The Painters

One of the more lamentable casualties of Thailand's movie theater industry is the movie billboard painter. At one time indispensable to the marketing of films, over the years this craft has been whittled down to a skeleton crew of active artists. 

But in the good old days of grand movie palaces, before the rise of the antiseptic theater chains, some of the nation's most talented painters made a living by creating cinematic visions to entice the crowds. Theater facades, commercial streets and prominent intersections in any sizable town were once decked out in original works of king-sized art that rotated on weekly basis.  

Billboard painter works on an ad for the Terrence Hill-Bud Spencer spaghetti western "Even Angels Eat Beans" in Khorat c. 1973 (photo credit to Craig Campen) 

Ads for Thai romantic comedy starring Sombat Methani and "Even Angels Eat Beans" 

The Chalerm Sin Theater, Ubon Ratchathani, advertising some Terrence Hill-Bud Spencer spaghetti western c. 1971 (photo credit to Jim Faiano)  

The Chalerm Thai Theater, Khorat branch. The billboard and cutout is of an unknown film, while the marquee advertises 1969's "Sabata."

The Pattani Rama with hand painted ad for Congo. c. 1996 (photo credit Wantaofek Baka)

This trade flourished until the mid-1990's, when the introduction of large format printers to Thailand caused an unfortunate and quite sudden shift. Theaters owners, already feeling the squeeze of declining ticket sales, were no longer reliant on the painters to create advertisements for their film fair. One by one theaters made the switch, laying waste to an entire guild once held in high regard. A classic case of machine making obsolescence of man.  

Today in the larger Thai cities, LED screens have become the new norm for roadside movie ads, bar-none the most effective way of drawing the eye of the passerby. But as luck would have it, there is one theater chain in southern Thailand that eschews the blinding commercialism of LED in favor of the soft stroke of the billboard painter. Colosseum Cineplex keeps at least two studios in southern Thailand in business. One in Phuket and the another in Yala.

Another theater in Sisaket - MVP Cineplex - apparently also employs a painter to do its movie ads.

Hand painted ads for "Terminator Genesis" (left) and Jurassic World (right) cloak the front of an abandoned building in Yala. 

The video below is a quick glimpse into the working life of Yala's movie billboard painters. Enjoy.

"The Westerner with the Thai Heart: Another breath for the stand-alone movie theater"

Below is the link to an hour long special on stand-alone movie theaters in Thailand. The program aired on the show "LINE Kanok," hosted by Kanok Ratwongsakul on The Nation TV, Sunday, November 1st at 7PM.

Most of the show is dedicated to the Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project and its mission of preserving select theaters in the region.

The title of the show translates to "The Westerner with the Thai Heart: Another breath for the stand-alone movie theater."

Please pardon my second rate Thai

Memoirs of a Movie Theater Maestro

Mr. Chalong Praditsuwan stood out in my mind as one of the more thoughtful characters I had encountered while researching Thailand's stand-alone movie theaters. Having once been at the helm of entertainment in his home town of Taphan Hin, Phichit, Chalong knew all the ins and outs of the movie industry in Thailand, past and present, including the societal shifts that had rendered his business lifeless.

He was also in possession of one of the most affable personalities out there, a trait, I surmised, that would lend itself exactingly to the making of a short documentary about Thailand's movie-going past.

A return visit to his movie theater-turned-private home after more than four years proved me correct. Here's the outcome of that meeting.

The Ma Win Rama - Ban Rai Village, Sukhothai, Thailand

About seven kilometers outside of Sukhothai City is the village of Ban Rai. Like many such villages in the lower north of Thailand, Ban Rai owes its existence to its past as a trading hub for agricultural goods. The local market provided the gravity that pulled farmers and farm hands in from the surrounding fields. A town, in all its bucolic modesty, sprang up around it. 

In the middle decades of the 20th century, the jungles of upper Thailand were being felled to make way for the expansion of market-based agriculture. On account of that, local business entrepreneurs who dealt in agricultural products and services tended to prosper from the increased production, which became known the world over as the "Green Revolution." 

In 1972, the owner of the Ban Rai's market, having profited handsomely from Green Revolution expansion, decided to diversify his business holdings. With a high volume of foot traffic already in place, he surmised that building a movie theater on the grounds of his market would be a natural fit. Similar market place-movie theater combinations were being developed across Thailand in response to an increased appetite for film among the populous. 

Home electrification in rural Thailand, it should be stated, had yet to become widespread by the early 1970's. If villagers living in the vicinity of Ban Rai wanted a dose of modern entertainment they would have to travel all the way to Sukhothai City for a movie theater. Television and other technologies predicated on having an electrical source were not yet an option for most. Opening a theater in Ban Rai thus made practical sense. 

Enter the Ma Win Rama.

The Ma Win Rama: A simple yet sleek and elegant mid-century Thai movie theater. It's place white facade subtly accented by its name in red, plaster letters on its peak. 

For the first 20 years of its existence, the Ma Win Rama was predictably successful. To nearby villagers, it was the most immediate entertainment venue; one of the only local spaces that offered a window into a another world, or a fictitious refection of their own. 

But as houses got wired for electricity, and different mediums for viewing movies became more widespread, the Ma Win Rama began to lose customers, if not its standing as an important community gathering point.

In the mid-1990's the theater was closed. The owner, however, invested in a tour bus company which now connects Sukhothai with points near and far. Win Tour is its name. 

Veranda-inspired lobby area, a common signature of many Thai stand-alones.

Ticket booth

Wooden, bi-fold doors, nailed shut.

