Easter Monday

Happy Catholic bank holiday! We saw a movie yesterday. In a theater. It's the first time we’ve done this since we arrived in Việt Nam. The theater we chose was about fifteen minutes down the road, near Hồ Chí Minh City's Chinatown in District Five. It's at the very top of a modern six-story mall: past department stores, the food court, the bowling alley, and the gym. This place came recommended because it not only presents US movies without dubbing, but also subtitled versions of Vietnamese language films. The only movies I'd not be able to fully enjoy there are third-party imports, as they have to be subtitled in Vietnamese. The theater is newish; it opened in 2006. It's a modern seven- or eight-screen multiplex with a string of concession counters ranging from standard (popcorn and beef jerky), to those run by corporate chains (Highlands Coffee and Heineken Beer). The theater we were in had auditorium-style seating tricked-out with high-backed red chairs rather firmly padded with futuristic-looking modular cushioning reminiscent of defensive sports gear. These seats were assigned. We'd been issued seats way back in L section. Since that was much too far away, we sat in the exact middle of the theater instead. As the seats filled up, we found ourselves in an overpopulated knot of an audience overtly comfortable talking loudly to one another, allowing their technology to beep, etc. This is just an observation. The audience was young and social, and the event was about being young and social more than it was about watching a movie. I'm different culturally, socially, and numerically: at home I'd have been really angry. Here, I only hoped that the act of having to read the movie as it went along might somewhat divert attention back to the screen.* [Cavin]