Trip to the Cinema!

SO it was Wednesday and as mentioned in a post a few days ago, movie tickets here are exorbitant. I planned to watch Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, as it arrived Japan shores about 2 weeks ago.

What's special about every Wednesday is Toho Cinemas has a special deal for ladies. Tickets for female are cheaper on Wednesday, from the regular ¥1, 800 to ¥1, 000 (during the day) and ¥1, 200 ( for movies showing from 9pm).

What I didn't count on was the crowd I would see at the cinemas. It was the first time in my life where I had to join a queue that snaked way behind the ticket counters. It was a good thing the line moved on quickly as I only arrived at the venue 45mins before screen time.

Besides the ticketing booths, and snacks & drinks counters, there's "The Store", consisting of various movie merchandise. There were stuff relating to Star Wars and products like hair scrunchies, mobile phone accessories, stationary, books, magazines etc, designed according to several Japanese movies that are currently showing.

Hokuhoku Potato with melted cheese

It was quite an interesting experience. I'm sure you've seen those signs or infotainment snippets about cameras, video cameras, use of mobile phones are prohibited in addition to not talking during the movie... What we get in Singapore is usually just a notice that's flashed across the screen or they'll play PIXAR's animation to discourage video recording and downloading.

Here, they do it in a song with symbols. There's also an infotainment snippet. Those were really entertaining. I had to restrain not laughing-out-loud in the theatre when I watched those.

When the end credits started rolling, what theatres in Singapore will usually do is to switch on the lights and people start streaming out. Most times, people will just leave when the end credits start to roll without waiting for the light to come on.

It seems over here, movie goers are inculturated into staying until the end credits are over. No one leaves the theatre during credit roll. It's a good thing I'm already a credit-watcher while in Singapore, so staying until the end wasn't a pain for me.