Plaster signage

For a more detailed, if not entertaining background on the Ma Win Rama, please watch the short documentary below:

SEAMTP on Thai PBS for the 3rd time in 5 months

Thai PBS has been extremely kind to the Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project. This program is the third and longest feature they've aired about it to date.

Don't miss it!

Part 1

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Part 2

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COMING SOON!

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project proudly presents its first sojourn into the realm of motion picture making. After 5 years of working exclusively with still photography, we've teamed up with Bangkok-based VS Service to produce a short documentary film about a one-of-a-kind movie theater in Thailand's lower north.

Our hope is that this short will segue into to a feature length documentary project in the foreseeable future.

Stay tuned, trusty viewers! Great stuff is soon to come.

The Chalerm Thong Kham Theater - Ban Pong District, Ratchaburi Province, Thailand

Digging up the history of old movie theaters in Thailand can lead to some very high places. Movie theaters, after all, are prestige structures, which require deep pockets to construct. Accordingly, it's not uncommon for even the most neglected old theater to have regal origins. Local nobility or their direct descendants (as in the case of Chiang Mai's Suriwong, Suriyong, Suriya and Sang Tawan Theaters, built by a member of the House of Chiang Mai; or the well known Sala Chalerm Krung Theater in Bangkok, built by King Rama VII) have been often active in the realm of cinema entertainment. 

Aside from nobility in the formal sense, heavy hitters from the fields of industry, business and the professions were also known to expand their portfolios into entertainment through the addition of a movie theater. Examples of this can found throughout the country. Usually, however, time tends to render these connections moot, as the former theater owners search for new sources of income. But some things don't change that much at all. Especially in the case of smaller towns. 

The Chalerm Thong Kham Theater, in Ban Pong, Ratchauri, is testament to that old linkage between the movie theater and power in Thailand.

The Chalerm Thong Kham Theater, nestled behind some older shop houses.

Ban Pong is a junction town. Both the railroad and highway fork at Ban Pong, connecting the south with Bangkok to the east and Kanchanaburi to the west. Yet another rail spur heads north towards Suphanburi.

Towards the end of World War II, Ban Pong was slated for an aerial bombardment by the Allies as a means of destroying the westbound rail link going towards the Burmese border. That link, which inspired the movie Bridge On the River Kwai, would have enabled the Japanese in Burma to have a supply route from the east. Overcast skies on the bombing day, however, shielded the Ban Pong from the bomber's view. The town, with its bustling market area flanking the Mae Klong River and the railroad tracks, was spared. 

But what war could not do away with, fire did. In 1955, the market area went up in flames, wiping out the densest part of town. 

A few years after the fire much of Ban Pong's market area had been rebuilt, construction being led by a number of wealthy merchants with vested interest in the area. One of the those merchants was Prayun Khotsapongsa, a second generation Chinese settler whose family owned much of the market. Included in Prayun's redevelopment plan was an enormous, state-of-the-art movie theater to anchor the surrounding business community. He named the theater after his mother, Grandma Thongkham Wongsarot. In 1958 the Chalerm Thongkham Theater opened for business.  

The growth of film in Thailand in the post-war years led to healthy competition between theater operators. Prayun Khotsapongsa and his family rode the wave of movie industry growth by expanding into film distribution. Chalerm Thongkham Films, as it was called, distributed films to theaters in 8 nearby provinces, including Kanchanaburi, Petchaburi, Suphanburi, Prajuab Khirikan, Samut Sakhol, Samut Songkram and Ratchaburi. Ban Pong's position as a junction town helped make this possible.

The unique facade of the Chalerm Thongkham Theater

When the Chalerm Thongkham first opened in 1958, movie theater technology in Thailand was still fairly rudimentary. Ceiling fans were used to cool the theater, and patrons sat on wooden bench seats, not the detached bucket seats common in movie theaters today. But by 1967 air-conditioning and bucket seats were installed; 800 hundred of them on the lower level, plus another 300 on the balcony.

Competition stiffened further when a new theater, the Ban Pong Rama, opened on the opposite side of town. To stay competitive, the Khotsapongsa family enlarged the screen to accommodate 70mm projection capabilities. The large format film allowed for a bigger, crisper picture, equivalent to the Imax theaters of today.

Once an theater, now a motorcycle dealership.

But by the close of the 20th century, the Chalerm Thongkham was suffering the typical syndromes afflicting independent movie theaters in Thailand. Following the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, the theater and distribution company went out of business.

Gracefully curving staircase leading to balcony seating.

Balcony view

Seats remain in place on the balcony.

Today, the Chalerm Thongkham Theater houses a motorcycle dealership, a far cry from its glory days as the heart of entertainment in Ban Pong. The building, however, is still a source of pride for the Khotsapongsa family, who take pains to ensure that it looks sharp from the exterior. 

As for the the Khotsapongsa family, they continue to wield influence in Ban Pong. The current mayor, in fact, is a Khotsapongsa. 

Mr. Suthin Khotsapongsa is serving his second term as the Mayor of Ban Pong. Although not a Khotsapongsa by blood, Mr. Suthin married the daughter of Prayun Khotsapongsa, who he met when he worked at the Chalerm Thongkham Theater as a poster painter as a teenager. In reversal of custom, Mr. Suthin took on his bride's family name.

Suthin claims to be "the only mayor of a Thai city that started out as a poster painter at a movie theater."

Poster painter-turned-mayor, Nai Suthin Khotsapongsa.

1950's era signage.

The above video was shot for Thai PBS in November of last year. It features interviews with a former employee of the Chalerm Thongkham Theater (as well as the author of this blog). 

Movie theater ephemera from central Thailand

Movie-goers of yesteryear often sat on wooden bench seats like this: