At the Movies

Movie popcorn and Coke: universal movie snacks

One of the things that has kind of surprised me while getting to know some of the librarians here at SCU, was how popular American tv shows.  They tell me they watch tv shows online, or buy DVDS (which are not produced by the studios/networks/production companies).  I’ve been asked how accurately life in the United States is portrayed by the shows.  I had to explain, more than once, that no, not everyone lives in the kind of house or subdivision as they show in Desperate Housewives, and no, teenagers aren’t all like the ones on Gossip Girl. 

It turns out that American movies are quite popular here as well.  They are shown in regular theaters (not a special “foreign film theater”), and almost always have the original English dialog, with Chinese subtitles.   Liu Liu offered to take me to the movies today, another day off, and I happily agreed.  I was curious to see what the experience was like, and how movie theaters comare with the ones at home.

First of all, the ticket window looked very similar, but I couldn’t read any of the film titles, so I couldn’t tell at first what American film was being shown.  Liu Liu then pointed to a poster with no English words on it, but clearly depicted Oz:  we were going to see “The Great and Powerful Oz”.  I had been curious about it when I saw a trailer for it a couple months ago, so I was happy.  Actually I was thrilled because it had been suggested that perhaps I’d be stuck watching that terrible Nicholas Sparks movie that was out in February.  Thankfully I was spared that. 

Similar to the new AMC theaters at the Biltmore, you get to pick out your seat when you purchase your ticket.  We chose some in the middle, and then headed to the concession stand for popcorn and a coke.  I had been told that movie theater popcorn here was the same – with butter – so imagine my surprise when it turned out to be sweet, like a cross between kettle corn and caramel corn.  Liu Liu insists that all movie popcorn here is sweet.  I kind of liked it, but I was missing the salt a little bit.

When we got settled in our seats I noticed some ads running on the screen, but couldn’t tell what they were for.  Then all of a sudden the movie started.  No previews / trailers.  I was disappointed – I was totally looking forward to what trailers looked and sounded like here.  Plus – isn’t that often the best part of the movie experience?  The seats themselves were rocking seats, very much like the standard seats at Harkins Theaters.  Also it wouldn’t be a movie outing without someone in the audience taking a call on their cell phone, and having an extensive conversation to boot.   It’s amazing how many social behaviors are universal.

The movie itself was nothing to be excited about.  But I had to try to explain the original “Wizard of Oz” movie to Liu Liu afterwards, as she has never seen it.  It was fun to try to connect the story and characters from this film with that one.  I hope she watches the original sometime : it was a much better film.