Theatre of Dreams in the Northern Capital

As published in the Bangkok Post

October 14th, 2014

Promises of an exotic cultural experience amid the street-side hawkers of historic Chang Klan Road, home of Chiang Mai’s Night Bazaar, fall well short of expectations. Today, the scene among this shopping zone differs little from a half dozen such sites across the country. For a growing city which relies heavily on its unique historic identity as a main selling point, Chiang Mai’s Night Bazaar leaves much to be desired.

But the promised intrigue of the Night Bazaar is not without historic precedent. At the street’s southeast corner, a relic of Chang Klan Road’s storied past stands obscured from view beneath a veil of visually polluting vinyl billboards. If those adverts were ever peeled back the Night Bazaar would get a peek at the Saeng Tawan Theatre, Chiang Mai’s grandest ever movie theatre.

Built in 1978 – at the tail end of Thailand’s mid-century movie palace construction boom – the Saeng Tawan was the fourth and final movie theatre contracted by Chao Chaisuriwongse na Chiang Mai, a descendant of Chiang Mai’s royal household who fashioned himself into the city’s primary cinema benefactor. Chao Chaisuriwongse commissioned the Saeng Tawan to be the most luxurious of his quartet of theatres, all of which were located to the east of the old city walls.

The site chosen for the Saeng Tawan was the 4-way junction of Chang Klan and Sri Donchai roads, today marking the informal southern boundary of the Night Bazaar area. Local architect Aj. Chulathat Kitibutr, now internationally known for combining the best of traditional Thai architecture with the comforts of modernism, was contracted for the design.

Aj. Chulathat faced the Saeng Tawan at a 45 degree angle to the intersection. Doing so allowed the theater’s elegant façade, featuring an intricate terracotta tile mosaic depicting Chiang Mai’s history, to be seen clearly from the two bisecting streets. Upon completion the Saeng Tawan Theatre became a figurative masthead of the upper Chang Klan Road corridor

Like the majority of stand-alone movie theatres in Thailand, if not the world over, the waning years of the 20^th century were not kind to the Saeng Tawan. A proliferation of home entertainment systems – TV’s, VCR’s, and karaoke machines –  combined with an increase in car ownership among locals, made trips to a pedestrian-oriented movie theater that didn’t provide much parking less appealing, if not altogether inconvenient.

By the late 1990’s, Chiang Mai had become home to two sizable shopping malls, both of which were able to attract the city’s auto-centric consumer base with secured parking garages. Once inside, shoppers had the added option of seeing a movie at the seven-screen multiplex theatre that accompanied each of the newfangled malls.

And that marked the death of the Saeng Tawan.

When the ailing picture palace’s contract expired in the early aughts, the owners never bothered to renew it. The dormant Saeng Tawan has served several less glamourous functions over the subsequent decade and a half – from restaurant to snooker hall, and most recently a warehouse for a company that prints billboards.

The fall of the Saeng Tawan ushered in a gradual decline of the Night Bazaar and upper Chang Klan Road in general. Lacking a genuine anchor institution, the area is facing its first real cultural deficit since it gained its “exotic” reputation decades before.

“Back then, Chang Klan Road was different from now” recalled Ms. Trasvin Jittidecharak, owner of Silkworm Books and lifelong Chiang Mai resident. “The first Night Bazaar was…just an ordinary street market. It was a real tourist attraction. The 3-storey [high] Chiang Mai Night Bazaar [building] was built much later, during the tourism boom of the 80s. It was more authentic in the past.”

Indeed, Chang Klan Road was well known for its eclectic cultural mix well before the Saeng Tawan was ever built. The designation of the area as “Night Bazaar,” in fact, was not without good reason: For decades this stretch of city was home to ethnically non-Thai settlers. Moslem Hor Chinese, many of whom were descendants of caravan traders who forged trade routes that linked China’s Yunnan Province to the northern Thai principalities, made their homes along upper Chang Klan. An Indo-Pakistani community grew there, as well, attracted by the city’s welcoming social climate and growing commercial opportunities. The original “Night Bazaar” was the market that these traders held every evening.

