Think Tank at OCAD

pictures for Paul Wilcken and Joyce Yang

His name is Tom. He was standing right at the corner. He tells a story about a Chinatown cinema, was opened up in early 80s, show case Hong Kong cinema, Mainland Chinese cinema, Taiwanese cinema for local community. We can come down here and we can see a film for $ 6 for double bill, Jack Lee film, John Wu film… Inside is a small lobby with table top Pac-man game until very end, but the cinema itself just concrete anchor, still it's a cinema. We could go with $ 6 cheap movie. Even the kids running around the aisle, standing and communing over the front, we can watch great stuff. If we walk to the front through the shoes store, it is the original entrance for the cinema. You can walk in just to the left was the box office, then go in and up the stairs. Walk around the side, there’s a little red sign; this is the entrance we want to use during the last part of night.
Sometime they have performance like Peking (Beijing) opera, we can have costume singer with paint faces during their grand show. He also tells that he has been to the cinema once by himself for a great movie. Then Hong Kong cinema industry began to take a stump poorly. Less and less people come up for the show, more and more people watch it on video, on VCD, on DVD. Sadly, the cinema had closed. At one point in Toronto, there were 5 to 6 operational chinatwon cinemas showing films for local Chinese. In the year 2003, they all have gone.