The ghosts of Myanmar cinema

Tonight we went to a local cinema for the first time.

That was an experience I must admit J

First of all, I was very much surprised that they do have Hollywood movies. Even 3D. Even in original, without any subtitles. Which means that locals watch it without any translation, purely in English (we were watching Thor 2). Myo, our Burmese friend who were with us told that most probably the people don’t get the movie completely, but still, it was impressive – watching movie in original language. In Belgium all the movies had Dutch and French subtitles. In Ukraine they are always dubbed.

Secondly, I’ve noticed that apparently all movies showed here are somewhat action movies. There were 15 min of ads before the movie started, including trailers of upcoming films. All about fighting, explosions, science fiction, fantasy, action and super heroes. No detective or drama. Well, I shouldn't complain – at least there is some kind of choice between Hollywood and Burmese movies J

But the real cultural shock started together with the movies – with the first minute people started to hog whatever they bought beforehand – sunflower seeds and popcorn are the most popular movie snack. I don’t have problems when people are eating in the cinema if they do it quietly. But not in Myanmar J Here people feel like at home seating in their cinema chair. They chew loudly, they burp loudly, they don’t bother putting their cell phones on quiet. They pick up the phone and talk during the movie. One guy was snoring very loudly too throughout the movie. Beautiful J

While watching I’ve heard some strange squeaking sounds in the cinema. I couldn’t believe my own thoughts – a rat or a mouse. But at some point the sound became very loud – there WAS a rat in there; it got into the trap and a cinema worker took it away from the room. Huh… Rats are literally everywhere (luckily not in my flat)…

Yeah, not forget to mention – there were 2 power cuts during the movie, and both right on the most appropriate moments of explosions J Good there was a power generator so the cuts were really short, max a minute long each.

When the movie was over and the lights went on I felt as I’ve been sitting in a trash been – the floor was covered with food leftovers, plastic bags, bottles. People didn’t bother to clean after themselves…

But I did have lots of fun. It was a different experience, with lots of local customs which are different from European. The rat, the power cuts and garbage around are still less important than the genuine laughter of the people from the jokes in the movies. They don’t hold on their emotions – they just laugh. The same way they don’t hold on their burping or snoring J