Movie Going in Taiwan

I am not a big moviegoer when I am in the states.  Normally I cannot justify spending $20 going to a newly released movie when I can just wait a few months and see it for $3 at the dollar theater or on Redbox.  Call me a cheapskate, lame, or whatever you want but it is simply the reality.  Going to a movie in Asia, however, is so much fun.

Close to where we are staying there is a giant Japanese mall with a huge movie theater on the top floor.  Last year when we were in Taiwan I noticed that Avengers came out a week earlier in Taiwan so we saw it and it was amazing.  Last week we actually went to the movies twice and saw Iron Man III (very good) and Star Trek II (Even better than Iron Man III).  Besides the fact that the movies themselves were all really awesome, the experience of going to a movie theater in Taiwan is quite awesome.

First, the movie theaters are massive, clean, and air-conditioned.  The seats are very comfortable (and assigned so you are sure to get a good seat if you buy your tickets early) and the sound system is ridiculously amazing.  After seeing tons of badly down Korean and Chinese Dramas is it nice to see professionally done Hollywood movies with great acting, good special effects, and beautiful soundtracks.  It is also nice to hear English for a few hours.

Second, because the movies are in English with Mandarin sub-titles interesting things happen.  For instance, sometimes they use an English idiom or saying that is only funny if you are from the United States or are a native English speaker.  This almost always means that I laugh quite hard, out loud, while the entire rest of the theater is awkwardly quite.  At other times the rest of the audience will read a joke that they say before the actor actually says the joke, which means that I have a delayed reaction, and again am laughing when other people are quite.

For the first time in my life, someone actually answered their phone during the movie and had a 30 second conversation with them!  Apparently I was the only one appalled by this because everyone else just kept staring at the movie and not even noticing this total breach of movie etiquette!  I’ve seen people answer their phone in movies on TV or in comedies but to actually experience it in real life was sort of perplexing!

Finally, remember how I said that the movie theaters were pretty clean?  That is because they actually clean the theater in-between each showing, but also because people clean up after themselves.  In case you forget to clean up after yourself, right after the movie ends and the lights begin to fade up a little Taiwanese lady walks out and yells in a high pitched voice that everyone should remember to clean up after themselves and pick up their area.  This doesn’t sound that bad, but think about what we normally do at the end of a movie in the States.  If you are like me, it is a time to think about the movie, make some comment to your number, and return to the real world where your legs barely work and you have to stumble into the bathroom because of the huge soda you just drank.  There is no time for reflection in Taiwan, and the first time the little lady came out and screamed at us I almost had a heart attack and thought she was saying Taiwan had just been attacked!

So there you go, that’s what seeing a movie in Taiwan has been like.  It may not be what you thought you would read from me but maybe more will come in the future as we get better internet connects.  If you ever get to see a movie in foreign country, do it, it is really fun and is a cultural experience to boot!