OH, how I've missed going to the cinema!
On an evening at the movies recently, I sank into my seat and scrunched my face, flummoxed. "Why are the seats like this?" I asked, turning this way and that.
"Is this a luxury theatre?"
Then, with my popcorn in hand, I stared at the huge screen in front of me and sank back into the plush seat, which, I have to add, was no ordinary seat. It was the double chocolate, hot fudge brownie sundae of movie theatre seats — a person-and-a-half-wide, motorised, reclining, La-Z-Boy-style chair, upholstered in glossy leatherlike material — and it represents one cinema chain's great gamble on the future.
Like crack-prone CD cases and ponderous phone books, traditional movie theatre seats were designed for an era with few alternatives. Too bad if you spent two hours elbow-negotiating with someone to secure some armrest.
Too bad if it took the consent of 23 row mates to use the toilet. Too bad if the person in front of you was freakishly tall. What were you going to do? Go home and watch something on your 11-inch TV?
But today, with tens of thousands of movies just clicks away on various devices, and with television screens as big as some people's huts becoming a virtual commodity, theatres struggle to compete with your living room sofa or bed.
And this is why one chain, Dadi Cinema Group, China's second largest cinema chain with 2,936 screens in 496 cinemas across 191 cities throughout China, is wagering its future, and many millions of dollars, on offering us an unforgettable movie experience that will be the first of its kind in this nation.
Both locations will feature interior concepts that's aimed to take your viewing experience up a couple of notches. Dadi Cinema Pavilion Kuala Lumpur will be the first in Malaysia to introduce a "watching movies under the stars concept" with its Star-Max Hall, where the entire hall is surrounded by a starry, galactic theme. Just imagine a romantic movie date under a breath-taking night sky with shooting stars and planets.
Out of the world, you say? Most definitely, yes.
FAMILY-FRIENDLY EXPERIENCE
Children aren't left out either. The traditional cinema theatre experience is largely geared towards adult entertainment rather than being child-focused. Billions of dollars are invested annually into films for children, from animated favourites to fairy-tale fantasies. For instance, 2019 saw the release of Disney's Aladdin, The Lion King, and Frozen 2, to name but a few. It appears that a child-focused cinema auditorium experience is at present a relatively untapped niche.
Dadi Cinema (pronounced as DAA-DEE) is about to change all that.
Children aren't scaled down versions of adults and the cinema chain understands that well enough. They know that children have an altogether different set of unique needs in terms of not only size, but cognitive abilities, social development and understanding.
I mean, ever tried taking your kids to the movies? It's definitely a lesson in patience with their limited concentration span and little understanding of social rules and conventions. It's due to these innate differences that some children struggle to sit quietly in a seat that is typically designed for adult comfort, for the entire duration of a film.
Dadi's Lil Star Hall offers a colourful and exciting auditorium with a little playground at the front and colourful seats in the shape of animals that are low enough for little legs to clamber on to.
Parents are able to sit at the back while children are given the freedom to choose from a selection of comfortable armchair style seats. Lighting and audio levels are also modified to be child-friendly.
Before the movie, children can run around a purpose-built hall which includes squishy chairs, a slide and other activities to blow off steam and keep them entertained before heading into the cinema hall.
FADED SENTIMENTALITY
Oh, how the experience has changed over the years!
My earliest childhood memories with my late father involved the cinema, my tiny hand held in his, and glorious technicolour of the big screen where my imagination took flight. For a few hours, the weariness of the world faded into oblivion. We sat there on the cheapest seats, my hand holding on to my packet of kuaci and my eyes widened in wonder.
Together, we watched movies about a killer shark, an angry giant ape climbing a skyscraper, a tall villain breathing heavily in a black mask, and many more fantastical plots that bonded a gruff father and his young daughter together. Movies stimulated the human appetite for imagery, narrative and vicarious emotion in a way that nothing had before. I developed a love for movies ever since.
When the lights go down, surrounded by other people, mostly strangers, a feeling of the unexpected, of the unpredictable, of freedom, of abandon (that only as children we live to the full) is triggered in you. You can't replicate that feeling. There's something vital about the hold the big screen has on us.
Did I cry uncontrollably at the end of Love Actually? No comment. Did I punch my fist in the air after watching the Avengers beat Thanos in the Endgame? I simply couldn't tell you.
I distinctly remember when I was in the throes of heartbreak, popping to the nearest cinema one evening to see Forrest Gump, and feeling something for the first time in weeks, thinking that maybe — just maybe — I was getting better.
STRUGGLING ART
Yet, the magic faltered. And for a while, it seemed like the cinemas would fade into oblivion in the same manner VHS and cassette tapes went. Malaysians used to adore going out to the movies, but that love has been on the rocks for decades.
Once, the rival was television. Maybe it still is given that so much more of what's produced specifically for the small screen seems so much more worthwhile (or at least watchable) than it once did.
But the threat to movies appears more existential now, because the very digital revolution that has changed how movies are made has also changed how many of us watch them.
Movies are no longer only in cinemas or living rooms, but also on our devices, streaming at us wherever and whenever we want them — that is, if the connection is good and you have access both to the Internet and to devices.
And then came the pandemic and life ceased to be normal.
The already-fading cinemas were further ravaged by the economic effects of the pandemic. Cinemas were starved of audiences when lockdowns went into effect, and studios delayed new releases or, in some cases, put them out on streaming services. Some chains have shut down and others have declared bankruptcy.
That hit close to home when my neighbourhood cinema closed its curtains for good — a casualty of technology as well as the long-drawn lockdowns over the past two years.
Now that the lockdowns have eased and some sense of normalcy is returning, will the cinema-going experience be restored? There may be light at the end of the tunnel.
For all the sense of impending doom, history suggests that cinema will adapt and bounce back. Crowds flocked to the cinema after the 1918 pandemic, and videos only made people more interested in cinema, not less.
After several weeks or, more likely, months cooped up indoors, watching films on our television sets and computers, the experience of seeing a film in cinemas the way they were meant to be seen will be all the more magical.
Perhaps no art form has remade itself as frequently and dramatically in so short a life span as film (which technically speaking isn't even film anymore). Over the past hundred-some years, "going to the movies" has encompassed a lot of different ways of leaving the house, and a corresponding variety of destinations: Curtained-off carnival booths; grand palaces with gilded ceilings and velvet seats; Cathay and Lido cinemas' no-frills halls on small-town main streets; shopping-mall multi-screens and arthouses.
Most recently, in response to the soulless sameness of the megaplexes, a new kind of gentrified cinema has emerged, with cabin seats, wireless charging pad, service call button and private lounge area with free-flow selected concessions to enjoy before the movie starts.
Enter the "Dadi" experience. With the new cinema chain opening its doors at the Pavilion Kuala Lumpur and Da Men USJ, chances are you might not want to miss the unique movie experience that might just bring back the glory of the old cinema days.
Seen any good movies lately? Seen any movies?
It's about time you did. Let the magic begin!
Visit www.facebook.com/dadicinema/ or www.dadi.my for more information on Dadi Cinema.