Within this melting-pot atmosphere, Chiang Mai’s first ever permanent movie theater – The Patthanakorn Theatre – came into existence on Chang Klan Road in 1923, one year after the State Railway of Thailand made Chiang Mai its northern terminus. Completion of the railroad made the transportation of film reels from Bangkok a rapid and regular occurrence, precipitating the rise of a movie exhibition industry.

Over time, the Patthanakorn was supplanted in popularity by other Chiang Mai movie theaters, including the much newer Saeng Tawan. But as Chiang Mai’s debut picture hall, it helped to solidify the reputation of upper Chang Klan Road as an important cultural center.

Throughout Thailand in general, the once popular pastime of movie-going in grand stand-alone movie theatres like the Saeng Tawan is dangerously close to being completely lost. Cities around the world, however, are finding that the restoration of such movie theaters can serve as growth engines for broader economic development goals. In New York, for instance, the city government is covering half the 92-million dollar cost for the renovation of the 84 year old Loew’s King’s Theater on those exact principles. Closer to Thailand, neighboring countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Burma are taking action to preserve some of their own picture palaces for use as film and concert venues.

Meanwhile, in Thailand, old movie theaters are treated like yesterday’s garbage, with little attention given to readapting them for contemporary audiences.

Although it will take nothing short of a visionary developer to execute the Saeng Tawan’s restoration to world standards, doing so would endow Chiang Mai with an exciting piece of cultural infrastructure which would go a long way towards helping the city grow sustainably. And for a neighborhood flush with history, in a city which markets itself on its well preserved past, restoring the Saeng Tawan Theatre would be the perfect compliment.

In the meantime, it’s still fun to dream.

Khemsawat Cinema Revisited

It was five years ago that the Khemsawat Cinema was first entered into the annals of Southeast Asian movie theater history. At that primeval juncture in the life of this project, raw data on theater's past was unattainable. The parts that made it to print were, admittedly, no more than sensationalist conjectures about a theater in a town infamous for its ties to the dope trade.

This past March, all that circa-2009 speculative drivel was finally laid to rest. The Khemsawat in all its post-cinematic humility was revisited, its current owners interviewed and new light shed on this cinema relic of upper-most Thailand.  

The Khemsawat Cinema - Fang, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand

Unfortunately, the newly acquired "hard data" is pretty dry. There are no reports of forthcoming plans to renovate the Khemsawat and return it to its exalted glory days as Fang's lone movie theater. Most findings were rather sedate. 

But, as is often the case, the research included a distant hopefulness on the part of the owner; a hopefulness which could be the seed of regeneration if the planets align in just the right way.

Stand-alone movie theaters add color and diversity to city streets. 

Night views

A little over a year ago, the Khemsawas Cinema was purchased from its original owner by Sudaphorn Tansuhaj and her husband Ahkom. The couple, who own the adjacent Little Home Resort and several adjoining shophouses, fixed up the theater's lobby just enough so that it could be rented. A Japanese restaurant has since moved in, adding life to what was most recently a dank cave, per se.

The renovations did not entail any structural or otherwise irreversible changes to the space, so should that tiny seed of regeneration ever sprout, the lobby could be easily reclaimed for theatrical purposes.

Bare bones auditorium

The Khemsawat was built in 1975, the first theater in Fang built of brick and mortar. But declining attendance led to it's closure before it would even reach its 30th anniversary. 

On the mezzanine level, the most recent seating type was in the form of bucket seats made of pressed plywood. Older forms of seating were left intermingled, such as a few rows of folding bench seats made of teak, and the original non-folding teak benches. Balcony level seating, presumably higher grade stuffed chairs for those willing to dish out a bit more, had been removed.

Old wooden seats

All this talk of movie theater seats is not unwarranted. In fact, Ms. Sudaphorn made a point of saying that the plywood stock on the lower level was purchased secondhand from a theater owner in Chiang Mai named Loet, last name Shinawatra. That is, father of ousted PM's Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra. Indeed, when Loet Shinawatra closed his Sri Visan Theater on Tha Phae Road in downtown Chiang Mai, he sold the seats to the Khemsawat, turning a minor business transaction into an equally minor political footnote from a very unlikely place.

And on that note, of all the Thailand-based alternate histories that are waiting to be written, this is one that begs an author: Had Thaksin Shinawatra and the Shinawatra family's cinema business gone in the same direction as Thailand's other big movie theater families - like the Poonworaluk's (Major Cineplex) and the Thongrompho's (SF Cinema), Thailand as we know it today, flush with political divide, might have never existed.

Pressed plywood seats originally used in a Shinawatra family theater in Chiang Mai.

Signage from behind

Signage from the front

Seat-related intrigues aside, the only other point about the Khemsawat Cinema that's worthy of mention is that ever-so-slight manifestation of hope expressed by Ahkom for his theater's future. In the process of trying to figure out the best use for the now-gutted space, Ahkom explained that he has considered reviving it for arts and entertainment purposes. Chances are slim of that becoming a reality, but the thought alone is a starting point. 

Last chance for Chiang Mai to restore a movie palace

The May issue of Chiang Mai Citylife magazine features the Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project. Much of article/interview is centered around Chiang Mai's last remaining stand-alone and what to do with it.

The full story can be found below:

"When approaching the intersection of Chang Klan and Sri Donchai Roads, a sense of loss pervades. Here on the Southeast corner of this busy intersection rests the colossal of Chiang Mai cinemas, rotting mercilessly. Bound like a sedated hostage in the cheapness of billboards and advertisements, the sole surviving relic of Chiang Mai's movie-going glory days awaits an undetermined, likely grim fate," writes Phil Joblan in a post on his blog, The Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project, about the now decrepit Sang Tawan Theatre in Chiang Mai. The language Joblan uses to write about the Sang Tawan Theatre can only be described as intense and despairing. He feels a special connection to movie theatres, especially those (like the Sang Tawan), that were once centres of community and culture, but are now nothing more than abandoned mammoths of a time long forgotten. Each post features a different Southeast Asian stand-alone movie theatre, complete with the theatre's history, photos and musings about its future. Unfortunately, for many of the theatres, Joblan can only imagine futures of destruction and dust, of strip malls and duplexes. But his project is not merely about documenting sadness. Rather, Joblan hopes that his work might help to inspire change and preservation. In a presentation he gave recently at the Alliance Francaise in Chiang Mai, he shared photographs from some of his favourite movie theatres throughout Southeast Asia and spoke profusely about the need to find sustainable solutions to ensure that these relics of architectural ingenuity and creativity don't fall to rubble under the weight of apathy and misunderstanding. "Thailand is regularly losing good architecture," wrote Joblan in his most recent blog post. "In particular, it is regularly losing good mid-20th century modern architecture, the same time period corresponding with a boom in movie theatre construction." He attributes much of this loss to major corporations gobbling up land occupied by historic movie theatres so that they might build chain restaurants and strip malls, a fact that he, most understandably, thinks is tragic. Even Bangkok's famously gorgeous Scala Theatre, the last active stand-alone theatre in all of Thailand - which recently won an award for architectural significance from the Association of Siamese Architects - has had its land bought up by ThaiBev Co., the company that produces Beer Chang and Mekong Whiskey.   Though Jablon has since returned  home to the United States for the summer, he agreed to answer some questions about the importance of stand-alone movie theatres in Thailand and the history of movie-going in Chiang Mai, as well as to give some advice to our community about how to protect the Sang Tawan Theatre, the last of the great Chiang Mai stand-alone theatres, which we could lose at any moment. Citylife: What led you to start The Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project? Phil Jablon: The discovery of a rustic old stand-alone movie theatre in Chiang Mai. Prior to finding that theatre - the Tippanet Theatre - my only knowledge of movie theatres in Chiang Mai were the multiplexes in the two existing shopping malls.  By the time I got around to going to see a movie at the Tippanet, however, it had been demolished. It was then that it occurred to me that this was the likely fate of stand-alone movie theatres across Thailand. So I made up my mind that I would document them for posterity's sake.  