

"Buy tickets for next week's movie today and pay only Bt10," she announced recently as a group of patrons filed through the door.

Her explanation as to why so low: "We're an old theatre, without air-conditioning, and in need of a paint job." Clearly this is a theatre owner for whom community spirit trumps profits.

Wooden doors and sign for 20 baht movie tickets, the cheapest in Thailand.

Pleasantly absent at this astonishingly low price are the droves of rambunctious teens that must be negotiated at the multiplex in the shopping mall. Thai Rama attendees are there for the sole purpose of watching a movie, not as an afterthought on a shopping spree.

Thirty minutes worth of onscreen advertisements prior to the show is likewise not an issue at the Thai Rama, in contrast to the big-name multiplexes. Instead, the erstwhile norm of a few previews and the cinematic homage to the King is all one sees.

High school students make memories in front of the old Thai Rama.

Verandah view

Monarchical marketing before the start of the film

Admittedly, for Bt20 - six times below the national average for a movie - there are some noticeable technical omissions. For one, there is no frigid air-conditioning as is common at the multiplexes. In fact, the Thai Rama has managed to cool its patrons for 35 years with nothing more than industrial-sized wall fans.

Nor will you find fancy seats with cup-holder armrests that can be raised to get closer to a date. The seats at the Thai Rama are metal framed, deep-pocketed and - though sufficiently comfortable -perform no function other than providing a place to sit, one person at a time.

Signage

But even if the rickety, two-reel projectors caused the picture to shake at times, and the antiquated sound system botched the audio during a few scenes, the overall movie-watching experience is pure joy. Maybe it is precisely this rustic imperfection, this down-home sense of community, that's so comforting in an age of superficial gloss and hyper-consumption.

Either way, at Bt20 a pop, it's hard to complain.