Whenever I’m going again to my hometown of Sungai Petani (SP), Kedah, I spend a while at my favorite previous Chinese espresso store situated within the coronary heart of the city. As I sit quietly whereas sipping a cup of kopi-O, I can’t assist however really feel a tinge of melancholy once I view (from contained in the espresso store) previous cinema buildings which have died pure deaths on the hand of video tapes and VCDs.
Such memory transports me again to my halcyon childhood days in SP when my late father and I might frequent the cinemas. However, once I reached 10, my outings to the cinema now not had to be sanctioned by my father. At his insistence, I dared to go to the cinema alone. Since then, virtually each weekend I discovered an escape within the fantasy world of movies so as to quickly stave off real-world miseries (learn: faculty homework pending).
Opposite the espresso store I see the burnt-out ruins of the Empire – the oldest cinema in SP – destroyed by a large fireplace that broke out within the late Nineteen Eighties. In the Nineteen Eighties, the Empire nonetheless provided the most affordable ticket costs (RM0.65 and RM1.40) due to its standing as a “second-run” cinema. Its constructing and inside area regarded dilapidated but it had character, thereby furnishing the “really feel” of the Fifties and Sixties cinema-going expertise.
At the Empire, I had the privilege to watch a variety of pre-Nineteen Eighties in style movies, from James Bond to Mandarin-language wuxia movies. It was considerably momentous once I skilled two P. Ramlee’s movies, Penarek Becha (1955) and Tiga Abdul (1964), for the primary time on the large display.
On the opposite aspect of the street is an previous constructing i.e., the Kapitol, which used to be the most important cinema in SP, however as we speak it has been was a handicraft retailer. I recall that the cinema’s underground space was outfitted with automobile parking tons whereas its floor ground was the cinema foyer. The first ground housed the cheaper first/ second/ third class seats, whereas the second ground was devoted to the costlier “reserved class”, which have been the upstairs “balcony’” seats that neglected the primary ground. Mostly, the Kapitol screened Anglo-American, Hong Kong, Indonesian and Indian (Tamil and Hindi) movies.
The different cinema in SP, the Cathay, which was owned by Cathay Organisation is, as we speak, a house home equipment retailer. It was right here that I considered many Malay movies which regularly performed to a packed viewers. In addition to the Malay movies, the cinema screened Anglo-American, Hong Kong, Indonesian and Indian movies. However, within the mid-Nineteen Eighties, the enterprise of movie exhibition started to dwindle with the arrival of the VCR and home-video know-how that emerged as a preferred type of home consumption.
While ready within the cinema’s foyer after buying my ticket, I might spend a while taking a look at movie posters and foyer playing cards. I bear in mind observing religiously the hand-painted material banners strung over the constructing façade. It was sheer delight to stare on the stars’ portraits of, for instance, Fauziah Ahmad Daud and Raja Ema garlanded with their strikingly pink cheeks and cherry-coloured lips.
In the Cathay’s foyer, which was embellished impressively, I cherished trying on the printed posters, foyer playing cards and hand-cut, painted letters used for movie titles (constituted of polystyrene) displayed in glass circumstances positioned contained in the cinema constructing. Lobby playing cards, specifically, usually grabbed my consideration with glimpses of key scenes from explicit movies.
Before coming into the screening corridor, I might try the snack bar to purchase the compulsory kuaci (sunflower seeds). Consequently, it got here as no shock that the corridor flooring have been plagued by sunflower seed shells. As popcorn had but to be trendy, different in style titbits included kacang putih, salted cashew nuts, asam jeruk, recent fruits, dried cuttlefish, prawn crackers and delicate drinks.
When I entered the screening corridor earlier than the curtain lifted, pop songs of the time, for instance, sung by Sheena Easton or Jamal Abdillah, reverberated all through the corridor. And, ought to I’ve entered after the lights went off, there can be ushers with their battery-powered torches to present me to the seat.
I additionally recall that each time a screening was about to finish, a small slide with a handwritten inscription in Malay, English and Chinese was flashed on the display, reminding the viewers not to depart their belongings behind as soon as the present ended.
As it’s elsewhere in Malaysia, the now defunct stand-alone cinemas in SP have been displaced by the American-style, extra trendy cineplexes and multiplexes. Given the truth that SP has turn into one of many quickest rising cities within the northern area of Peninsular Malaysia, all multiplexes at the moment are situated within the procuring malls: Amanjaya Mall, Central Square, and Village Mall.
In these days, my cinematic pleasure and pleasure emanated from sitting within the darkened corridor and being immersed within the flickering pictures, strewn with grainy visuals, small dots and marks, traces and scratches. Today, such a definite aesthetic of movie has been misplaced to an inferior successor – digital.
Additionally, the whir of the movie projector, the beam of sunshine being projected onto the large display, in addition to the cheering, laughter and screaming of the viewers – all constituted a few of my fondest recollections of cinema-going again then. I’m grateful that the Empire, Kapitol and Cathay in SP have been my formative, elementary “movie faculties” that uncovered me to, and offered me with, a smattering of the world of the silver display.
Norman Yusoff is a senior lecturer on the Faculty of Film, Theatre and Animation, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam.