Citylife: What is it about movie theatres in particular that captivates you? Phil Jablon: There are numerous aspects about these old movie theatres that are remarkable. First of all, the geography of the stand-alone movie theatres of yesteryear is much more human in scale than the multiplex theatres that dominate today. The former were usually built in town centres, or in densely populated outlying districts. Whether facing onto a throughway or tucked away within a plaza, they enliven the street with their architecture and the way people use them. For instance, when a large crowd attends a movie in a mall cineplex, they drive into the parking garage and then back out when they're done. They never set foot on the street, which in turn makes the street feel lifeless. On the other hand, when a large crowd attends a movie at a stand-alone theatre, the surrounding area benefits from a flurry in foot traffic. There's something magical about that. Citylife: Why is it important to save these stand-alone theatres? What do they offer that sets them apart from mall cineplexes? Phil Jablon: The stand-alones were built solely for the purpose of watching movies. Cinema, we have to remember, is the most dynamic art form. The fact that there were once grand buildings where entire communities congregated for the shared experience of watching movies speaks volumes to this fact. Ensuring that a select few old theatres are preserved is good for the legacy, economy and vitality of the societies that claim them.  Citylife: The last of these great stand-alone theatres in Chiang Mai is the Sang Tawan Theatre. What makes this theatre special and important? Phil Jablon: Truthfully, the most important thing about the Sang Tawan is that it's Chiang Mai's only remaining stand-alone movie theatre, which means that it represents the last chance for the city to reach back and salvage a piece of its cultural history. That aside, it has a beautiful terra cotta mosaic on the facade depicting northern Thai village life. Sadly, that is now completely covered up by a huge billboard bolted to the facade. The Sang Tawan is also part of the legacy of Chiang Mai's royal household, as the builder was Jao Chai Suriwong Na Chieng Mai. I feel that that fact adds to the sociocultural importance of the theatre. Citylife: What is the history of movie-going like in Chiang Mai? Phil Jablon: Chiang Mai's first permanent movie theatre opened in 1922, the same year the train line reached the city. The theatre was called the Patthanakorn and it was located near the Night Bazaar. Sometime in the 1940s, the Patthanakorn was sold and renamed the Sri Wiang Theatre - later to become the Wiang Ping - before it was demolished in the early 1970s. By the mid-1970s there were about 13 movie theatres throughout Chiang Mai, representing just about every densely populated area of the city. Two of those theatres - the Sri Visan and the Chintatsanee - were owned by the father of current Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. The largest theatre magnate in the city, however, was Jao Chai Suriwong Na Chieng Mai. He built four theatres throughout the city, including the Suriwong, Suriyong, Suriya and the Sang Tawan theatres, the last of which is still standing. at the intersection of Chang Klan and Sri Donchai Roads. Citylife: A lot of your work focuses on finding sustainable ways to renovate these abandoned theatres. What are some feasible, sustainable solutions for the Sang Tawan Theatre in Chiang Mai? Phil Jablon: Ideally, it will be turned into a mixed-use venue, able to accommodate both film and live events, be it concerts, speaking engagements or plays. With the right cooperation, it might also have space for a small museum on the history of film in Northern Thailand.  The location of the Sang Tawan makes all this feasible. It's right in the centre of the densest concentration of hotels in the city, which would make it highly accessible to the tourist market. Imagine coming to Chiang Mai, staying at a gorgeous hotel like the Anantara or the Shangri-La, and being able to enjoy a classic Thai film in a restored movie palace!  If the greater Chiang Mai community has any interest in being home to a rare and prestigious structure in the form of a revived stand-alone movie theatre, then this is the last chance to do so. Once it's common knowledge that there's a beautiful old movie theatre slowly rotting at one of the most important commercial/cultural intersections in the city, the advocacy stage must begin, building a case for why this structure should be invested in. Given, this is going to be an expensive project. Returning old movie theatres to their original splendour always is. But the return in the form of cultural capital for Chiang Mai and greater Thailand would be incalculable. Think of it like this: If the Sang Tawan is revived, it would mark the first time in the history of Thailand that a stand-alone movie theatre was brought back from a state of near-abandonment. That would be something to be proud of! Citylife: Thai PBS recently did an excellent video piece on The Southeast Asia Movie Theatre Project - how else are you aiming to promote your research? A gallery exhibition or a documentary, perhaps? Phil Jablon: Yes, I am currently exploring options for making a mini-series about Thailand's old movie theatres. If this comes to fruition, it will air on Thai TV. The other upcoming event is a photo exhibition of my work at the Khum Chao Burirat House on Ratchadamneon Road. That will be held in cooperation with the Faculty of Architecture at Chiang Mai University and take place towards the end of the year. It's my secret hope that that exhibition will mark the beginning of a campaign to restore the Sang Tawan Theatre.  While not focused exclusively on movie theatres, the Thai Film Archive in Salaya does have some material on the subject, including a Thai film museum containing some artefacts from old movie theatres. The Film Archive is, however, a fabulous resource for learning about another extremely understudied aspect of Thai culture - Thai cinema. They regularly show old movies at their Sri Salaya Theatre, many of which they possess the lone existing print of. They also transfer some old Thai films onto DVD for sale.

by Cody Gohl 

The Poonthawee Theater - Jom Thong District, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand

The Poonthawee Theater, on its own, is not architecturally significant. In so far as it is of a style that is no longer built, yes, it has some historical value. But beyond its antiquity, it is basically commonplace. The only truly distinguishing feature is the font used for the dimensional lettering of the sign.

There are other contexts, however, through which the Poonthawee's value increases and makes it worthy of long term care.

The loss of landmarks such as the Poonthawee Theater would have an adverse effect on the town's streetscape. 

Signage for the Poonthawee Theater

Jom Thong is a small town. The Poonthawee stands at a prominent location in the town center, directly across from Jom Thong's sacred Wat Prathat Sri Jom Thong Worawiharn. Abandoned or not, the old theater, complete in its decorative adornments like its signage and marquee, is a city landmark, almost equal in distinction to the ornate temple across the road.

By incorporating a prestige structure - even an outmoded one -  into a town's historical narrative, it brings continuity and value to place. Visually and intellectually, Jom Thong is a more dynamic place with the vacant Poonthaween Theater than without it. The task now should be to find some adequate secondary function that would utilize its space.

The loss of these buildings is a waste both of architectural heritage and material resources (it takes far more resources to demolish and build anew than to renovate or repurpose). As such, a major revision in the way that we view old buildings is sorely needed. This will require, among other things, the cooperation of various stake-holders. Not an easy task, but not an impossibility either. Up to this point there has been a severe lack of will when it comes to preservation. It's time to change that.

The Poonthawee Theater was contracted back in 1976 by a man of the same name. In addition to his theater, he was also a local film distributor. The theater closed in 1988 and has served Mr. Poonthawee's family as a warehouse ever since.

Anthropology of the Cinema

A little over a year ago, while gathering data on the old movie theaters of Chiang Mai, I learned that the long-closed Suriwong Theater was one of the few in town where American and British films could be watched with their original English language soundtracks - as opposed to being dubbed over in Thai. On account of this premium service, Chiang Mai's resident Anglophones turned out regularly as early as the 1950's. In those days, the ex-pat community was a fraction of its current size. What there was of it was limited to missionaries and their families, staff at the handful of local consulates and a small community of foreign "experts" conducting studies and surveys of various kinds.

One of my informants, a Chiang Mai native-turned anthropologist, recalled as a young man frequent trips to the Suriwong to get his fix of English, hoping to improve his listening skills. Always intrigued by the cosmopolitanism fostered by the theater, with its international crowd and viewing fare, he would quietly observe the attending notables before entering the darkened auditorium. As an aspiring anthropologist himself, seeing the well-known American anthropologist Clark Cunningham taking in movies at the Suriwong in the 1960's stuck in his memory. More than 40 years later, he shared those memories with me.

I later looked up Dr. Cunningham, wanting to pass on word that his name was mentioned in conjunction with Chiang Mai movie theater history. Not only did he promptly respond, but he had the thoughtfulness to send me a few photos of the Suriwong Theater that he snapped in 1968, along with a letter describing them:

Dear Mr. [Projectionist]...
The actor portrayed in such grand size was [a] college friend, the late James Franciscus. (The Valley of Gwangi was not one of his stellar roles!) The painting of him on the poster was very good indeed, and I recognized him immediately when I passed the theater. I don't know whether such movie poster art still exists, but much of it was quite impressive. I don't have much to tell about the movie house. As you know, it was the one place with an original sound room for the farang, mainly English since most of the movies were American origin (and it was air-conditioned, which was good since it was confined). It was a good place for the farang kids when films like Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music came there.

Good luck in your research. When you publish, please let me know

Sincerely,
Clark Cunningham

(photos courtesy of Dr. Clark Cunningham)

For anybody familiar with Chiang Mai, the Suriwong Theater was located opposite Tha Pae Gate. The building was demolished in the last 10 years, but the replacement structure utilized the same footprint. Its occupancy is shared by a McDonald's restaurant and a boutique hotel.

The Suriwong opened in 1956, built by a member of Chiang Mai royalty - Chao Chaisuriwong Na Chiang Mai - his first of four stand-alone theaters in the city. By the 1980's it was purchased by exiled former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, back when he was attempting to become a movie theater mogul, prior to politics (Thaksin's father was also in the movie theater business). Needless to say, his movie theater empire failed. In the early 1990's Thaksin closed the Suriwong and turned it into a department store.

(Many thanks to Dr. Clark Cunningham and Prof. Suriya Smutkupt for sharing their memories of the Suriwong)

The Khemsawat Cinema - Fang, Chiang Mai, Thailand

It wasn't so long ago that the Fang district of Chiang Mai province was one of Thailand's key centers for the cultivation of Paperver Somniferum - the poppy flower; source of such habit forming drugs as opium and heroin. Pressure from the international community, however, has led the Thai state on a crop-substitution and poppy-eradication crusade, resulting in wide-spread suppression of the practice, which used to comprise a massive portion of northern Thailand's economy. Nonetheless, rumors abound that the dope trade lives on in Fang, a fact which sadly cannot be applied to the town's movie theater industry.

Street perspective of the Khemsawat Cinema, that last of Fang's movie theaters

Once upon a time, however, starting back in 1973, Fang was blessed with the Khemsawat Cinema, the first solid brick and mortar theater of its kind in the little drug depot. Right, smack in the center of town, it was a handsome theater, stoically providing the Fang townsfolk with their regular fix of film. Whether high-grade entertainment or just plain junk, the Khemsawat Cinema served its customers faithfully 7 days a week, until it was pushed out of business by a dwindling population and an overdose of home theaters in the early 2000's. It's been dormant ever since.

A man saunters past the dormat Khemsawat Cinema, in a scene that looks as if it could be from 1986.

Incidentally, while roaming the town in search of this lusterless jewel, I met the brother-in-law of the owner of Fang's original wooden movie theater. Despite the fact that it's been demolished for over 40 years, this man was able to recount a number of valuable details about the old theater and how it operated. For instance, the old theater in Fang shared film reels with the theaters in Chiang Dao, Mae Rim and other districts in Chiang Mai province. After the film had been screened at one theater, the distributor would strap it to a motorcycle and have it sent to another. Sometimes, he remembered, the patrons at the Fang theater would have to wait until after the scheduled show-time because delivery of the reel from Chiang Dao was delayed. When at last the coveted reel arrived, the audience would erupt in cheer.

Through the shuttered gates.

At some point the name was changed to Suksawat Cineplex

Even abandoned, the Khemsawat Cinema is an unusually attractive movie theater for such a small town. Without casting any stones, it would not surprise me if its beauty reflects Fang's integral role in the heroin trade of years passed. After all, drug money has to be laundered somehow. What better way than investing in a movie theater?

"Thaksin at the pictures" - The Phrom Piman Theater - Sankhamphaeng, Chiang Mai, Thailand

There is a connection, albeit a loose one, between the theater behind this gate and the anti-government protests taking place across Thailand as I write.

The Phrom Piman Theater is right across the street from the Shinawatra Building, and one street removed from the Shinawatra Thai Silk Factory in the heart of tiny Sankhamphaeng District, Chiang Mai. Thaksin's family earned a nice chunk of their fortune from that factory, which later became the source of backing for Thaksin's other business ventures and subsequent political career. Is it possible that the former PM watched films here in his childhood?

Newer buildings have been built around the theater over the years, obscuring a portion of the facade.

The Phrom Piman Theater was extremely difficult to find. Most of the people in town whom I questioned weren't aware that it ever existed. That might be because it stopped functioning as a theater about 30 years ago, after which it became a silk factory for a period of time. It's located in what is now a private courtyard, the front gate of which is depicted in the top photo. 60 or so years ago, when the theater was built, it was likely an open court with other commercial structures therein.

Side view, with wooden exterior walls.

I was very kindly allowed access to the Phrom Piman by an old woman who claimed to be looking after the place for the absentee owners. I had a hunch, however, that she was actually one of the owners, but didn't want to admit it.

No remnants of cinemadom were left inside, only a bit of silk factory paraphernalia and two centimeters of pigeon droppings on the floor.

Whether Thaksin ever watched a movie here as a kid is only speculation. But it's still nice to imagine boy-Thaksin, pre-police, pre-billionaire, pre-politician-in-exile, sitting mesmerized at the movies while his parent's silk factory churned away across the street.

(Phrom Piman translates to Brahma's Paradise. Brahma is one of the gods of creation in Hindu mythology. Great name for a movie theater).

The Chom Tong Two

As the world plunges ever deeper into economic asphyxiation, the question beckons: why did the tiny district of Chom Tong, Chiang Mai once have two movie theaters? Was it because of its position at the crossroads of southern Chiang Mai province, providing enough of a viewership and strong enough economy to support the two? Perhaps it was something as simple as the town having a cinemaphile resident with enough capital to toot his own horn twice. Whatever the case may be, both the Chom Tong Rama and the Poonthawee Cinema cease to function as theaters anymore.

The Poonthawee Pappayon, opened in 1976 and closed in the late 80's.

he current owner of the Poonthawee Cinema uses it as a warehouse for his wholesale dry goods distribution business.

The Chom Tong Rama was the larger of the two. The current owners sell office and school supplies from the gutted theater.

The Chom Tong Rama - The new store is called "Parinya" which translates to "comprehension."

The Sang Tawan Theater, Chiang Mai's sole survivor

When approaching the intersection of Chang Klan and Sri Donchai Roads, a sense of loss pervades. Here on the southeast corner of this busy intersection rests the colossal of Chiang Mai cinemas, rotting mercilessly.

Bound like a sedated hostage in the cheapness of billboards and advertisements, the sole surviving relic of Chiang Mai's movie-going glory days awaits an undetermined, likely grim fate.



The facade of the Sang Tawan Theater boasted of an intricate mosaic depicting Lanna culture. Now it's hidden from the public eye, only a corner visible.

The three-tiered lobby languishes unused except as a toilet for vagrants...

...while the toilet houses only dust and cobwebs...

...and a majestic staircase leads to an abandoned balcony.

The Tipanet Theater - Chiang Man, Thailand

The Tipanet Theater was on Tipanet Road, not far from the Wulai area of town. It was the last operating single-screen theater in Chiang Mai before it met the wrecking ball in 2008. Prior to its demise it was owned by the Vista Group, which also ran the Chaoern Meaung Theater and the Chang Peuak Theater, formerly known as the Nakorn Chiang Mai. Vista's sole remaining theater venture is a 7 screen multiplex atop Central Gad Suan Gaew shopping mall - my home away from home in Chiang Mai.

RIP

The Tippanetr circa 1990.